Just now, I did a quick internet search for the word "beguine". It reminded me that perhaps I am a modern-day beguine. In the Middle Ages, some women who had previously been married, or lived secular lives, made the choice to commit to their spiritual journeys, and wandered from place to place speaking of their beliefs. Because they were not formally committed to holy orders or sponsored by the Church, and because they were single and declined to lead a conventional life, they were often feared. Ultimately, most of these women joined others like them to live and work in small communities.
A friend of mine recently called me a "gypsy mystic", a variation on the same theme. As you saw in my previous post, in my heart I am really not a "gypsy" or a "wanderer" at all. In my heart I am firmly anchored, and if in this lifetime I ever return to an English cathedral milieu, I hope all the pieces will finally be in place to allow permanent rooting.
Having said that, I also have to hope that my lifetime of rootlessness has benefitted the Goddess, drawing attention to Her "homelessness" in the world, and to the precarious lives of many single women. It is one of the few things keeping me going as I sort my belongings yet again, getting them ready to store or move. Today, too, I think of the extreme, sudden uprootedness and deaths of the people in the Florida apartment building, people seeking shelter in West Coast cooling shelters, and the plight of refugees all over the world. This may be a time to embody the brave spirit of the beguines, however rooted or uprooted we happen to be right this second.
