Keeping Time With Sunlight
Keeping Time With Sunlight
by Laura M Rasmussen | Omaha, NE
The Camino introduced sunlight to me as a champion of my pilgrim soul.
Heartbroken by personal losses and burned out after more than a decade of pastoral ministry, God’s presence felt elusive for me in religious institutions, traditions, liturgies, and buildings. That prompted my first walk on the Camino, and I discovered my story wasn’t much different from other pilgrim stories.
One afternoon, I sat in a rustic, rural church on the Meseta, and a patch of light danced across the sanctuary wall. It was sunlight reflected through a suncatcher hanging in front of a window, and it captured my attention as I sensed God saying, “Always look for the light.” Those words landed with bearing on my soul, and I sensed an invitation to seek and know God’s presence the way I physically know light.
Since I had abundant time with sunlight while I walked the Camino, it helped me more clearly recognize how my soul experienced God. There is no building capable of containing all of the sunlight. As brilliant as it is, there are limitations to the suitable amount of exposure for me, yet I can also become so accustomed to it that I take it for granted. Sunlight plays delightfully as it races shadows across the landscape. Even when my view clouds, it remains faithfully present. And on the darkest of nights, the sun reflects light to me via the moon. I came to understand that the light of God is within me more than any light I can experience outside of myself. The physical journey on the Camino used my physical senses engaged with sunlight to assist me in the spiritual journey of looking for the light of God within me. That has become my soul’s lifelong pilgrimage.
Not a day goes by when the shifting sunlight doesn’t draw my pilgrim soul’s attention to the light of God within me. The invitation to look for the light has evolved into a series of spiritual practices for my personal use, and I share these with fellow spiritual companions, small groups on spiritual pilgrimages, and in churches with fellow pastors. While my feet are not presently on the Camino, my pilgrim soul continues the journey it started on the Camino in collaboration with sunlight.
