Natasha Serlin

My questions to myself.

what is a pilgrim?

What does being on a pilgrimage mean to me?

Why have I come on a pilgrimage?

What do I hope will come from this pilgrimage?

And

I'm going to start with, why have I come on a Mary Magdalene pilgrimage?

I think I have been through so much in the past three years, from my mother passing, my marriage ending, and the death of my beloved.

And that's been the most significant, I think.

I think finding that love and losing that love.

I think finding that love opened my heart again after my marriage ending.

And I think losing that love has opened my heart because that has felt like the only way to open and to soften and to be more raw and more present.

And the love hasn't gone.

The love is still with me.

And that's what's so incredible.

And that's why I was drawn to the Mary Magdalene pilgrimage.

In the morning at Le Comte in France, we anointed each other with nard oil, the same precious oil Mary Magdalene is said to have used to anoint Jesus before his death.

In Christian tradition, Mary Magdalene's anointing of Jesus is remembered as an act of extraordinary devotion.

Nard was precious, worth a year's salary, and her decision to pour it onto his feet from an alabaster jar was criticized by some of the other disciples as excessive.

But the gesture has endured as one of tenderness, intimacy and preparation for death, and is felt by many to epitomize her message of love, inner awakening and union.