As was usually the case for me on this (and every) pilgrimage, I woke very early from a good night’s slumber and began the new day in solitudinous peace – admiring the art on the hostels’ living room walls (slow & steady indeed wins The Race because slow & steady no longer cares about “winning”) […]
I frequently started each day’s walk in the pre-dawn darkness, and I always enJOYed the Peace of doing so whenever I was so blessed. “So it is said, for him who more fully understands heavenly joy, that life is the working of Heaven and that death is the transformation of things. In stillness, he and […]
It was smooth walking once more this morning – easily to & through the tiny still-sleepy village of Abierta, and then onward to far-less-sprawling-than-last-time “Art-Stop” that I still remembered well from my 2008 Camino … “Art is the illusion that enables us to see the Truth. It washes away from the Soul of things the […]
“Each day is born with a sunrise and each day ends in a sunset, the same way we open our eyes to see the light, and close them to hear the dark. None of us control how our stories begin or end, and yet by now we all should know that all things have an […]
“In me was shaping an open embrace for a higher kind of consciousness, a manner of being that the man-made world about me had said could never be, must never be – a bold shift of self upon which the penalty of death had been placed. Somewhere in the newborn light of a northern morn […]
After another while of walking, I came to an odd, middle-of-nowhere donativo stand on the side of The Way; a stand run by Luca – who heard a bit about my Walk and kindly offered me an instant coffee; Luca – who recognized in both my accent and my intended destination an originally American heritage; […]
I still do not exactly know what it is about this particular overlook that strikes me as being so beautiful – indelibly imprinting itself upon my memory back in 2008, and re-imprinting itself upon my Soul on this day as well. Was it the ancientness of its monument littered with the stone-offerings of hundreds of […]
We do well indeed to pause and gratefully appreciate the wonders that grace each new bend in the Path. Of course, we do far better to carry those wonders with us and offer them to others along that same Way … “The fact that you woke up this morning is proof that you have been […]
I then walked into Astorga proper, where Felicia from Italy has heard about me & my Walk from the pilgrim-grapevine and boldly approaches me and gives me a hugely ebullient hug. Fellow pilgrim Paul from Austria then blows by – walking at a truly incredible pace – while promising to spread the Walk’s word even […]
“Oh, what vile violence we inflict upon the innocent! So much so that the decent are left to wonder: What could a cow (or a chicken or a pig or a turkey) have ever done to warrant the wrath of God Himself?” ~ inspired by Gary Yourofsky P.S. If you bow down to any celestial […]
As was so often the case, my first stop in town was the first church I encountered, and as was just as often the case, I paused therein to intently utter my standard two prayers – one of gratitude for how far I’d come on my Walk for Peace, and the other of resolve vowing […]
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