I flowed ever onward thereafter into the now hot & dusty day – first through Glenolden, then Norwood, and then Ridley Park – until I finally reached the township of Chester. I was feeling parched and quite tired by this point in the journey, and went about looking for a place where I could get a drink of water and sit for a spell. There were several churches on hand in that area (including Chester Eastside Inc. & St. Paul’s Episcopal) and I went ahead and gave them all the initial chance at assisting yours truly on his peaceful Way. And yet as was sadly par for this course, they turned me away, each and every one, without offering so much as a sip of sustenance of an ounce of shade. And yet in equally joyful measure, I soon afterwards experienced the other, far more caring side of humanity – this in the form of Ashley & Pat, a lovely Muslim couple who operated Aslyah’s food truck and who without pause or hesitation after hearing about my Walk offered me a vegetable platter and an ice-cold bottle of homemade lemonade …

“If we are looking for insurance against want and oppression and fear and violence, we will find the same only in the assurance of our neighbors’ prosperity and goodwill and, beyond that, in the good health of all our world’s other homelands. True, we cannot extend this requisite kindness if we do so for any personal benefit at all, and yet it remains just as truthful that our only true security (and our only real success) must come from the viability and integrity of our communities – and not only the communities of our human neighbors, but also the greater communities of our planet as a whole and all the animals who live therein; indeed all the creatures with whom our local lives are shared … In essence we must remember that our world is overflowing with beautiful beings & beautiful places. Let your heart be one of them.” ~ inspired by Wendell Berry & Jenim Dibie

Filed under: Peace Pilgrimage #02: Walking HOME (2019) by Scaughdt