I woke early this morning (as usual) and sat for quite awhile outside on the hostel’s front stoop – so grateful to be on this Great Journey, so grateful to have already come so far, so grateful to have done the (admittedly seemingly little) Good I have been able to do, so grateful to be […]
“When they are reverently walked, pilgrimage routes become liberated spaces that can be more fully occupied. The openness with which they are tread gives them a rich sense of fluid indetermination – a humble way of being that makes routes ever-flexible and every stranger a potential friend. When walked reverently, pilgrim paths embolden a semantic […]
“Purpose is the reason you’re on this great journey, and reverence is the torch that lights your way … So walk it well, then. Choose to see the Souls of others at the center of your life’s newest landscapes … Ever remember that you are the traveler; the holy pilgrim taking this journey; that you […]
It goes almost without saying (certainly for those of you who have been following along so far) that I ended up crossing the country of Spain at a fluidly rapid pace – so rapid, in fact, that I ended up arriving in Santiago many days ahead of most of those I had previously met along […]
“The only way to make sense out of life’s changes & challenges is to plunge into them, to move with them, to dance alongside them … The land exerts itself on all and ever has its effect. Whether we are roughed up or soothed, exhilarated or depressed, assisted or wholly prevailed upon, kindness is always […]
What then followed was a several-kilometer stretch of The Way that was regularly sprinkled with jubilant reunions with pilgrim-friends past – first James (whom I had amusingly called Sebastian in Granon and then Dave in Hontanas) and then Javi & Gines (who offered me a hunk of their precious fresh bread) and then an uber-exuberant […]
“Does the road make the traveler, or the traveler the road? Yes, to both, without question … It is amazing what we can discover when we have no idea where we’re going, and it is far more amazing still what we can unlock in others when we walk our Way with Love.” ~ via Marty […]
This little pathside chapel was locked up tight at the time, and yet nothing could limit or contain the Peace & Beauty it beamed from within … “All would do well to remember that authentic faith ALWAYS leads US to treat others with an unconditional earnestness and a loving reverence. Each human personality – both […]
I eventually made it back to the small city of Negreira, where my string of happy reunions continued; this time re-meeting Kim & Kathy, the special needs teachers from New Hampshire I had first met back in Viana) … “Pilgrim friend, do not follow me blindly. Instead, let us simply be fabulously where and who […]
I then thereafter made it back to the beautiful town of Ponte Maceira and was blessed once more to cross its Peace-instilling bridge … “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it; the river that was cut by the world’s great flood and that even today runs over rocks from the […]
I ambled onward and came to pause in the town of Trasmonte – to sit a bit and re-tape the soles of my shoes. Big-smiling Bernard (who I had first met when previously walking through Sahagun) then approached from the opposite vector and sat with me a while – offering me an ice-cold Coca-Cola and […]
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