Where Are You Going?

The PBS special "The Story of India" tonight ended with a spine-tingling portrayal of the Karthikai Deepam Festival in Tiruvannamalai. After stumbling over the name for 5 weeks, I think I can finally pronounce it without adding about three syllalables.* The rite involves a huge fire which blazes from the top of Mt. Arunachala for days. The fire symbolizes Shiva's light, which eradicates darkness and evil. (Sound familiar? How about a blazing weeklong fire on top of the Midtown Commons for this year's Easter Vigil?!) At the time of the festival, 1/2 million people cheerfully walk up the mountain in the sun on jagged and unstable rocks, in bare feet. I hope to hike up the hill, too - or part of it, but I'll be wearing shoes, thank you very much.

As it turns out, the town of Tiruvannamalai will essentially provide bookends for my pilgrimage. I'll be there in less than two weeks (!) with our small group. It is the site of schools, hostels, community service centers, orphanages, and other projects of the Arcot Lutheran Church, which is Danish in origin. At the end of my trip, I will be spending a weekend there at "Quo Vadis," a new interfaith dialogue centre. "Quo vadis" is Latin for "where are you going?" The Centre seeks to be a place of peace, understanding, good will, and spiritual growth for Hindus, Moslems and Christians. It is a place at which to tell your story and share your faith - no matter what journey of faith you are on and where you are progress-wise. Oh, that every village in this world had a Quo Vadis Centre.

It has taken me a long time to learn to just stay in the present, to relish the journey of life, to worry less about where I'll end up. I don't really know where I'm going (who does?), but it's okay. I am finally quite at peace with that. There are no right or wrong destinations. I know I'm eventually going home to the heart of God. In a reassuring email about my trip anxiety, my friend Karen Wilson had this to say about her own rollercoaster ride: "I need to breathe into the turns and the fast blips over the top of the hills, and enjoy the ride of life to wherever God takes and places me." She reminded me, too, to "love the anticipation, the Advent, of the journey, as much as the trip itself." Thanks, Karen.

So I'll press on in my preparations. [Note to self: not everything can be nailed down ahead of time, and that's okay]. Are not these words from the liturgy of Evening Prayer one of the greatest legacies of the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978)? ~


"O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen."

வ்தேரே ஆர் யு கோயன்? (Where are YOU going?)

*I'm pretty sure it's "teer-ah-VAH-nah-mah-lye"