Slowly I Turned

Last updated on: June 7, 2024 at 2:17 pm by Fred Wooden

Slowly I Turned 2024-06-07T14:17:26-04:00 Fred Wooden

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

You have to be a certain age to recognize the phrase, “Slowly I Turned, Step By Step.” It’s part of an old vaudeville routine, embodied by the Three Stooges. The mere mention of “Niagara Falls,” reminds him of a wrong done to him at Niagara Falls, which sends him into a psychotic episode where he accosts the innocent fellow who said the triggering words.

What has this to do with Pilgrim Life?

By chance I was given a book by a friend. He is the author as well as the giver, a scholar of Japanese literature. As it happened, the topic of the little book was pilgrimage in Japanese culture and literature. He describes the Japanese pilgrimage as ‘displacement’ as a means to discovery.

Instantly I was intrigued, as this notion is at the heart of my pilgrim life. I go to places afar to discover the places within. This happens when I feel a resonance inside myself. The Japanese word is aware, pronounced a-wa-re, but coincidentally similar (resonant!) with the English word ‘aware.’ Moments come, unplanned but always sought, that are flickers of insight.

In the Vaudeville routine, the phrase, “Niagara Falls,” is enough to transport a fellow out of himself but also into himself. Yes, that sounds paradoxical, but that is ‘aware’ – to illuminate for a moment the world and the self.

Slowly I Turned

portrait of Basho … is not just the start of the gag. ‘Aware‘ is a spiritual turning around, when a moment makes one stop and look around outwardly and inwardly because something resonates. In the literature of Japanese pilgrimage, it is often captured in a poem, the ideal form of literature in that culture, and thanks to Basho (whom I have written about before) often in the form of haiku.

Book Cover In my own book about walking the Kumano Kodo, “Basho and I Take a Long Walk,” I imitate his style consciously, which is to narrate the journey and add my own attempts at haiku when something in me becomes ‘aware,’ prompting me to turn around. I append to that literal journey my collection from writing a haiku a day for a year.

Seek Resonance

Like Whitman’s ‘letters from God’ the moments when we can become ‘aware’ in both senses of the term, are all around us. But sometimes we have to go away from the familiar to rediscover the transcendence of the obvious. We have to leave ourselves to find ourselves.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 15, 2024

Get Thee Behind Me!

Next Post

May 8, 2024 April in Paris

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Jordan" (as in Jordan River) mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

To open To anoint To descend To heal