Thoughts on Antonio Porchia

"The condemnation of an error, is another error." Antonio Porchia

I am trying, as best I can, to articulate a vocabulary of forgiveness. I have done more than my share of condemning in the last year. Some of it was silent, much of it was very vocal. There were withering stares, vitriolic rants, and oaths of retribution. I wielded my righteousness with a vigor fueled by fear and uncertainty, by too much coffee and too little sleep. Enemies, large and small, filled my landscape and betrayals, personal and professional, vied for my attention. Elizabeth and I were aggrieved parties, and my resentment and anger threatened to define me. My new years' resolution boiled down to six simple words : This year I go to war. It was not my finest hour.

"A full heart has room for everything and an empty heart has room for nothing. Who understands?" Antonio Porchia

But this year, this year I seem to have room for everything. It seems that with every step on my journey to Canterbury I lay another burden down. The forgiveness I spoke of is not a grace I am presuming to dispense, it is a blessing I am hoping to receive. I look around me and see fellow travellers, pilgrims trying as best they can to live their better natures and to bring a little light into the world we share, and I wish to do the same. When I was welcomed into St.Matthias, it was not conditional. I was not asked to enumerate my sins, to expose the dark places of my heart. Instead I was offered sanctuary, and the only thing that was asked of me (unspoken at the time, but becoming clearer as I make room for it in my heart) was that I go out and do the same. That I recognize that the souls I encounter on the road may be dealing with their own trials of which I am completely unaware, and that my judgement of them benefits neither of us. And I am trying.

"Before I travelled my road I was my road."
Antonio Porchia