Lately I've felt really drawn to female-driven narratives. Memoir has never been one of my favorite genres, but I find myself picking up and exploring more women's memoirs than ever before. This particular book, which I picked up at Pioneer Books (of course), was a delightful surprise, and the premise is one that I resist and embrace at the same time, if such a thing is even possible. It is simply this:
"In the act of moving from one place to another, somehow a space is created where, if we're lucky, a moment of clarity alights on us and offers a window into our natures, and the nature of everything around us. . . .the act of travel is a potent way indeed of calling forth that inner knowledge. To relearn what we already know on the deepest level; to wake up to it and allow it to change us. Such is the power of the spiritual journey" (xvi).
So now you know the premise, but what is this book exactly? It's a compilation of essays and book excerpts written by women who encountered some sort of enlightening, spiritual experience while they were in the act of moving from one place to another. It has some big names like Maya Angelou, Anne Lamott and Diane Ackerman, but there are some less-known women, and to be honest, I found some of their stories the more compelling and personally applicable.
In many of these essays, the writers were searching for closure or healing. Some were searching for an essential, but missing, part of themselves. Others were just going on with their normal lives and had an unwelcome and surprising epiphany. Two different women found themselves volunteering at two different centers of Mother Teresa's around the world. Another was fleeing from America and the racism she encountered there only to realize that "Expatriation is an unacceptable way for me to respond to the agony of racism. There is no physical place I can go to escape human suffering--my own or anyone else's. There are no untroubled countries. However, as the result of traveling my inner roads, following my dreams and intuitive leanings, I now know that I can be transported to a place of peace. . . .That sacred place of inner calm is my home in the world. It must travel with me wherever I go" (184).
These are wise words for any woman. We must create a home within. Just because no one else can do it for us, however, doesn't mean we do it by ourselves. For this woman it meant discovering the music cherished by her ancestors; for others it could be a beloved friend or mentor; a religious leader; Jesus. The point is, we're not alone, even if the work we do is ours to do.
As I said, I embrace the idea of travel as a means of spiritual awakening while simultaneously pushing against it. How and Why? I personally feel that travel can be an enormous source of enlightenment for many, but it's not a cure-all. The idea that everyone should abandon everything to go and "find themselves" is rather suspect. Wherever you go, there you are and that's a fact. I suppose this is the same reason I resist Elizabeth Gilbert's style of self-discovery ala Eat Pray Love. It's just not do-able or desirable for every woman.
At the same time, however, I do think that opening oneself to the unexperienced may just be part of a formula for enlightened transformation. A favorite quote in the book is "A woman's path need not always take her many miles from home. It will, however, always invite her to let go of where she's been, and to be open to the Mystery of where she's going. Grace will be her guide and will ask her to trust in her own wisdom. In this way, a woman's path will invariably lead her back to her true self, and no path is ever more valuable than this" (58).
I've told you what I think, but what do you think? Do you buy any of this? Have you ever personally experienced a moment of such transformation, whether it was on the other side of the world or a few miles from your own home, or even in your own home? Please share.
Editors: McCauley, Lucy, Amy G. Carlson, Jennifer Leo. A Woman's Path. Traveler's Tales, Inc. 2000.
5 comments:
I have personally had a handful of these moments in my life... maybe that is why I am seeking another one at this dark time... I found clarity in travel as well but it was when I traveled on my own and I found clarity in the ability to be self sufficient and independent. I found it when I backpacked in Europe and when I moved to Boston alone for grad school. Nature also speaks to me in a religious way... hiking or experiencing the quiet of Colorado mountains can be spiritual. But as I said in my blog, the new experience of the Tarot reading was also mind opening.. not because it held all of the answers but because it opened my mind to a part of myself I didn't know could be touched... this is a nice post Jen... :o) wish we could just hang out for a little while and chat.
I recently read "The Voice of The Intangible" (old cowboy book), and he talks about that Great Intangible Something that speaks to his heart when he's all alone on the range. I believe That "Something" he refers too, is what we know as The Spirit, and it seems to speak loudest to me also when I am alone in Nature.
You've made so many great points. One of my favorites is the, "Wherever you go, there you are and that's a fact." So true. You simply can't run away from your problems. They always haunt you in your mind. Until you learn how to deal with certain issues in your life they will always keep coming back to you. We'll talk soon.
Jenn, thanks for the post. I couldn't agree with you more on some of these issues
The cynic in me believes that the Elizabeth Gilbert brand of spirituality is, as you say, "suspect." I wonder if spirituality has become a kind of commodity we obtain by spending loads of money to get away from our lives. Elizabeth Gilbert found this to be rather easy, since she was paid tens of thousands of dollars by her book company to go eat, pray, and love after she left her husband. How many other women who hate their lives have the option of becoming spiritual tourists? It's like something you'd see on a bad television drama where no on ever has economic limitations and life's most difficult conundrums can usually be addressed by some version of a tie-severing quest. I've officially entered into old man, cane shaking mode: "Narcissistic claptrap, if y'ask me!"
I've been thinking about this post periodically since you wrote -- and now that it's 3am and I can't sleep, I guess I will respond! I share your ambivalence about travel as a means to awakening (do I smell a paradox -- hahaha!) I think I am automatically suspicious of any person's story that starts out with I divorced my husband so I could pursue my own happiness, since I know that studies don't generally bear out that divorce, especially for women, equals happiness. Of course, full disclosure, I have never read her book, so I'm just going off reviews, etc. Although I don't think just the act of traveling has really done this for me, I do think that my cross-country move and relocation to D.C. did something similar to what they are referring to. I was going to change the world in a big, important way, and it seemed perfectly natural to leave my family and friends for such a noble goal. And I still miss D.C. virtually every day, but I realized that the most influential work I have ever done and would ever do was in the walls of my own home -- and that I could do that best by living closer to my family. Who'da thought?
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