Intro to Jody’s Spiritual Journey

Hello Friends,

Welcome to the Spiritual and Ancestral section of “Lilacs Travel the World”. I am excited to share with you my pilgrimages, memoirs, and a few travel tips that I have learned along the way as a solo traveler.

If you are reading this, I hope you too are on a spiritual journey of your own, one that is personal between you and our Creator. My journey is very much my own and sharing my thoughts and experiences with you will be a joy as it has always been for me when sharing what the Divine has taught me.

As with all of us, my journey began a long time ago, but for this blog, I would like to share memoirs of life, spiritual lessons, and travel from December 1999 until the present. December 1999 is when I was awakened, and it was on an ancestral trip to England, my first solo pilgrimage.

At the time I did not know it was a pilgrimage. I only knew I had this drive to follow what was within me in a way that was a journey. For me, this path was a desire to trace my ancestors, walk where they walked, visit their graves, recreate as best as I could what the area was like when they were alive, touch something they may have touched, write, sketch, spend time with me. Dig deep within.

I have used the writing about this trip in December 1999 as my first pilgrimage on this blog. It is called, “Letter to Share”, and I wrote it within days of arriving home from the trip. I feel it is important to begin the section on Spiritual and Ancestral Pilgrimages with “Letter to Share” so that you can see the spiritual progress forward. Over time, as I add the accounts of the pilgrimages and the memoirs, a more rounded picture will emerge. One that leaves me in Wonder today, 21 years later.

I wanted to tell you here that because this is a personal journey followed within the heart, you will not find the traditional words, titles, or thought processes that many are accustomed to in Christian texts. Everything I have learned has come from within. For example, at the beginning of my awakening, I did not understand what was happening and the presence that I felt so strongly I referred to as, “The Presence”. Later I called Him, and still do, “The Father”. I have learned that He is also the “Mother”. In the beginning, I was more comfortable going to Her. However, She has pushed me to the Father, who I now know within is also God the Son and God the Holy Spirit- but it took several years for me to fully comprehend this awareness. I did not go through a church during these early years because it was important to lean only on the Father and not what other people said was true. This is why my view on something may have a different perception than traditional teachings, but the overall information is often the same, although More than what traditional mainstream religion teaches.

In the last few years, I have become Catholic because the information I have been taught within is the information that the Catholic Church upholds- but again, the Source is More than what the Catholic Church teaches. It is only that the Catholic Church is the closest religion that I can find that teaches what I have been taught. But even in this I answer only to God the Father first.

The Pilgrimages that I go on are often a mixture of ancestral and spiritual. Indeed, I find I can go on a spiritual pilgrimage and not include ancestors. However, if I go in search of ancestors the journey is always very spiritual as well.
I have different methods of traveling. Sometimes I take only my small 30 Liter backpack, rather than a suitcase. I have learned exactly what I need for a 9-week trip to Europe using only this backpack. This has taken 21 years of trial and error to figure out!

Other times, I choose to take a suitcase. Either way, I will occasionally share the packing lists that I use on individual pilgrim journeys. Packing can be daunting and making the right choices to take can make all the difference between being worn out and frustrated to traveling with ease.

My journeys are also a mixture of traveling simply and luxurious. When I was younger, say when “Letter to Share” was written I was much younger and had to pay attention to cost. Now I have the luxury to travel simply if I want to, but sometimes I travel in comfort. Surprisingly, perhaps because I am always seeking to learn and rely on the Father only, I find that I get much more out simple travel. That is where I find my depth. I may take the Queen Mary 2 Cunard Ship from New York, USA to Southampton, England, but when I arrive in England, I will use the local buses and trains to travel around Britain. I love taking the local transportation. I enjoy walking with my backpack. I like talking to the local people. When I travel “in comfort” some of these blessings, like standing in the cold morning air with a cup of steaming hot tea, waiting for the local bus, gets lost.

So… I travel with a mixture of means.

I am looking forward to sharing with you, not only my spiritual and ancestral journeys but also the joy of traveling itself and travel tips I have learned.

Yours in Light- Jody