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FOLLOWING THE CANTERBURY TRAIL

Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road. Follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road... and off went Dorothy and Toto on a great adventure. What a classic and one we never get tired of to this day since it was released in 1939. I am on another road myself but it is filled with its own flying monkeys! I am following the road to Canterbury as did Robert E. Webber and C.S. Lewis. I have danced around with the Anglicans since 2011 and left the road one time to explore my childhood faith I grew up in which was the Methodist Church and that excursion took about five months to find I still felt something was missing. So another year back on the Canterbury road until I wandered off again to explore the Lutheran Church and took another excursion for a year but again found I was missing the smells and bells of the Anglicans. This time I noticed that the road had narrowed from a brick road to a dirt trail. There was a sign up ahead that said: "Instructions Post Next Mile."

I reached the little log Post and went inside to grab a map. The map was a small red book called The Book of Common Prayer and it was a curious map at first but eventually, I began to understand it and it was quite helpful. Traveling on the Canterbury Trail I had to unload some weight so I stopped and set down my backpack and looked inside it to see what has held me down and slowed my walk that I should leave behind to lighten my load to make it to my destination and make the journey more enjoyable. Let us see here... hmmm... being a literalist has to go along with fundamentalist... and yeah let us pull this judgmental thingy out... I really liked that one too. I can keep tradition, reason, scripture, and experience. Well now, we are good to go so let's get back on the trail.

Being on the Canterbury Trail I have changed in ways I would never have dreamed. I have become a sacramental person in that I see the holy all around me and not just within the four walls of the church with the water, wine, and bread but in the eyes of a child, the song of a bird, or the beauty of a colorful fish. Living life trying to see and hear with Jesus Christ's eyes and ears to see the holy in creation and the incarnation even in simple acts of offering someone a cup of cold water... earthy, real, and tangible yet heavenly acts with eternal value. Also, I am praying what I believe and believing what I pray which is changing me into a new reflection of Christ Jesus within my soul. 



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