Coming home

     I have heard that what we are seeking is also seeking us. In the world of the ancients, there were synchronicities and certainties.  Every road has a journey and every journey has a road. Yet at times neither our road nor our journeys are known.  James Hillman wrote that “During deep mourning, Baubo appears.”  Baubo might not know this herself.  It can be grief not caused by loss that will bring her but grief caused by wanting to serve a better purpose and not knowing the way. Grief from unused potential. Or grief and concern about our natural areas and not knowing what words change the minds of those that can make a difference in saving them.  How do you put value on beauty or natural habitats that require the integrity of their ecosystems to thrive?  Is this the same question that artists have had to answer about their value? Downtown areas have taken up the cause of artists because it increases the value of their downtowns; and brings people out for the evening and supports local businesses.  How do we make our natural areas, both large and small, into our downtowns? 

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    The sedge lands captured Baubo’s heart song.  Their small archipelago acted like a seine, and the little fish, dismissed as bait, were her porters to the shore. 

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    The need to explain her place in space and time was not new for Baubo. The understanding that came along for her, the way spring flowers move toward their summer glory was a gift.  The idea of the Appalachian Trail blossomed in her understanding. The AT.  The world has known many trails, trade routes and pilgrimages.  She knew that this trail started out as an idea that was embraced by many before it became a reality. Those that wanted to help create and be a part of one of the world’s longest, continuous footpath volunteered. Thousands of people created the AT. Whether you travel Georgia to Maine or go from the north to the south. Whether you hike a small part of the trail or are a thru-hiker, you are on a path that crosses fourteen states and holds throughout a sense of pilgrimage and communion. Baubo was taken by the generosity of the people that worked the trail so that others could use it. Whether thru- hikers or day hikers, most, will likely never know the names of the volunteers.  But everyone that’s been on the trail recognizes this relationship between the seen and the unseen.  Many feel a sense of kinship with all that is part of the AT and all those that pass through it.  Volunteers feel a sense of connection to the whole trail even if they’re just clearing a small section near their home.

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     Some things take time.  You bring time and understanding with you wherever you arrive. The Sedge Islands are not a part of the AT but the spiritual lineage is there, the volunteers are there – Jim McClain recognizing the osprey needed a hand up, is there. 

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     If Baubo has been in your life you are one of the ones that built a trail; that carried on the work that Aldo Leopold and others started; that Grandmother Rachel started, the work of keeping the birds in flight, the trails in sky and sand open to supporting their lives. 

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     Baubo saw the line that lead from her work in the world, her small piece of the trail. to the AT, to Rachel and then to Rachel’s birds. We are all a part of this line, in our work, in our hopes, even in sharing the recognition of the trail and how it relates to where you stand in the world. Or fly, for that matter.  

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     Just as we know a place by living there, or know where the road will turn without a marker, we are familiar with the land around us, with the views we have. The essence of our place is within us. We don’t have to do anything special to access this information.  There is no border of knowing and not knowing. We know our homes.  How can you put a border on love and spirit? 

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     These are things best known in the bone, not always ready to articulate but a structural part of one’s knowing.  If you were unable to move forward, maybe this can help you. The intersections touch our lives and some bring us to a direct relationship with nature. It is not complicated. It is right there.  Baubo was engaged in the right place at the right time.  All that are present are meant to be.     

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     People that share their stopping points and the green lights of ideas and metaphors that have helped them move on, move us on to being more of who we are.  In this way every journey’s lessons are shared with those on many different roads.   

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     The AT may cover more than fourteen states or even fourteen states of mind.  It allowed Baubo to recognize that where she was called to was where she belonged. Our work is expressed through our being; even through the living we have done; even while not knowing any particular purpose. When Baubo moved, like the water moves, in and around the Sedge Islands, she felt connected to the trail, and felt like she was coming home again.