I was with my dear friend Katherine Stiles at her new home in Cambridge for the two days after my son's wedding in early August. Although we keep in semi-regular contact, Katherine and I hadn't been physically together in three years and had a lot to share with the other about our respective inner and outer travels since we'd last seen one another.

Katherine was just home from her second trip this year to South Africa, where she leads pilgrimages of justice-seeking people to the ghettos of Soweto and brings them into relationship with the people who live there in such deprivation and despair. Many of the children are AIDS orphans with no one to love or care for them. As Katherine tells parts of the story, when she walks down the cluster of buildings in Kliptown, tiny children appear out of nowhere to take her hand and walk with her simply because there is no one else to walk with them. They are the children who walk in this world alone.

In our conversation of many layers and colors, Katherine told me of a quote she uses---she attributes it to Rumi---to help herself know when and where to pause or linger and give her attention. This would be the equivalent of the practice I call "receiving and following our next instructions."

Katherine's mantra is really very simple, and I share it here so you, readers, might consider it for use in your own life: "Pilgrim, pass by what you do not love."

Pass by what you do not love. Stop at that which evokes love in your heart. Others will love what we do not. Others may not love what we do. In each situation, it is the presence of love that matters and marks the importance of where we pause and linger and where we give our attention (or do not).

Gracious appreciation to the mystic Rumi, who continues to guide us many centuries after his life and death.