Day 31i: A far sweeter Fruit … (05/15/2019)
I rolled into the small Swiss city of Rolle fully amazed over how the energy of The Way* continues to carry me so far each day on legs so injured and gimpy. I was pretty worn out by this time nonetheless, and headed straight for the local Catholic church … After resti8ng inside the same for a time, I went next door to sit on the stoop of the church parsonage and wait for the resident pastor to return — in the hopes that he might have an idea or two as to where I might spend the night in Rolle.
While I was doing so, a kind woman approached with her child. She was returning from a small grocery run and, after first seeing me sitting there with my smiling face gratefully angled towards the now-setting sun — and then asking & hearing about the purpose and nature of my Walk, immediately offered me an entire container of nectarines.
Her name — much like her gentle deed — was Grace … 🙂
“Helping a fellow human is the equivalent of walking a hundred pilgrimages.” ~ Abhijit Naskar
*This statement is NOT offered to imply that some mystical external source was somehow literally “feeding” my body with enough energy to complete each day’s walk. Rather, what I am implying here is another dynamic entirely — one that might seem equally “mystical”, and yet one that has been over & over & over again proven to be quite Real over the course of the past 15+ years of my life; and that dynamic is this one: those who choose to purposefully confront & set aside their self-focused fears &/or selfish desires in favor of reaching out to actively care for another(s) are always met with heretofore unexplained (and indeed massive) waves of energy. Does this boost come from our regional surroundings — a sort of gleeful emanation from an environment joyously responding to one who has chosen to make his or her Mission to enhanced harmony of the same? Maybe — maybe not … Or does the same injection of focused viability come from within; does it perhaps come from the simple fact that a great portion of our available energies are expended in dealing (mostly subconsciously) with fears and concerns and worries, and that all of that energy can then be used for other purposes when said self-centered foci are released in favor of courageously kind deeds? Probably … 😉
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