Stranded on the Mainland: Inner Pilgrimage and Living Alone as a Spiritual Path:

Inspired for a particular reason I google--  What are the origins of my surname? Given my draw to and history with Northern and Southern beaches, I am delighted and sort of validated to discover my surname is  possibly derived from the word "beach."  It is also an Anglicized version of the Gaelic personal name meaning "life."   So now all those " Life's a Beach"  t-shirts I collected make more sense. That said, in this third week of Advent (joy) moving towards Love, I remember standing on a fragrant night beach in Mexico decades ago, and someone telling me,  "It is the Life that is important, Carolina."  It is only now I have words for the feeling and fragrance I breathed back then-- it was "radicalized presence." Next. When it comes to the uncertainty that lies ahead in 2025-- including where to go with my blog and faith, among other things, I think of lines in the poem  Little Gidding  by T.S. Eliot: " For last year's wor...

In this fourth week of Advent I am deep into shadow-work in our Falling Upward: Life as a Spiritual Journey course . That said, this morning I think I sort of solved the mystery of my many years stranded on the mainland. I couldn't leave the mainland without my shadow. And it couldn't leave the mainland without me. We had to leave together. This realization dawned on me during the final scene and accompanying song from one of my favourite British Tv shows,  Death in Paradise . Both scene and song brought closure to the end of my marriage. I'm still singing a line from the song in the last scene when the ferry pulls away from the island-- It's the morning of my life . Not a Christmas song, but I think it's close enough. It's only morning, and you've still to live your day! song morning of my life by john holt - Google Search Cb Amen