I left Salem lovingly behind and flowed onward into the day – into and through the town of Fort Lewis and then on into the hot and droning day. I really wasn’t feeling too motivated during this particular phase of my walking – certainly not by all the folks online who were collectively & quite resoundingly ignoring my Journey* (How could this be the case?!?) and not even by the vast majority of “still sleeping saints” I was encountering along The Way. It was around this time that I saw a gas station/convenience store by the side of the road and pulled in to get some water and sit awhile. The water was reluctantly given by the Whichwich employee on hand (???) and every single customer who entered thereafter never even made one second of eye contact with me. It really was like I wasn’t even walking this pilgrimage at all, and a deep sense of sadness overwhelmed me at this point in the day. And yet the last thing a pilgrim should ever do when feeling down & out about the state of humanity and the world was to sit and soak in the same, so up I eventually rose and headed back out onto The Road. After all, even though my efforts may not be attended to at all by this current generation, The Walk will inevitably serve as a megaphone for generations future – generations who will be forced to choose between adopting The Way of Selfless Love I am beaming them, or die & fade away instead …

*I had reasonably imagined when I originally set out from Stuttgart that interest in my Walk would steadily grow as I proceeded along; that the objective amazingness of the endeavor would inevitably inspire support and attract interest. And I had (quite naively, in retrospect) often fantasized during the initial months of my Journey about the throngs of folks who would greet me upon my arrival in Chattanooga – how they would all be so enthralled by my arrival and sincerely interested in the message of Radical Kindness I had to share – how we would all then come together and change Chattanooga for the better; and then SE Tennessee & NW Georgia; and then all of the American Southeast; and then all of the United States itself; and then eventually the rest of the world. It was a vegan-pie-in-the-sky vision, I knew from the beginning, and yet I was certain that at least some form of it would indeed somehow manifest – even if it were only a few dozen folks greeting me as I one day soon arrived. But no interest whatsoever?!? Literally none at all?!? That level of failure – a failure I was at this point beginning to fully realize and accept – was a little much for my ego to handle on this day.

“There is a time in life when you expect the world to be always full of new things & beautiful sights & loving people, and then comes the day when you realize that this is not how it mostly feel at all. You see then that the human experience of life is a thing made of holes – absences and rejections and pains and losses; things that were there and are no longer; people that have arrived and are now gone. And yet, if you are awake to the majesty that ever underlies it all, you will also come to realize that we humans have been called to grow around and between and through those same gaps of hope & being; that we have all been called not only to adore the better times, but to Love anyway in times less than good or perfect … We come to realize – and indeed fully accept & embrace – the truth that no matter how kind or brave or giving we ourselves choose to be, there will always be a gaggle of uncaring callousness nearby … And we will suffer from their rejections – we will suffer because we truly care. And yet without that caring – and its initially accompanying suffering, there’s can be no joy or happiness. So let us never discriminate against the mud. Instead, let us choose to embrace and cradle both our own suffering and the sufferings of the world, that our tenderness might wash over all the pain and loss, and allow peace to one day blossom forth once more.” ~ inspired by Helen Macdonald, Criss Jami & Thich Nhat Hanh

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