My cup runneth over with Love

The invitation in Week 3 of the Soul of a Pilgrim retreat I am participating in is to create a 'map of your inner journey'.

Last night, I meditated on my map, read some fascinating articles online of inner map-making and dove into creation.

It was a fabulous experience!  Filled with wonder and with the unexpected -- and as I wrote in my journal yesterday, "I am falling in love with the unexpected."

From my Soul of a Pilgrim journal -- 

Discovering The Map of my Inner Journey was a very unexpected uncovering for me. I loved the concept of mapping, found a map of the Pilgrim routes to the Shrine of St. James -- which excited me -- there were so many routes to arrive at the same place -- much like my journey of life. Years ago, when I'd come out of an abusive relationship that almost killed me, I commented to my therapist that I really liked where I'd come to having come through that journey. "I get that I'm an experiential learner," I told him, "but did I have to take such a big experience to get here?

And he replied that there were a thousand routes I could have taken, this just happened to be the one I chose.

My pilgrim journey is like that -- as the map shows -- a thousand routes, I happen to be taking the way I am walking -- the Path is the Way.

What surprised me in the creation of this map are the places outside the routes -- those places I've dwelt in during the dark winters of my soul -- the Land of Unspoken Dreams, the Valley of Under Achievement, the Sea of Regrets, the Basin of Unexplored ideas, the Mountain of False Starts, the Desert of Perfection, Ocean of Hidden Talents, Lake Hopeless Despair -- all of these places exists out there, waiting for me to wander into if I do not stay true to my path of coming home to the heart of me.

And that is where I found that deep truth on my map -- that when I stand in Love, when I allow Love to infuse my being and my journey and my way, I fall in love with all of me -- and that includes the bits that journey into the Sea of Regrets, or Mountain of False Starts.  My cup runneth over with Love -- no matter where I walk.

Loving myself means accepting where I am at, without the need to change course precipitously. 

To simply allow.

And in that allowance, in that acceptance is the truth -- I am never lost because I always find myself when I stay true to my course, true to my journey of coming home to my heart, no matter where in the world I am.

There are a thousand paths to take -- choosing one is simply, a choice. Always, no matter what path I choose, the path will unfold and I will travel, burdened, or unburdened. And always, what I carry is my choice.

Today, I choose to carry joy.