Thereafter I returned again to Chicago where I re-commenced house-sitting in the Edgewater Beach Apartments (affectionately known by many as “The Pink Palace”) … “The most satisfying thing in life is to know that one has given a large part of oneself to others.” ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Late in that same year I returned again to the Big Island of Hawaii, this time to care for some Friends’ two beautiful dogs, Prince & Bay. I enjoyed a somewhat Franciscan existence during the following months, living in the lush jungled mountainsides of the southwestern corner of the Big Island; writing in solitude, communing […]
In the first few months of this next year – while still staying at my friends’ Hwaiian jungle home while caring for their two lovely hounds – my brother came to live with me on that land; helping me to clear the property’s long-untended gardens and sharing many a joyous moment of revelry. One afternoon […]
And then it was that I headed back to Boise (Idaho) once more, this time to not only visit my dear Friend Emily Williams, but also to help as a volunteer for that year’s Ride Idaho bicycle tour – a tour that Emily efficiently organized and quite magnificently managed … “I don’t know what your […]
And this was one of the more magical stops along that year’s Ride Idaho route — Hooper Springs: a naturally carbonated healing spring located near the town of Soda Springs, Idaho … “Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be […]
It is often worth remembering that the most potent acts of Kindness (like repeatedly loading & unloading others’ luggage on hot & muggy days) are sometimes the ones most difficult to perform. More importantly still is to remember to do them anyway … “To Care for others without need or expectation of restitution is to […]
And then later this same year I began to walk the 555-mile pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago; 40 days of walking from St. Jean Pied du Port (in the French Pyrenees) all the way to Finisterre on Spain’s northwestern coast. This particular image was taken during that journey, and indeed accurately;y reflects how walking […]
The antenna pictured here was one of the many small gifts I received during my walk; this one given to me by a homeless man I met along the Camino. I tucked it into my backpack after receiving it, and liked to think it helped remind me to frequently pause along my route and reconnect […]
Here is one of the more “sacred” spaces I visited on my 2008 Camino: the energetically “loaded” off-the-beaten-path church at Eunate … “For so, surely you will cast a light of gladness upon his onward journey, and contribute your part towards the building of that kingdom of love which links our earth to heaven.” ~ […]
For all my fellow pilgrims: Ultreia & Suseia – walking to the horizon, and then to Heaven beyond … “Among all the most typical phrases that we can find within the Jacobean pilgrimage routes, the expression Ultreia et Suseia is one of the oldest (and possibly the most popular) of all. Indeed, this greeting has […]
This is the St. Francis refugio located in the small town of Tosantos. I ended up soaking in the Power of the Camino here for three days – helping hostel manager Jose Luis’ as a temporary replacement hospitalero (one of the refuge’s primary volunteers had come down with the flu just the day before I […]
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