In the spring of 2003 I was given an unusual vision. My teacher saw a desert scene with a band of nomads traveling across it, their caravan laden with spices, foods, and other things people needed. She saw me being a nomad, i.e., one who is not attached to any one place, but of a different kind than what she saw initially in the vision. I was called to be a specific type of spiritual nomad, i.e., one who travels from place to place sharing what many people are hungry for today: spiritual nourishment in the form of music and teachings infused with spirit that fills the heart and soul.
At first I had a hard time seeing myself fulfilling this vision. Even though I loved writing songs and playing them at home, playing music for others was the farthest thing from my mind at that point in my life. With a one-year old baby at home, the thought of extensive travel did not appeal to me either. But my faith was strong enough in my teacher and the vision that I said, “Yes, I will do it.” As is usually the case, it took some time for the vision to manifest. Lo and behold, I am now the spiritual nomad that she saw in the vision.
The essence of being a spiritual nomad is living a life of non-attachment. Everything in this world is in a state of impermanence. Things are always moving and changing; if we hold on to something in the material world as security, or as a permanent source of comfort, we are setting up the conditions for creating disappointment and suffering. The spiritual nomad finds his/her home in God, and God alone.
This state of being does not negate taking pleasure and comfort as they come into one’s life. That is a gift and should be celebrated. The key is not to hold on to the experience, to expect it to be there at one’s beck and call, and to obsess about it and seek it for its own sake again and again and again. Living a life of non-attachment is a life filled with love for the here and now, and results in freedom from the limitations of being caught up in the drama of the ever changing duality. It is far from a lonely existence when you know that you always have access to the Eternal One Who unites us all.
Three spiritual giants led the life of spiritual nomads. One was Abraham. When called by God to, “Go forth from your land, from your relatives, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you,”* it was a call for all time to leave the place you know, and to go inside yourself for the inner journey of going home to God. The second, Buddha, left the life of a prince, and everything that one could desire on the material plane, to become a wanderer, one who knew that there was something bigger than what he knew in the gilded palace. He too was called to go on the inner journey to find his true home. The third, Jesus, led the life of an itinerant teacher primarily in the Galilee. He was so passionate about cleaving to God, and being clear that no physical attachment was allowed to get in the way of that relationship, that he said in Matthew 8:20, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”
*Genesis 12:1.
The journey of a spiritual nomad is about finding your way back home, back to your open, loving heart that does not need to hold on to anything to feel love, to feel safe, or to be accepted. Once you reach it, the task is to stay a spiritual nomad by not getting stuck or attached to any one place, whether it is physical or spiritual. God’s love for us is so great that He constantly wants us to grow. The easy way to allow that to happen is to stay a spiritual nomad.
The spiritual nomad moves by God’s grace. It is a divine journey led by God that guides us to reach our highest potential, and therefore to be of the greatest service to all of life. Even though it takes a great deal of focus on oneself to break through the barriers that get in the way of opening the heart, ultimately great joy comes from using the gifts God has given us to help others in any way we can. The needs and desires that seemed so important to the small self fade as life is more and more focused on service. To allow the grace in, it must not be a willful journey, but one of surrender. It is possible to “hear” what Spirit wants and to trust it.
The spiritual nomad is not on a divine pilgrimage to sacred sites. He is on a life journey that will take him wherever he is led, to allow him to experience what he needs to, in order to reach the ultimate goal. God wants us to cleave to Him and nothing else, because that is where all that we really want deep in our hearts will be fulfilled.
There are as many paths to journeying through life as a spiritual nomad as there are people. Each one of us is called to walk our unique path, and to meet as friends who recognize the divine spark that we all share. May we all find the courage, and make the commitment, to meet as brothers and sisters along the way.
