Day 44d: Reveling in Reverence … (05/28/2019)
My hips were still quite stiff and sore this morning, so the going was quite slow. And yet I eventually made it to the town of Pommier de Beaurepaire, where I entered the local Catholic church to wait for the local library to open — honoring the church’s glorious acoustics by softly whistling a loving tribute to humanity in general, and — for the very first time of many times to come — honoring all the world’s Peace Pilgrims (both those who came before me, as well as all those who would inevitably follow) by writing a few Love-filled words in the church’s guest book* … 🙂
“So what is fear, when we are afraid of even fear itself? And to what place flees that same angst, when we choose to honor kindness instead?” ~ anonymous
P.S. I eventually was allowed entrance to the aforementioned library, where librarian Frederique was kind enough to allow me to use the town’s public computer to send the following missive:
“Greetings, my dear Friends!
Well, I have arrived in (and will very soon be flowing through) the little town of Pommier de Beaurepaire — about 100 miles to the NW of Le Puy en Velay. There is once again not sufficient time to do justice to any of the many dozens of AMAZING tales of selfless Kindness that have sustained me along The Way, and yet it suffices for now to say that the first postulation of the Trek has already been soundly proven — namely, that PEOPLE ARE in-deed GOOD (and that each & every one of us, indeed each & every one of you, can act likewise) … 🙂
As far as my walking is concerned, I have finally been able to enjoy a few days of almost pain-free walking (and this, after more than 40 days of often painful walking that far more resembled an odd mix of shuffling & limping) — an epiphany that reminded me to remind all of you of the second major Truth exhibited by this Journey; namely that our lives’ difficult moments (those where we are in pain or tired or busy or scared or sad or angry) are not times to pause and “take care of ourselves” but rather are the moments when our LOVE has its strongest potential — that these are not the times to “rest & recuperate” but rather are the times when we can LOVE most potently by Being Kind towards others BEFORE taking care of our own wounds or soothing our own worries. Indeed this Walk of mine (of ours, actually) has been intentionally constructed to be extremely uncomfortable for precisely this reason — to empower all my acts of Kindness performed for others during The Walk and thereby to inspire you all to honor your own times of difficulty in similar fashion. For it is only our difficult acts of LOVE that hold true potency, and as such it is only our difficult acts of LOVE that will transform our society & thereby save us from the coming Storm.
So — that is all for now, mes Amies … TAKE CARE — and remember to pass that Care along to others; especially in the times when you feel least able, and especially towards those ‘least deserving’ of the same.
S, out … PEACE for all, in”
P.P.S.”There is no way to Peace, for Peace is The Way.” is actually a quote more correctly attributed to Gandhi, and yet citing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (especially Matthew 5:39-48) as its source is accurate in its own right … 😉
*I wrote similar words in similar tomes quite frequently for the rest of my journey through France, at which point these communicative opportunities seemed to completely disappear — with their Spanish counterparts preferring to offer either books in which to write one’s personal prayers or no such books at all.
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