"Every long journey is made of small steps
Is made of the courage,the feeling you get
When you know it’s been waiting, been waiting for you
The journey’s the only thing you want to do.
We cannot know what you go through or see through
    your eyes
But we will surround you, the pride undisguised
In every direction whatever you view
You’re taking our love there with you."
                            – Ann Reed

At the beginning of Lent I began to create a file of songs about pilgrimage, being a pilgrim, and songs that spoke to being on a spiritual journey. The file is filled with hymns, camp songs, folks songs and other songs that fit our Lenten theme of ‘Passport for Pilgrims.’  Journey is a subject of countless songs no doubt because it is a theme we all recognize so fully in our lives. This song by Ann Reed was one of the favorites that I found.

I thought of it again this past Tuesday when one of my co-workers brought her new baby in for us to see. As we passed this beautiful little one, so new to the world, around our circle we each offered her an unspoken blessing by our exuberant welcome. As we ‘oohed and ahhed’ it would have been nearly impossible not to make note of this journey both she and her parents were beginning. "Every long journey is made of small steps….." The small steps she makes each day in her growth is a beautiful beginning to a yet uncharted journey.

This song could provide such a blessing for so many of life’s big moments..birth, baptism, first day of school, marriage, graduation, leaving home, so many moments of transitional joy. It could also provide a blessing for those life moments we don’t plan….illness, divorce, failure, despair, death, so many moments of equally transitional sorrow. In some way each of us awakes to an uncharted journey each and every day. The small steps continue to take us to places we have planned and those we would not have chosen. It is the way of life.

For me, the true beauty of this song is in the final few lines:"But we will surround you, the pride undisguised, in every direction whatever you view, You’re taking our love there with you." In the many times I’ve headed down a new path or been pushed there, what has given me the courage to continue when the going gets tough and when I feel discouraged, is the deep knowledge that I am held by this unconditional love and compassion. Even when I have not necessarily received it from those I expected to offer it, I have somehow known that the One who breathed me into being extended that blessing with an unimagined grace.

My prayer is that it may also be that way with you….in your small steps, in your big life, on your sacred journey.