Longing for Transformation, and Other News
Monthly Meanderings
Today my family and I commented on how different we feel now than a month ago when we first arrived for our summer in the US. Looking back on that specific period of time, it’s easy to see how we’ve changed and grown. I feel like a different person today than I did when I stepped off the plane, and I believe that’s because it’s true. I am different.
I’ve found that to be the case with travel - it changes us.
Until COVID, I was a regular traveler - I grew up in Asia and traveled frequently between Japan, India, and the state of Oregon in the US, where my parents are from originally. When my husband and I moved to Ireland to live, work, and raise our family, I shifted from flying across the Pacific to flying across the Atlantic multiple times a year, from Northern Ireland to New Jersey.
When I look back on my life, it is bookmarked by my various travels. Travel has always offered me a chance to step away from my daily life, engage with another environment, explore new settings and interact with different people, and all the while notice how I am in those situations. What parts of myself emerge when I’m in a place that’s not my normal habitat? Am I reserved or gregarious? Am I anxious or relaxed? Am I adventurous or cautious? Which issues resolve themselves as I distance myself from them, and which issues remain with me as I travel?
Amid my awareness of the new setting and how I am in it, I also cast my mind’s eye to life back at home. I begin pining for things about my daily life - the smell the roses that bloomed the week after I left; the sound of the waves rolling into the beach where I swim every day; the warm feel of snuggling with our family’s beagle.
I can look with greater clarity at what fills my days, and pinpoint some of the things that work really well, and some that don’t. Every time I travel, I take time towards the end of the trip to ask myself what needs to change about my routines, my priorities, my choices, my focus.
That’s why travel has been a source of transformation for me throughout my life. I can honestly say that travel has helped me to make small but essential shifts in my life in a way that no other practice has. Whether or not the trip was overtly spiritual in focus, I have always experienced travel as a spiritual practice.
More than a decade ago I started to work with pilgrimage groups in Ireland, and until the onset of the Coronavirus, accompanied a few pilgrimages per year on spirituality-oriented travel experiences. Over and over again, I witnessed the transformation that takes place through travel during these pilgrimages.
Transformation happens without fail; but sometimes it happens in ways the pilgrims don’t expect. I wrote a post about this at the beginning of COVID. Though not always easy, I have found this kind of transformation has shaped the course of my life, and I have seen that in countless others, too.
So, that’s why I’d like to invite you, and anyone you think would be interested, to join me on a pilgrimage in Ireland next October. Since I have known travel, and especially pilgrimage, to be such a transformative spiritual practice, I encourage you to consider coming along.
Travel hasn’t been available to us for a few years, but thankfully that is changing, and people are beginning to make bold plans for 2022 and 2023. I find that delightful - to begin to plan such things in the future once again, especially something as life-changing as a pilgrimage.
If you’d like to join me on a pilgrimage in Ireland in October 2022, please get in touch with me at revkiran@gmail.com as soon as possible. Once I have a large enough group of interested people, I’d be able bring the pilgrimage into reality. If October 2023 would work better for you, please let me know so I can register interest for that as well. See more details on the pilgrimage below.
Travel changes our lives; pilgrimage allows that transformation to go even deeper. If that is something you’re longing for, get in touch!
Ponderings for Your Path
Can you think of a journey that changed your life, either in small ways or in more significant ways?
What sort of transformation does your spirit long for at this time? Even if long-distance travel isn’t an option for you, can you find a way to step away from your environment even briefly? An away day, an overnight, or a weekend in a different location can do wonders for our perspective.
If you’d be willing, please share with us! This space has the potential of being an environment where we share and learn from one another, if you feel drawn to do so. Just click the button and leave a comment :)
Coming Up in the Autumn and Beyond (2021-22)
Summary:
A new Celtic Psalms album! Preorder here. Also, we are planning an ONLINE LAUNCH TOUR in October/November - get in touch at revkiran@gmail.com if your community would like to host a launch concert/fundraising event!
Upcoming Retreats:
18 September Online Mini Retreat with Paul Hutchinson BOOK NOW
19-21 November Weekend Retreat (in person, Corrymeela)
EMAIL ME directly at revkiran@gmail.com if you’d like to come! Eventbrite is charging a large fee for booking through them, so contact me to sort a direct payment. RETREAT INFO HERE
*Turas - Pilgrimage in Ireland October 2022*
***REGISTER YOUR INTEREST*** by emailing revkiran@gmail.com
Psalms for the Spirit Podcast - catch up on all 15 episodes
Bless My Feet Membership Community - let’s walk this path together. Find out more
Spiritual Direction - Contact me at revkiran@gmail.com to find a time to connect for a session.
1. New Celtic Psalms Album Out Soon
I’m so excited about the new Celtic Psalms album I began working on during my summer of creativity last year. Writing, arranging, and recording these songs brought me back to life and thrilled me beyond measure. The production of the album has stretched throughout the year due to further lockdowns, etc, but we have made progress this month and will put the finishing touches on it in September. You can preorder mp3s of the album here, which will help us get through the finish line!
