Postcards from the Pilgrimage

Poland

We’ve arrived safely in the Highlands of Scotland where we will be communing with the land and the ancestors, in and around Achmelvich tomorrow. (We are in a hostel in Inverness tonight and I type this on my little bluetooth keyboard, with snoozing family all around.)

This entry is about our week in Poland.

First in the Kashubian countryside, and then in Gdynia (Gdańsk) where I did teaching and chanting at a retreat for the Polish chapter of the World Community for Christian Meditation.

We spent 4 days in the Kashubian area visiting towns and parishes where my ancestors come from. Thanks to my beautiful friends from the WCCM, I was able to be alone inside the churches to sing and sit in silence.

Here I am on my great grandpa’s lands:

Here I am in the parish my great great Grandfather John Levandoski would have attended:

We met an embroiderer of the Kashubian style, we ate traditional food, and we even had a fantastic party with Kashubian musicians and dancing in one big circle together.

We sat in silence at the Wesiory stone circles.

At one point a retired Kashubian farmer invited all of us to raid his raspberry patch and come in for a visit. He told us “to welcome guests into his house is to welcome God”.

Here we are:

Once the weekend arrived, and it was time to teach and sing at the retreat, I had already spent so much bonding time with my organizer and meditation guide Gosia Bochinska, and my translator Andrzej Ziolkowski, (because they were our guides for the Kashubian trip), we were very comfortable as a team.

Here we are:

Over the weekend we walked through the Sanctuary album, then I did a Saturday night concert that culminated in a dance to my cover of Dylan’s I Shall Be Released (disco ball at maximum twirl) - then early Sunday morning I did some teachings and tracks from Point Vierge- Thomas Merton’s Journey in Song.

The entire event culminated at a beautiful church and artistic community in Gdańsk where I led music during Eucharist, and then performed a few songs after the service and did question and response for the material from the weekend.

You can see me on the left in the traditional Kashubian blouse an guitar.

Our time in Poland was beautiful and deep, and the alchemy of each retreat attendee, including 7 beautiful young Western Ukrainians who travelled 21 hours by bus to be there (no flying at present), was palpably divine, and humbling.

PS- I am also happy to announce that the Kickstarter goal was reached on Sept 10th!

PPS- and lastly, because I don’t know if I can fit this in anywhere else… one of my nerd mom dreams came true yesterday as we entered back into the UK… this photo needs no explanation…