And here, in the early moments of only my second day of walking in the West, I was shown without doubt or question that the American version of The Path would not be nearly as smooth* … *In truth, the “shoulder” pictured below was actually one of the more pilgrim-friendly trails I would be offered […]
I then ambled onward, over a long and traffic-laden bridge over the Hackensack River into the town of Kearney, and then onward again across a bridge just as bustling – over the Passaic River and into the city of Newark proper … “Each time a person passes by you and you say ‘Hello’ – even […]
I was deep into the early outskirts of Newark when I saw and then entered the Blue Print Cafe, where Deja joyfully and respectfully offered me a cool glass of water, a bevy of vegan doughnut samples, and a heavy dose of kindness (all to the background music of Erykah Badu) … “Some folks say […]
“Nature’s first green is gold, the hardest hue to hold. Her earliest leaf’s a flower; and yet only so for an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf, as Eden sank in grief. And so dawn goes down to day, for nothing gold can stay.” ~ via Robert Frost
It had already been a difficult day, without question – what with all the fatigue and the heat and the cars racing past my aching feet and the noise and the dirt and the scowling sadness of fellow brothers & sisters seemingly inundated by the meaningless drone of lives not yet well-lived. And so it […]
I ambled onward thereafter, wondering over Newark’s disconcerting lack of public benches as I did so. And yet the lack of places for residents to simply sit & be was actually the least dismissive thing about those first few miles of this city. For here I encountered a level of abject poverty & palpable despair […]
I make it past the town of Elizabeth, where I am coldly rejected by both a local Dunkin Donuts & Papa John’s Pizza joint – neither of which could muster the decency to even offer a pilgrim a glass of water. And yet though I was deeply saddened by this inexcusable display of cold-heartedness, my […]
I thereafter made it to the outskirts of the town of Linden, where I walked quite easily up to the truly beautiful St. Elizabeth’s Church – a deeply peaceful place where I at first thought I might spend the night. And yet everything was closed up tight by the time I arrived and no one […]
And so it was that walked on into the gathering loom, and then deeper into the darkening night; eventually making it to the 2nd Baptist Church in the town of Rahway, where I limped up to its open front stoop and lay my weary body down for the night … “I have been finding treasures […]
It was another 5am wake up call from life on this day and I rose surprisingly smoothly from the church’s front stoop to begin the day’s walking. Passing by the East Jersey State Prison was a bit disconcerting, and I paused to send thoughts of gentle compassion to the hundreds of inmates there – both […]
Highway 1’s initially wide and smooth shoulder soon morphed into what would pass for my walk’s most common American trail – limp-provoking, litter-strewn, and super-thin rivulets of grass and dirt right next to a surprisingly busy roadway. At times I was given a brief reprieve of a somewhat wide pathway a bit farther from the […]
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