Day 108l: Living while surrounded by Death … (August 15, 2019)
I had chosen to walk alongside the Hudson on this day, a choice that on the one hand allowed me to attentively stride onward without worrying about losing my way, and yet on the other hand provided few opportunities for me to fluidly stop and interact with others. And so it was that I walked many miles before the latter came to bear, and oddly enough it came to bear in this place – the Trinity Church Cemetery & Mausoleum (just passed the township of Harlem, and about one mile south of the George Washington Bridge), where the office staff there gave me not only a cool glass of water but a kind offer of nonvegan candy (politely declined, of course) after hearing about my Walk …
“Let me put it thus: that from the height of the greatest mountain I saw, as it were, my religion. And by that I mean humility and kindness hand in hand. And far below them both were the fear of death, and the terrors of height and of distance, and the scowling glories of man-made gods, and the infinite temptations of material wealth & physical safety. And here & here alone, from this much higher vantage, springs the driving thirst of every Soul; our deeper aspirations for completion in the limited moments we have been given; our constant callings to be caring & kind.” ~ inspired by Hilaire Belloc
;