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The Light Tour Final God Rounds – The Last 24 Hours – Mt of Olives and Dead Sea

The last 24 hours. I take a walk into the old city as the sun is setting. J-R’s birthday/Rosh Hashanah/New Year was a new moon and there’s now a sliver of a crescent in the sky above the old city walls. After a month I’ve started to get used to this ancient meeting place of east and west, north and south, Muslim/Jew-Christian, and just about every side of every polarity that you can think of. It’s not just a confluence or a melting pot. It’s the center point of a cross, pulled in all directions simultaneously, held in balance by tension, vibrating with potential energy, and at peace only because the opposing forces balance each other out.

Walking around the winding streets as the sky goes dark and the Newish Jew Year ends, I feel the intensity of this place, the layers of rock covered with layers of dirt, covered with layers of civilizations, covered with layers of wars…and it actually doesn’t bother me too much. Everything is hard here, made of the same tan-colored stone, and for most of the month I’ve been nostalgic for our recent September trips to the south of England, where it’s soft, moist, and green.

This trip has been more intense and also more rewarding, because the unrelenting energy that’s in the air here has vibrated all the energies and disturbances inside of me. Our hotel has been a zoo during the Rosh Hashanah holiday and Sabbath, the ballroom area converted into a synagogue (interestingly the same place where we had our 3-day sharing), the lobby into a sea of tables for huge meals, the elevators into playgrounds for children, and the hallways into terminals for crowds of people doing their New Year’s prayers or hanging out with their families. And all of it is done with a focused intensity that reflects the energy of the rest of the city.

Just after sunset they all suddenly leave at the same time, piled up at the exits with their luggage, and our softly-lit, spacious lobby is returned to us. Tomorrow I’ll be relaxing in southern California, hoping that we never have to come back to this hard place; that I don’t need another round of conflict to find peace; and that I can experience Jesus on a Malibu beach instead of in a cave in the desert in occupied territory.

But I know that if we return I’ll choose to come back in a second, and I’ll enjoy every minute of it, because being with J-R is like being in the army of a general who has already won the war. The fighting is over, the enemy has no access to him, and the closer I stay the more I’m in a grace-field where the enemy has no access to me as well. Inside me there’s a peace that encompasses any minor conflict that happens to arise.

But as the trip winds down I’m being prepared to return to enemy territory. My inner guidance system has been honed by the journey, and I’ve been given all kinds of inner gifts to bring back to the “real” world. I’ve always found that the last day of any MSIA training is a test, to see what I’ve learned, and how well I’ll be able to function behind enemy lines.

Some of us return with John Morton to the Mount of Olives and the Jesus sites, where we began our tour in the distant past. We also discover some new sites that we never visited on PAT IV–the Chapel of the Ascension and the Church of the Pater Noster, based on a 4th century church built by Constantine, supposed site of Jesus’ first utterance of the Lord’s Prayer, with walls covered with translations of the prayer into all the world’s languages.

At the top of the Mount we run into a Japanese couple on their honeymoon who just had their pockets picked and lost all their money. We all huddle around them to find out what they need, one of our group gives them a large wad of cash, and it takes a while for the woman to understand that it’s a gift. She has tears of gratitude streaming down her face when we leave.

There’s a calmness and ease traveling with John, and as the General’s fellow Traveler and trained commander, he’s mostly quiet, a keeper of the peace. While some of our group go on a side trip to an obscure part of the Gethsemane area, he sits in a small juice bar, recounting in his soft way some of the story of Jesus’ life as we take a break from the hot sun.

When we return to the hotel, he and a few others want to go to the Waldorf Astoria next door to eat, and I decide to stay at our hotel and rest. I find out later that the usual series of choreographed coincidences prevented them from eating there, and they ended up at the Notre Dame Center (where we had J-R’s birthday dinner) and ran into a Mexican priest who led them to a little-known museum that has exhibits on the Shroud of Turin and what it implies for our understanding of the crucifixion. I declared the end too early and I missed the whole thing…a failed test for me on this last day. I’d gotten so acclimated to Jsu’s excesses and wildness that John’s quiet made me think there would be nothing going on. Oh well, there will be lots more chances, and the purpose of a test is learning, so in failing I passed.

Speaking of Jsu, we’re leaving at the absurd hour of 5 am now for one last dip in the Dead Sea before breakfast on our last day, some spontaneous R&R after our long campaign–just when I thought it was all over. I don’t know why I keep fantasizing the end of the Light Tour or limiting it to a location. Life and Light keep going on. Only wars have endings and death is just a checkpoint at the border.

In the last shots we’re floating in the Dead Sea at sunrise. We call in the light in the water, holding hands in a bobbing circle. We’re the only ones around, just breathing and floating effortlessly in the silence, in the warm water, in the light. Thanks. It almost feels like we’re being thanked as well, or that the separation between who’s thanking and who’s being thanked is dissolving in the glowing water, as the sun rises in both the sky and the water’s reflection so that the light and warmth seem to be radiating from all directions.

So many other things happened on this trip that books couldn’t contain them. But it’s time for leaving, my favorite thing to do, the high priest that presides over the marriage of endings and beginnings. See you around.

11 thoughts on “The Light Tour Final God Rounds – The Last 24 Hours – Mt of Olives and Dead Sea”

  1. The blessings shared and received seem to flow from your words to my heart. God bless the light and Traveler that uses you and us all in this work of Spirit. Welcome home, again adn again and again.

  2. David, keep writing! Have enjoyed it so much! And this, my favorite line: “being with J-R is like being in the army of a general who has already won the war.” Thank you so much for communicating and sharing the precious essence of things experienced on the trip.

  3. Wow!!!!! Sooo beautiful – both the awesome write-up and the glorious pics 🙂 Bless You David for so freely giving to us all 🙂 Much Loving Light – and Wow, those last few pics of the sunrise swim are truly magnificent 🙂 Such a Joy to Behold!! Peace To All

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