Also - we are planning an online launch tour in October/November that I’d love for you to get involved with. We will prerecord a concert featuring our newest songs, which we will broadcast with live commentary from myself and the McGraths on Zoom, with various communities in the US, Ireland, and beyond if asked :) This could be a great way to do a fundraiser in your community for a cause you care about. Get in touch with me at revkiran@gmail.com if you’d like to make a plan!
2. Autumn Retreats
Now is the time to book your place for either - or BOTH, if you’re able to travel to Northern Ireland - of these upcoming retreats. These are both opportunities for transformation, so I warmly invite you to join us!
“Sing a New Song” Online Mini-Retreat
Saturday 18 September 2021, 3-6pm BST/10am-1pm EST/9am-12pm CST/7am-10am PST
The first is an online mini-retreat with the brilliant Paul Hutchinson, therapist and mediator featured in Episode 11 of Psalms for the Spirit. We’ll be exploring the theme “Sing a New Song” - how we might find a new song to sing in our lives. Find more information about the event here. The timings work across time zones, so you’re welcome to book your place for this gentle, reflective space of listening, sharing, and song.
“Refresh Your Spirit” In-Person Weekend Retreat
Friday 19 November - Sunday 21 November 2021
The second retreat will be in-person at Corrymeela on the north coast. We will have a weekend dedicated to reflection and sharing, quiet and rest, as we drink in the refreshing beauty of this particular corner of the world. Find out more about the retreat weekend here. Let me know if you’re interested by emailing me directly at revkiran@gmail.com. The eventbrite page has the details about the event, but they are tacking on a pretty hefty fee on top of the payment, so get in touch to sort payment directly with me.
3. Turas: Journey for the Spirit
PILGRIMAGE IN IRELAND, OCTOBER 2022
Turas means expedition or pilgrimage in the Irish language
As you heard above, I’m looking into planning a pilgrimage in Ireland for October 2022. The journey would include time at the stunning residential centre at Corrymeela on the north coast, with visits to Belfast, Rostrevor, Glendalough, and Dublin. The focus of the journey will be transformation, and will include facilitated times with some of the incredible Ireland-based guests that have been featured on the Psalms for the Spirit podcast, with a chance to delve deeper into their areas of expertise. The journey will be spacious enough tend to your spirits along the way, and active enough that you will feel enriched by new sights, sounds, and settings.
Please let me know if you’d be interested in joining the pilgrimage in October 2022 by emailing revkiran@gmail.com. We need to gather enough interested people in order to move forward with making bookings. Let your friends, family, and community know if you think they might be interested! If October 2023 works better for you, let me know that as well at revkiran@gmail.com
4. Psalms for the Spirit Podcast
The first 5 episodes of Season Two for Psalms for the Spirit are up, and the wisdom I’ve gained from these conversations has been in my thoughts this summer as I’ve traveled. I took this season more slowly, spreading out the conversations and editing over several months, and it’s been a much more enjoyable process. I have loved speaking with each and every guest that I’ve had. The Psalms are so rich, diverse, and deep that I could talk about them forever with these fascinating and insightful people. You can catch up on all 15 episodes here.
Transformation comes up in at least two recent episodes: with John Boopalan and Brother Thierry.
5. Bless My Feet Membership Community
If you’re receiving this email, it means you’ve signed up to receive my monthly reflections and news updates, and I’m so grateful that you’re here!
If you’d like to go a bit deeper in your spiritual journey and walk alongside myself and others of like mind, I invite you to be a part of the Bless My Feet membership community. This allows for a private area for sharing comments and responses to the prompts I suggest, and it will give you access to more regular content on spirituality and the daily walk, if that is something you feel drawn to. In this day and age, I crave a space with a bit more privacy, where more authentic sharing can happen among people who have chosen to be there. If you would like to choose to be there, I know I and others will love to welcome you. I have lots of dreams and visions of how this might unfold! Find out more about how to become more involved in Bless My Feet here.
This summer, I will continue to explore the theme of longing. So far, I’ve looked at:
Longing for Refuge (this was for members but I also shared it on my website)
Longing for Refreshment (for members)
Longing for Creativity (for everyone)
Longing for Wholeness (for members)
Longing for Reconnection (for members)
And of today’s: Longing for Transformation (for everyone)
Come along and explore with me.
6. Spiritual Direction
If you would like to explore your spiritual journey on a one to one basis with me, I’d love to listen to how your spirit is doing, where you’ve been and where you’re heading, and how God is a part of that journey. Contact me at revkiran@gmail.com to find a time to connect for a session.
Blessing for Our Journey
May the God who transforms
darkness into light
uncertainty into song
grief into compassion
silence into prayer
fear into hope
transform us
through actions small
and large
into deeper, wiser people
so that we might hear your voice
calling us
to live our best lives
on this earth.
Amen