As I prepared for my Pilgrimage across the country, all the old patriotic songs rose up within me — the ones that praise America’s beauty and its people. I’ve always loved this country. But somewhere along the miles, something shifted. I realized I am not simply proud of it.
I am part of it.
I cherish this country. Most importantly, I realized I belong to it. To paraphrase the song from ‘Oklahoma’, “I know I belong to the land, and the land I belong to is grand!” It is a safe relationship to which I entrust myself. The Land endures. The Peoples and their Politics come and go. The Land continues in balance, harmony, and order. It adapts, re-balances, and restores itself. Its Peace prevails. We who are receptive are renewed and re-balanced.
This Land’s Beauty captivates me, and I work to be worthy of that belonging — worthy of the Peoples, Lands, Waters, Skies, and Stories that make this Country Sacred. Its Peace demands my participation and an obligation to care for it.
Driving across the vast expanses has transformed me. The National Parks and Monuments gifted us with bison, grizzlies, prairie dogs, burrowing owls, eagles upon eagles, foxes, chippies, and — in the cold northern waters — a Minke whale and three orca. My traveling companion added double digits to her life list of birds she’s spotted. Everywhere we turned, Awe and Wonder rose up like prayer.
One bison met my eyes for a heartbeat. Quickly, I looked away. Wonder is not challenge — and I had no desire to test his patience. But oh, those eyelashes. Even the smallest details of this Land and its inhabitants are extravagant.
The terrain itself informed us. Plains gave way to mountains; mountains softened into basins; forests unfurled. Mt. Rainier appeared and disappeared like a snowy blessing. Then came the Puget Sound, and finally the Pacific — our bed perched above the waves at the town of Moclips, the ocean breathing beneath us, calm and blue.
There wasn’t simply one beautiful place; it was place after place, each one heartachingly beautiful, each one insisting that Beauty is not a luxury — it is a sage teacher.
After our idyll in Moclips, we returned to Tacoma and boarded the “American Spirit.” Day after day, the ship carried us through glaciercarved waters and tiny islands with their small, sturdy villages. At each stop, Peace lingered in the quiet nooks, crannies, full skies; it lapped on the edges of the quiet depths we visited.
On the return trip East, we nourished our Spirits with Sacredness — Ancient Lands, Indigenous Cultures and Communities reclaiming language, ceremony, and story. Everywhere we went, we were welcomed. Every site caused our hearts to open wider. There should be a hymn that sings, “Surely Peace is in this Place”— and we should sing it everywhere. Sing it to ourselves, steadying our hearts. Sing it out loud, letting it echo. Sing it together, heads thrown back, hands clasped, filling the skies with the music of Peace. This is hymnody the world yearns for.
My Soul is certain. Peace is a web woven across this Land. Everywhere we looked:
Peace was there. And so were we.
Peace is here. And so are we.
Peace is wherever we turn, wherever we are willing to notice, and Peace is constantly calling us home.
This Pilgrimage changed me, reinforcing my calling as Peacemaker. There are many more stories waiting to burst forth to share with you: stories of what we saw when we went over the mountain like the bear, stories of how the rugged, vast Peace of this Country invites us to belong more deeply.
This is my affirmation: I, Ann Keeler Evans – American, Peacemaker – am privileged to belong to this Sacred Land. May every person who lives here, visits here, or makes their home here feel that same belonging… the Wonder-filled, Awesome, Inspiring, heart-aching Beauty of this Land that we call home, this Land that reminds us where and to whom we belong.
This was not the first time I traveled across this Country. The Love and Astonishment that wells up in me is familiar. My heart warms and softens as I open to this Beloved Land one more time. I allow myself to be reclaimed. Sweet Peace, I am renewed. I am grateful. Both the Grandeur and the Intimacy of this Land invites me to renew my solemn vow. I am a Peacemaker.
Salaam, Shalom, Shanti, Peace, and Blessed Be.
With Love, <br>Ann