Bodies in the Holy Wild

It has been six months since I embarked on a journey to explore North America, seeking wild places, holy places. Wild, because some places reveal still Earth unmarred by human pressure on life. Holy, because what is wild and what is not wild but wholly presenced by us remind us that all is suffused with Mystery. The exploration soon became a pilgrimage into the depths of solitude, a venturing far and wide to reach inside and discover the beyond within. In recent months, it has also become a way of connecting with some of you, of having a “good visit,” as we like to say in the American South.

Perceptions shift quickly when we step beyond what we know to be familiar and believe to be true. I had a certain image of encountering wild and holy out there on the yonder horizon. That image soon had to change. Everywhere I go, even places most disquieting, reveal: There is nothing that does not wish to fulfill its own becoming. There is nothing that is not imbued with an inner, sacred unbroken …