My New Journey Has Begun - Valerie Peyton Kingsbury

I have begun a new journey and each day I now travel a winding road known as “the road to the Isles”. This time of year it is amazing! The trees are a lush green and each body of water you pass has it’s own unique character and wonder.

There is always something new to see even though these are familiar roads to me. I am noticing communities that, in past years, I would simply have flown by to get to my destination. I have noted all the gas stations along the route because you never know when you will need a pit stop! And each day I am astounded by the rugged beauty.

In conversations these last few weeks I have found myself uttering the phrase

“I am home.”

There is a sense of deep joy and contentment in those words and as each day passes, I realize the magnitude of it for me. Even though it has been 37 years since I lived here and so in many ways, I am a stranger, I have yet to feel that in any way. There is something in the land that speaks to me each step I take, each mile I drive, each scene I see. It is as if the ancestors are rising in a chorus of welcome and an embrace of love. And in the midst of it is the reality of sacred presence that is as tangible as the land I stand upon.

Where will this road take me?

As I sit in my office and see the road, I wonder where this road will take me. What exciting new adventures lurk just around the corner? Who are these people who are now my siblings in faith and companions on the way? How will we learn and grow together?

With these wonderings in my being I open myself to spirit, once again, trusting that wherever the road leads it will be littered with possibility and promise, challenge and growth, all wrapped in Divine love and the embrace of home.