Henry Miller once said: "If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things." These words seem to be written for my sake on this day when I depart from the Pacific Northwest and arrive in California for the next stage of my sabbatical journey. It is here in the Golden State that I first learned about Father Junipero Serra and the establishment of twenty-one mission outposts between San Diego and Sonoma that were linked by a road called the “Camino Real.” I was in fifth grade when the story was told to me in history class, and it all sounded good! Now, forty-four years later, I come here with a keen awareness of my need for a new way of looking at things. As an adult, I have gone from admiring the Christians who started these missions to feeling embarrassed that I belong to the same faith tradition. But, in the end, I know better than to assume that any one group of people is all good or all bad. I know that pure motives do not exist, then or now. I know that people from all walks of life are easily corrupted by money and power- and that this often happens to you and me in ways that we fail to see or comprehend. So, I want to walk and drive the Camino Real for the next two weeks with eyes wide open to both past and present. I want to take what I learn and connect it with the modern world I inhabit. And, if what I see and hear challenges me to change, I want to create space in my life where I can explore that. Of course, I am hoping that this won’t conflict with my desire along the way to eat good food, drink good wine, and fall asleep on the beach a time or two. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
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