Day 14e: Wrongly flowing the Right Way … (04/28/2019)
I finished up my writing in the church as the rains stopped falling and the sun returned, and I decided to stroll through town to give Mullheim one more chance to “win the lottery” by taking in this wayfaring pilgrim and giving a brief respite to his aching legs. So I wandered around a bit, checking in at all the nearby churches and inns in sight, and soon realized that this village would not be the end destination for this day’s walking.
No matter, of course (after all, I was in this to serve, not to be served — to provide “shelter” for the coming societal storm, not to receive any shelter for myself while doing so), and so I chose to walk onward to see how far I could get before the day faded to night.
Interestingly enough, this is where I inadvertently started heading towards Switzerland — a lovely land through which I had not at all intended to tread, and yet a land through which I did indeed stroll. You see, there are two primary Camino tributaries that flow from Mullheim towards Santiago — one of which heading westward into France, and the other leading southward over the Swiss border into and through the city of Basel. More than a few folks had already warned me about non-EU Switzerland by that point — reminding me that I was carrying no passport and that the Swiss border patrol would be less than kind to me as a result. And yet, oddly enough — as was so often the case on this Great Journey, the Camino had other plans in mind. For it turned out that there was a huge construction site at the very intersection in Mullheim where the two aforementioned paths diverged — a construction site that had removed all the Way-markers heading towards France and left only those leading towards Switzerland, and thus a construction site that unknowingly led me southwards towards Switzerland as a result … 🙂
“To return to Source, we must often have the courage to travel in its opposite direction. As such, seek not to meekly follow in the footsteps of the masters of old. Boldly walk your own pathways instead while seeking what they sought.” ~ inspired by Rene Daumal & Basho
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