Thursday, September 11, 2008

Thoughtful Thursday

The Baroness knows a good deal of people who, as part and parcel of their careers, travel a great deal.

And I worry.

In our modern, tech-savvy lives, the world of travel is taken for granted; it's a given, not a privilege. The on-going miracle of flight, of car travel - organized chaos of a gazillion schedules meshed into a flowing airport or highway - these are given a sideways glance with a jaded eye.

For those who begin each day believing that their commuter hops are a matter-of-course, I give you this:

A Traveler's Prayer

A prayer for the journey
We could say it every day
When we first leave the soft warmth of our beds
And don't know for sure if we'll return at night
When we get in the trains, planes and automobiles
And put our lives in the hands of many strangers.
Or when we leave our homes for a day, a week, a month or more -
Will we return to a peaceful home? Untouched by fire, flood or crime?
How will our travels change us?
What gives us the courage to go through that door?

A prayer for the journey.
For the journey we take in this fragile vessel of flesh.
A finite number of years and we will reach
The unknown, where it all began.
Every life, every day, every hour is a journey.
In the travel is the discovery,
the wisdom, the joy.
Every life, every day, every hour is a journey.
In the travel is the reward, the peace, the blessing.
Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg

Outbound or inward, may all your journeys be blessed, wherever they may lead.

7 comments:

Mental P Mama said...

That is wonderful. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful comment on the journey of life. Thanks as always for sharing, Baroness!

Driftwood and Pumpkin said...

Wonderful for this day. Thank you!

carmilevy said...

I think I HAD that prayer - in Hebrew - tucked into my luggage when, during a particularly depressing phase of my career, I was flying halfway across the country every other week.

My wife tucked it in, because she worries about me like that.

Thanks for sharing this. I think I need to print it again.

Shelley Jaffe said...

To my Beautiful Ladies: You are so very, very welcome!

Count Carmi: Welcome! I'm sure that this prayer is originally in Hebrew - I got it from a version of our siddur. I love the mingling of the internal and external.

Patty Cakes said...

My dearest BVB,

I believe I am one of the people you are refering to. I really enjoyed this prayer. I pray before the plane takes off and the plane lands.....not for my own safty but for those I would leave behind.

thetravelingb aka the countess of yick yack.

Anonymous said...

Countess of YY: Admittedly, you were first and foremost in my mind.

But there's Ev, and Michael, even Leah who drives out to Coquitlam to work.

 
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