Every journey begins by stepping into the unknown
— open to possibilities we cannot yet imagine.
To encounter new people and different ways of seeing, to listen, to learn, to question, to discover what we do not yet know, and perhaps to discover something new within ourselves.
We may set out knowing where we are going, but never quite who we will be when we return.
John O’Donohue’s For the Traveller gives poetic expression to the spirit of that journey.
For the Traveller
By John O’Donohue
Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.
New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.
When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad;
And how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:
How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening a conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward on some unsaid dark
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.
When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.
A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way
To transform you.
May you travel safely,
Arrive refreshed,
And live your time away
To its fullest;
Return home more enriched,
And free to balance
The gift of days
Which call you.