Contemplative Souvenirs

Dear Diary,

This little pile on the window sill of my dinning room are gathered objects from many trips. They are just a few of my contemplative souvenirs. The dried wheat from Normandy, the Iona marble from St. Columba's Bay, a black bird feather from Glendalough, each represents, and links me back, to the place.

On my mantle in the living room I have a pine cone I picked up on the porch of Thomas Merton's hermitage in Kentucky, a polished stone from Campobello Island in Canada and a heart-shaped piece of coral from St. John. I also have some lovely pieces of art I purchased on my many trips. When I am gone, my relatives will, no doubt, throw out all these little found objects and keep the art. But in many ways, the stones and feathers and all the rest of the contemplative souvenirs are far more precious, at least they were to me. They are tokens from the very land I walked.

And I always leave a small token as well. I piece of mica that I gather around the house here in Maine. It is my gift, my "thank you" to the place I visited. I wrote a series about "Traveling with a Pilgrim's Heart" on my blog and you can read the post about tokens here.

As I make my slow pilgrimage through the world, a certain sense of beautiful mystery seems to gather and grow.

Arthur Christopher Benson