Cairn

Cairn: a pile of rocks formed as a marker, or a place of spiritual reflection or a monument of sorts - they can be found all over the world as far back as the Bronze Age! This one marks the summit of a mountain. The Peace Cairn in Donegal Ireland is worth checking out. Have you ever built one?

The poem below was sent to me this week as a bookmark from Spiritual Directors International. It's beautiful!



CAIRNS
Eternal pilgrims we,
on the sometimes broken
sometimes silken
path
we call our lives.

Longing pilgrims we,
hungrily seeking
stones and rocks
all shapes and sizes
to point the way.

Blessed pilgrims we,
when the stories of our lives
sometimes broken
sometimes silken
are deemed cairns
by the one who truly listens.

Grateful pilgrims we,
gathering stones and rocks,
and with the one who truly listens
patiently creating
a cairn of balance
that reaches toward
heaven.

Wise pilgrims we,
as we bless the cairn
bless the sometimes broken
sometimes silken
path
we call our lives,
and know that
heaven is the gift
of welcoming
the broken and the silken
with equal measure.

Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann

Spiritual Directors International
http://www.sdiworld.org/