I got to ride on a train this past weekend. Trains are wonderful.
No, the train wasn’t in England, but it was still delightful.
Trains are, by far, my favorite mode of transportation. I find it far easier to relax and enjoy the journey when on a train. Cars are great, and I am a seasoned road trip veteran, but car travel has been a bit of an anxiety struggle since my accident in 2016. (I’m getting better, but still . . . it’s a struggle. Ask my wonderfully patient, long-suffering husband.) Planes are great also, but a propensity for motion sickness (I hate roller coasters) PLUS an incredibly vivid imagination (perhaps I should not have watched Lost . . .) can make plane rides interesting also.
Trains are FANTASTIC.
Perhaps a large part of their charm stems from the pensivity they nurture. Indeed, trains seem to be the most contemplation-inducing of vehicles. I love staring out the window at the scenery – preferably sipping a cup of tea – and musing on beauty. Sometimes, as on this journey, I find myself writing poetry. Poetry seems to come more easily on a train; some of my favorite poems in Songs in the Gate, my first poetry collection, were penned on trains.
I was already in a pensive-type mood for this journey. The past few weeks have found me going through old journals, searching for notes I may have jotted down regarding my new book. It is good to do this occasionally, methinks: to look back, and ponder on the previous chapters of the story, and relearn some old lessons. It is important to recognize how those same lessons are still in need of learning, and to understand better how to interpret them in the current chapters, and to look forward with renewed hope.
It is good to remember times of joy and struggle, and reflect with poignant gratitude on friendships that saw me through both, and rejoice in the ongoing adventure.
Plus, sometimes, you find poems you’d forgotten writing – like this one.
As noted in the photo, I did not write this on a train, nor on a plane. I wrote it in a cathedral – two cathedrals, actually: St. Giles Cathedral (in Edinburgh) and Glasgow Cathedral. I was carrying this notebook around in my purse in 2013, when I took my last trip to Great Britain. (Yes, that clover I pressed between the pages came from Scotland.)
Cathedrals are my favorite places to visit when traveling. I don’t just like to tour them; I want to sit for a while, pray, and meditate on the wonder of worshiping where centuries of other believers have prayed. The very stones seem soaked with holiness, making it easier to believe that I am caught up in a community: the church, spread out over space and time.
It is in such moments that I feel most at Home.
I guess that’s the best part of traveling, whether by plane, train, or through sacred space via a cathedral: coming home.
May you be braced and strengthened for today’s journey, friend, wherever it may lead you.
(Bonus: there’s a line about a unicorn and a griffin, inspired by one of the many royal crests I’d been studying during that trip. Apparently, The Ancient was already brewing!)
Home
When I have gone a’roaming
and have wand’ring still to do
When travels fill my soul
with all the wreck the world must rue
Here I find a place of peace
where Hope has carried through
“He comes to fill the world with Home
and make a Home of you.”
When fancy reigns supreme
and whimsy’s claims are proven true
When the griffin and the unicorn
lay down their arms to woo
And men in frenzied madness
need no longer death pursue
Here I’ll rest, my heart a stone
to build a Home for You.
When you return, as one day soon
You’ve promised sure to do
When heaven wings its way to earth
creating one from two
When Love’s unyielding fire rises
making all things new
Oh! – put me in Your pocket
and make me Home to You.
Oh, put me in Your pocket
– my heart-stone in Your pocket –
Put me in Your pocket, Love
and make me Home to You.
Beautiful!!! I love trains and cathedrals, too.
Put me in Your pocket, LORD!