Walking through any wetness is rarely a pleasant experience, and yet if one’s footwear is at least acceptable and one’s path is softly carpeted, even the soggiest of segues can be sauntered with joy … “And these are the questions that hound me: How shall I survive the specter of tomorrow, what is my life […]
How odd to be so thrilled with the tape-job I had given my shoes the day before, only to have today’s mucky paths and steady rains literally wash the same right off my feet after only a few hours of walking … “Nothing can last, not even the Earth itself. The Buddha said that suffering […]
Indeed, it hadn’t taken long for me to encounter Michael (pictured) on the Trail, and – after giving him the shoes he had forgotten at Le Par Chemin that morning – we proceeded to walk a ways together through the day’s light-to-mid-strong rains … “When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that […]
Even though the Way is muddy and the skies are wet and my shoes are on the verge of coming undone, Michael and I make it easily into the town of Bardigues and its ornately colorful church dedicated to Saint Anthony (maybe Saint Anthony of Egypt – the very first Christian hermit, but more probably […]
I have always had an affinity for Saint Anthony of Egypt – the very first Christian hermit, and yet Saint Anthony of Padua (probably the Saint Anthony pictured here) now hearkens to me as well. Maybe it is his association with healing the ill & injured, or maybe it is that he is considered the […]
On we both flow, Michael and I, letting our light conversation make light work of the relatively heavy walking conditions (with lots of recent rain making for lots & lots of muck & mud) – all the way into the tiny-yet-lovely town of Flamarens, where we come across Dominique manning a concession stand across the […]
Today actually turned out to be one of the more unpleasant physical walking experiences of the entire pilgrimage. Not only was the Path extremely thin (about the width of one of my shoes) for many miles, but it was also caked with hyper-slippery and uber-gooey mud. To make matters even more challenging, the grass on […]
Flow into the town of Miradoux and enjoy a brief-yet-satisfying respite in the cool-yet-glowingly-majestical confines of the local church … I’m not at all sure about the benefits for humanity that many claim from their own personal religions (be they adopted or inherited) – and I am often somewhat convinced that we would all be […]
“All the various types of teachings and spiritual paths are related to the different capacities of understanding that all individuals uniquely possess. There does not exist, from any objective point of view, any teaching which is more perfect or more effective than any other. Indeed, any teaching’s value lies solely in the inner awakening which […]
I head back out onto The Way and am immediately blessed with a series of much easier pathways – first a forest road smooth and dry and undulating, then the roadway itself (as a neighboring alternative to the same one-shoe-wide mud track over which I had struggled earlier, the same skinny slime-slog over which I […]
Even the walking was much easier at this point, I still rejoiced upon entering the town of Castet-Arrouy and its beautiful church (dedicated to Saint Blandine); sitting there in solace within sacred sunbeams, their light streaming warmly through colorful depictions of the selfless sacrifice of Jesus, the humble healings (and inter-species adorations*) of Saint Anthony, […]
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