I ambled onward along The Way’s varied pathways until I finally reached the small town of Rouillac and the adorable church on its outskirts. Other than the exceptionally warm ambience, there wasn’t much remarkable about the sanctuary in general, and yet I was especially intrigued by yet another sighting of St. Anthony and his pig […]
That same morning I had received a t-shirt from Baptiste before I started walking, and yet I had also known from the start that I wouldn’t be keeping it long.* That prediction turned out to be true enough indeed when I chose to decorate the same and leave it outside the Rouillac church to be […]
Even though this day was one of very few direct interactions with others (I didn’t see many pilgrims on the road, and today’s path didn’t pass by many local residents either), it was – quite thankfully – a day that offered an unusually prevalent amount of “donativo” stands; tables set up beside The Way and […]
“Walking causes absorption of all that is greater. Now by walking I mean walking distant lengths; breathing in the height of the mountains when you see them in the near or far distance; breathing in the shape of the hills for hours at a time during every slow descent; breathing in the thick lushness of […]
The Way suddenly begins to climb quite steeply – up, Up, UP along a rocky, windy, heavily wooded path – a path that would have been more readily beautiful had it not been so darn exhausting … 😉 … And then, the summit of this particular ascent was reached, and the path peeled away from […]
“Nature’s particular gift to the walker, simply through the semi-mechanical act of walking, is the the walker’s mind is set into fluid motion; made garrulous and exalted, even a little mad – quite certainly hyper-creative and supra-sensitive. And the longer one walks, the more these gifts escalate in their intensity – until at last the […]
And then I came across this particular “donativo stand” – a stand that consisted solely of a cooler filled with various cold drinks placed by the side of the path; a stand that told all who passed to take whatever they needed and then “put whatever you want” into the elevated change box in return. […]
This particular day was exceedingly hot & uncomfortably – almost oppressively – arid (I personally don’t do very well when blasted by direct summer sunlight), and I found myself at one point stumble-weaving down the dusty path; wondering whether I would find a more traditional pace of rest that afternoon, or whether I should simply […]
Despite the soothing promise the city had offered from afar, the hike up & into Lauzerte was much longer and steeper and hotter than either imagined or desired. Nevertheless, the climb was made, and I entered the city proper and immediately headed into a familiar place of refuge – the local Catholic church (this one […]
This image was somehow so potently Meaning-full that it merited its own mention … 😉 “I lay down my life that I might rise up within. And no one takes my life from me forcefully, for I lay it down for others joyfully of my own accord. I – like you – have the power […]
It was still blazing hot when I left the church and many of the nearby businesses (including the local tourist office, another place where pilgrims could usually find some solace) were closed for lunch, so I wandered about town a bit, wondering whether or not I should just go ahead and head back out onto […]
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