Day 070e: An inpouring of Agape … (June 23, 2019)
I sauntered onward through the warm day and eventually strolled into and then almost out of the tiny, houses-only village of Lasserrre du Haut, when I realized that I was running very low on water and that this particular landscape was very lightly populated. So I decided to stop in at the town’s final on-Path homestead to ask for a quick drink. I could tell right away (from both landscaping and architecture) that this home was an opulent one. What I didn’t realize is that it was also a private pension for more well-to-do travelers & pilgrims – a refuge named Gite Agape, run by Stephanie and her husband Philip (the former of whom somewhat skeptically greeted me at the door). Stephanie wasn’t quite sure to make of me or my Walk’s tale, and yet to her credit she invited me in for a coffee anyway. It turns out that several guests of a quite ritzy castle-wedding had rented the place for the past few days and were all eating breakfast in preparation for their departures back to their multi-national homes. Family members of the newlywed couple had come from Germany, Sweden, and South Africa for the affair and four of them were surprised indeed to see a mendicant pilgrim enter with a smile and sit down at their table. Stephanie was a most gracious host and offered me some bread & jam to go with my coffee, and quite the intimate conversation ensued. The Swedish couple didn’t quite know what to make of the whole encounter and as such remained somewhat aloof & distanced, and yet Caryl from South Africa (seen with Stephanie in the first image below) and to a degree Kirsten from Germany were both intrigued (mostly Kirsten) and even downright inspired (mostly Caryl) by my Walk and its underlying Purpose. We spoke at some length about The Way of Radical Kindness (both what it is and why it works), the futility of political affiliations, the mysterious Power that comes with selfless focus/intention, and the omnipresent ability we all have to see both Giving & Receiving as being both a giving & a receiving. This was one of those rare magical moments where Hearts became fully re-opened and Good was without doubt truly Done. Caryl & Kristen & I exchanged contact information (the Swedes having long-since left our uncomfortably intimate conversation) as they left to finish packing up, and Stephanie and I enjoyed a long chat together about The Way of Christ and how powerfully it translates into our everyday, seemingly-chance encounters. It is then time for me to depart as well, and I give Stephanie a huge & heartfelt hug as I head back out onto The Way, looking back upon Gite Agape briefly as I do, while light tears of gratitude welled up from within …
“No man is an island, entire of itself; for every man is a piece of the continent, a viable & important portion of the main. In this way if even a single clod of dirt be washed away by the sea, the world becomes the less, just as if a great promontory were to similarly disappear & dissolve. In like manner, any being’s death – even an animal’s or an enemy’s or a stranger’s – diminishes me as well, for I like you am profoundly interconnected with all the rest of our sentient kind. So it is that when another is victorious, we are to revel in his good fortune as if it were our own. And so it is that if we ever hear the bell tolling another’s demise, we are to know that it tolls for us as well.” ~ inspired by John Donne
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