A few days ago, I had the good fortune to meet up with an old friend who happened to be in town enroute to another destination.  Next month, I learned, she is traveling to Spain to "continue" her camino to Santiago de Compostela.  It is one of the oldest pilgrimages in Europe.  "I am a pilgrim," she told me.
     "What do you hope to find," I asked her.  "What do you hope to hear?"
     "Some words from the Spirit around us," she replied.  "But I have to listen."
     Such words are well put.  We will not hear God (or, as she put it, the "Spirit") unless we listen, unless we set aside ourselves, our activities, our ambitions and plans, really, everything we are to hear him.  God is indeed everywhere, but we will not hear him unless everywhere we are we make room for him.  The first step in hearing is to listen.
     I know that my friend will find much in her pilgrimage, but I also am convinced that every one of us, whether we travel far or near, will find God in equally formative ways.  God speaks to us where we are at, and he speaks to us in ways uniquely shaped to us and our individual sensibilities.  After all, God wants us to hear him.  Why would he be silent? Why would he not want to communicate with us?  History overflows with pictures of God interacting with his human creation, even recording that at one point he went so far as to become a human (while remaining God) himself.
     So we open our hearts, empty our minds, and we listen.  We listen to what we cannot hear unless we are really hearing.  We listen for what is there, if only we really look.
     So well does God know the human heart.  Enjoy your journey.