Sacred circles at heart of life

To paraphrase Geoffrey Chaucer, "In April . . . folks long to go on pilgrimages."

Something about the rebirth of nature and return of the sun makes people want to lengthen their stride, to get out and go someplace.

Such sacred journeys form a big part of religious history, in fact. The Apostle Paul went west, as did the LDS pioneers. The Muslims head east to Mecca. In England, pilgrims file in from all directions to visit Canterbury each April.

Several years ago my friend Ray gave me a copy of the book "The Art of Pilgrimage." He knew how much I enjoy going out, learning something new, then returning home again. It's my life.

What the book taught me was that little process is at the heart of all lives.

Black Elk, the Sioux holy man, said, "Everything sacred moves in a circle." It goes out, around, then returns.

In the LDS culture we would say it moves in "one eternal round."

Each morning we wake up, leave our homes for work or school or church, then return home again, bringing back with us all the lessons of the day. LDS teachings would say such things are simply a "shadow" of the bigger pilgrimage we make, the one where we leave God, go into the world, then return to him with fresh eyes.

Each night the moon moves in a sacred circle around the Earth.

Each day the Earth moves around the sun.

Some "sacred circles" take a long time to complete; missionaries, for instance, who go off to foreign lands, spend years, then return.

Other journeys take only a few seconds — like the toddler who finds the courage to walk to the edge of the lawn and back.

I was already in my 30s, however, before I realized that most of those journeys we make are really only symbols of the sacred journey that goes on within us. "Happy the day," wrote Emerson, "when the young man realizes what he thinks is outside of him is really inside."

If you're at all like me, you tend to have a place of peace and comfort inside. Then you challenge yourself — you tackle a new language, a new career, a new book. And when the time is right, you return again to that familiar place in the heart to reflect home.