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Sheltering Walls

Bare Trees in Fog
Writer's picture: Marie LaureMarie Laure

The native land of my maternal grandparents sent out a warning to some of its citizens to be aware of new laws that may impact them should they come to visit their nearest neighbors: US! The red, white and blue of freedom has been overtaken by red flags waving for our neighbors sporting a red maple leaf wrapped in rainbow colors. Pourquois?


The travel advisory from the Canadian government is calling attention to State laws in Florida, in particular, and other places including Oklahoma and Arkansas. These newly enacted laws restrict movement and activities of certain people and are clearly discriminatory. As a result, these particular people have suffered in the very place they call home. Would you invite a friend to your home if they, too, might be oppressed or treated with hostility, and, sadly, violence? Non, non, et non!


The Canadians needn’t have bothered because the LGBTQ community-at-large was already spreading the word that some of US, have a mindset that screams YOU are not welcome here. I wonder what my grandparents would say? I can imagine if their safety had been threatened they would not have emigrated. I, myself, would have been proud to be born in Canada, but my grandparents wanted to come for a future promise of prosperity. They gave up something back home, to be sure, but their safety was NOT one of those things. They came, they lived, they prospered in peace without any warning from their own Government to be on the alert for hostility once they crossed porous borderlands.


Whenever I travel, I check ahead with the US State Department for updates and, yes, warnings I should know about before setting out. No matter where I have gone, including to Morocco and Southeast Asia, the warnings cautioned US citizens against general threats from terrorists who target tourists. A red flag against my personal safety because of being a cisgender female has never, ever been waved in my face. Every warning issued by our own Government has been for every single one of US citizens and not aimed at a particular group or individual based on sexual orientation. Oh, Canada, let US welcome everyone of you as you always have been welcome to come just as you are. Bienvenue!


https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/31/americas/canada-lgbtq-us-travel-advisory




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Updated: Sep 1, 2023

August 31 at 3:30 pm FREE to ALL



  • “Bending Time” at Story and Song by Karen Miller Author event with Marie Laure & Musical Performance by Brenda Kayne and Munsell McPhillips Marie Laure spoke of “Bending Time” during her presentation at the 650th anniversary of the revelation of Julian of Norwich this summer in Europe. The program will open with a short musical performance featuring 14th century music then Marie Laure will discuss how Julian’s solitude during the Plague inspired her book Return from Exile written during the pandemic. Join us for a program about women, faith, and timeless connections that shape and give meaning to our lives. Tea & scones will be served following the program. For more information visit www.storyandsongbookstore.com."


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© 2023 by Marie Laure

​Six Stages of Pilgrimage:

  • The Call:

  • The opening clarion of any spiritual journey. Often in the form of a feeling or some vague yearning, a fundamental human desire: finding meaning in an overscheduled world somehow requires leaving behind our daily obligations. Sameness is the enemy of spirituality.

  • The Separation:

  • Pilgrimage, by its very nature, undoes certainty. It rejects the safe and familiar. It asserts that one is freer when one frees oneself from daily obligations of family, work, and community, but also the obligations of science, reason, and technology.

  • The Journey:

  • The backbone of a sacred journey is the pain and sacrifice of the journey itself.  This personal sacrifice enhances the experience; it also elevates the sense of community one develops along the way.

  • The Contemplation:

  • Some pilgrimages go the direct route, right to the center of the holy of holies, directly to the heart of the matter. Others take a more indirect route, circling around the outside of the sacred place, transforming the physical journey into a spiritual path of contemplation like walking a labyrinth.

  • The Encounter:

  • After all the toil and trouble, after all the sunburn and swelling and blisters, after all the anticipation and expectation comes the approach, the sighting. The encounter is the climax of the journey, the moment when the traveler attempts to slide through a thin veil where humans live in concert with the Creator.

  • The Completion and Return:

  • At the culmination of the journey, the pilgrim returns home only to discover that meaning they sought lies in the familiar of one's own world. "Seeing the place for the first time . . ."

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