(Barcelona Hostel Garden, 2019)
You’re invited to join me in a year-long "armchair" journey through this travel memoir and spiritual autobiography. Explore your insights while traveling with me to 52 worldwide locations, integrating life’s developmental stages with spiritual insights.
"Peregrina" is the Spanish word for a female pilgrim. Being a pilgrim is different from being a tourist. Fr. Henri Nouwen coined the phrase "Voluntary Displacement" to describe one’s willingness to move from familiar places to the unknown.
I encourage you to open your heart to discover how external journeys can mirror interior ones for growth and healing. I’ve provided over 160 reflection questions for journaling or discussion with a book group.
Liberty Lake author’s new book urges travelers to become pilgrims, not tourists
By:Megan Guido
(Susie’s photo from a house and tourist attraction in the Pamukkale neighborhood of Türkiye)
Choosing to go on a pilgrimage is an ancient ritual practiced almost universally throughout history and across various cultures. Walking the various Camino Routes in Spain has become a popular trek. Even with a colostomy and other health challenges, I hiked with my husband, Mark, the final section of the Portuguese Camino in 2016 to earn our Compostela Shell.
Similar to Joseph Campbell's description of the Hero's Journey, pilgrims are willing to undergo transformation through their travels. Although pilgrims might return to a place similar to where they started, they are not the same person they were before leaving.
While navigating these winding paths, there are often signposts, like the Camino's Shell Markers, to help guide us.
The Shell Marker
Although I’ve returned home with beautiful travel keepsakes, my most significant souvenir is a new viewpoint. I’ve become a global citizen.
Pilgrims choose to explore a new place geographically and interiorly with their minds, hearts, and spirits. They are open to discovering fresh insights from visiting new locations and interacting with diverse people and cultures.
If you’d like to share the experience enjoyed by pilgrims over the centuries, travel can be a spiritual act as well as a political one.
Rick Steves, author of TRAVEL AS A POLITICAL ACT: How to Leave Your Baggage Behind
Our kitchen wall has a large laminated Peter's World Map illustrating a more accurate geographical perspective of countries.
Approximately 100 pushpins mark the places our family has visited around the globe.
My international travels began at age 12 when I accompanied my 10-year-old brother to live in Mexico City for six weeks with a family we’d never met. Since then, I’ve visited all 50 states in the United States, nine Canadian provinces, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Panama, 22 European countries, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Türkiye, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Our adult children have visited these additional countries: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Bhutan, Nepal, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Iceland.My outward journeys have become a catalyst for interior exploration. Similar to the cyclical seasons, unfinished tasks from childhood often repeat every 13 years until we learn their specific skills.
While teaching Head Start parents attending the Community Colleges of Spokane, I met Jean Illsley Clarke, a parenting specialist and co-author of Growing Up Again. She reminded me: “It’s never too late to grow up again.”
(Susie on the labyrinth outside the Ta’ Pinu Basilica on Gozo, Malta)
The Compass Rose design for my book cover reminds me of the labyrinths I’ve walked worldwide in Ireland, France, Malta, and the United States. Even though there are often numerous twists and turns, what appears to be an endpoint can also become a new beginning.
My travel memoir is divided into the four primary compass directions and life’s stages of development. I summarize the core skills to be learned during early childhood, youth and young adulthood, adulthood, and elderhood. Using the Celtic Calendar, I organize 13 reflections to correspond with a specific season in my life.
Each reflection includes a photo, an inspirational quote, and three questions for journaling or discussion in a book group. You’ll discover that I’ve traveled by hiking, car, hitchhiking, bus, train, plane, ferry, ocean and river cruising, paddleboarding, kayaking, ziplining, hot air balloon, and even camel riding.
You can read this book chronologically, pick a specific geographic location that interests you, or select a particular quality that catches your attention.
I have a Master’s Degree in Pastoral Ministry and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction. Recently I completed a certificate in “Recognizing and Healing the Wounds of Spiritual Abuse and Religious Trauma” from Jamie Marich, PhD, author of You Lied to Me About God.
They strengthen my ability to provide insights into sacred geographical locations, shrines, and labyrinths. Additionally, I explain the differences between a healthy and an abusive spirituality.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts about my book!
52globalreflections@gmail.com
+1 (509) 499-1423
