On Journey 26, I posted about receiving a wonderful surprise from a friend, a leather journal with the Lonely Mountain on the front and Dwarvish runes on the back. When I googled the translation for the runes, I discovered a fun website, which translates English into Dwarvish runes. Playing with different words, I entered “Journey” into the translator and got the Dwarvish equivalent, in runes.
I was inspired. I remembered how one of the Dwarves, Kili, young nephew to Thorin Oakenshield, carried a runestone with him, engraved with a promise. He carried the stone to remember, and in seeing and holding the stone, to connect with the one he made a promise to. I have had a stone for a number of years, given to me by a friend. It is a river rock, smoothed by the passage of water, a lovely shade of gray with flecks of darker and lighter hues. The stone fits perfectly in my palm. I’ve kept the stone in my office and look at it often.
When I saw the word Journey written in Dwarvish, I knew what I had been saving the stone for. It is the ideal size and shape to become a runestone for me. Tonight I carefully wrote my word, my promise, on my stone….Journey….using a black Sharpie. It doesn’t have quite the character that an engraved stone would, but my runestone is perfect for me.
Every time I see it now, and hold it in my hand, I will remember this year of journeys, and all the delightful experiences I had. I will also recall that the word means “the distance one can travel in a day” and that the joy is in the journey, not in the destination. I even like that it is a river stone, because the river also symbolizes the journey for me. As I stay in the flow of that river of life, I will be carried along, exactly as I need to be, precisely where I need to go, at the absolutely perfect time. This stone with its word reminds me to relax and trust the journey, trust even when I can’t see what’s around the next bend, or what awaits me there. I trust all is unfolding exactly as it should, and I am free to enjoy the journey.
Kili’s runestone had this Dwarvish phrase engraved on it: Return to Me. It was to remind him of a promise he made to his mother, to return to her, no matter where his journey took him. In a way, my runestone reminds me of a similar promise, in answer to a call to return home, to my Source. As surely as Kili heard his mother’s voice encouraging him toward home, I hear the voice of God, calling to me, onward down the river, further on the journey, deeper into my own heart and soul and then outward, in ever expansive ways into the world. Ultimately, I will arrive home. Journey….and Return to Me.
Kili’s runestone “Return to Me”