I flowed onward through the mist thereafter – up and Up and UP the Path’s now steep and rocky way. I see a pilgrims’ cairn about half way up the mountain and pause to reverently offer one of the special “Way stones” I have been carrying with me for many previous miles … “The highest […]
I continued onward into the ever-thickening, path-surrounding fog, until I finally crested the top of the trail and arrived at the beuatiful Chapelle de Soyarce at its summit … “One of the greatest plagues that still besets humanity is our inability to believe in the totality of who we truly are and the utter vastness […]
I ended up pausing for a little bit at the top of the trail – enjoying the thick mystery and scintillating beauty of the thick mists dancing over the rocks and gently embracing the grass and lightly bedecking the chapel roof. And while I was reveling in this time of great Peace, I noticed a […]
My previous pilgrim friends smoothly departed into the mist, and I was once again alone on the summit. I walked over to the posted sign that on clearer days helped to identify all that could be seen from that mountainous apex, and I looked up and out to find only the fog. How interesting that […]
And down through the mists I walked, and then the fog cleared and the Way flattened, and I smiled as I flowed along like water … “Remind yourself regularly that you are not responsible for your circumstances or the seasons; that you did not create the winds and the storms and the setbacks. Just as […]
And then finally I rounded a bend and the town of Ostabat came into view … “Whatever your pace of travel and whatever your chosen path, know that you will indeed arrive if you but persist – and that your persistence will become fluid once you realize that every single step further taken is itself […]
My long-legged smoothness of gait and unhurried-yet-dogged pace had me arriving in Ostabat well ahead of most other pilgrims today, so I – as had so often been the case – headed first & foremost into the local church to gratefully revel in its calming confines … “At the start of the journey, part of […]
“We have no right or cause to bow down to the memory of another person simply because he was of great intellect or great eloquence or even great intention. Indeed, many preachers and soldiers and lawyers and politicians have used these same great gifts for most unholy causes. No, we must meet each day to […]
As I exited the church, the Peace of the place was still heavy and soft on my shoulders, and so I chose to pause there awhile longer, looking out upon the surrounding the world – a world that still held so much Beauty; a world to which I so longed to bring Peace… “We might […]
I walked back down into the two proper thereafter and my fellow pilgrim Friends were still mostly yet to arrive. Jean Marc had told me that he had reserved me a room in town for that evening, so I intuitively stopped in at Auberg Ametzanea to ask if he had done so at that particular […]
It is indeed possible that Ostabat’s close proximity to St. Jean Pied du Port – the final destination for most of the pilgrims who were walking this particular stretch of The Way – made everyone a bit more jovial on this day, and yet it was equally possible that the released rigors and transcended challenges […]
;
