Day 133c: Receiving a grimmer Grace … (September 09, 2019)
I flowed ever onward that mid-morning, and as usual had much time for thought & reflection. And on this day the Question came to me: What has been the most difficult thing about this Walk? Was it the objective strenuousness of the walking itself? Or was it the fact that every single day the procurement of even the most meager portions of food was always uncertain? Or maybe it was being so often thirsty or almost never getting one good night’s sleep in a row? And as I pondered all these more than viable possible answers, the actual truth steadily revealed itself; the truth that – more than exhaustion or pain or hunger or thirst or even sleep-deprivation – the thing that by far upset me the most about this Walk was the abject lack of support or even recognition it had received from friends and folks “back home.” I had known going in that the majority of the people directly encountered would be more than a bit put off by a tall, gangly, unkempt, and sometimes smelly stranger walking down the roadways, but there was no reasonable way I could have ever foreseen being so dramatically ignored (indeed, fully abandoned) by so many who had beforehand called me Friend … And then I simply smiled and shrugged off the same, in much the same way I smiled and shrugged off the similar challenges of pain and hunger and fatigue that invaded so many of this Walk’s waking moments, and simply proceeded along my Way …
And then shortly thereafter I hobbled into the near outskirts of Troutville, where a grim-faced Eula came just as slowly out of her roadside home to offer me one of the goody-bags that she prepared for any & all Appalachian Trail through-hikers who happened to be passing by. I informed her that I was actually not a member of that particular group of wanderers, and ye she offered me her purposeful gift anyway, and with effusive gratitude (so much gratitude, indeed, that I even got dour Eula to crack a small smile) I accepted the same and continued onward …
“To stay the course, to stay intentional, to stay curious, to stay connected, to stay kind – that’s the heart of it all. And yet it’s so easy to lose track of the trail – to get tired, to want to give up, or even to want a new & different adventure. It can be so easy to bail on what we are currently doing – to lose sight of the Goodness and the Mystery and the Grace within each & every person already sitting right there in front of you. Choose to remember the same today.” ~ via Joy Williams
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