I tended to deeply enjoy the Meaning-full roadside artwork (aka graffiti) that so often graced The Way, in this case first providing as reminder that there is both light & color within everything seemingly fully shadowed, and secondly that – as long as we persist in the courage to set forth boldly into each day […]
“And so it is that I grant you the ability to give, to embrace, to expedite, to flow, to love, to forgive, to charge forth, and to persist. All of life – every single instant of it – is beautiful for what it makes of us; for what it allows us to make for others, […]
Part of my mission in this phase of my pilgrimage was serving as Mate’s film assistant – at times cameraman, at times leading man, at times muse, and at times mere annoyance (“You are too famous” was regularly his way of telling me to step aside because he didn’t want me in a particular shot) […]
It had been a long, dry, hot, and arduous day already, and Mate had been slowing down more & more & more as we had steadily plodded along – stretching each successive water break to the point of becoming its own stopover and each successive encounter with others to the point of becoming a pilgrimage […]
After I made it back onto The Way it didn’t take long for me to pass by an open church – a welcome surprise indeed; welcome because of the blazing heat that had once again enveloped me fully, and a surprise because the day was seemingly stuck in the exact middle of the Spanish siesta. […]
I passed by a closed roadside chapel just on the far outskirts of town and Father Ignacio just happened to be there. It was still oppressively hot and I asked him if I might be let into the church to sit awhile in cooler reverie. He stated that he was about to leave and that […]
“For me, exploration & adventure are always fully communal ventures. I do not go to the desert to take pictures or collect plants or make a map or more deeply meditate; for such things are by nature self-absorbed and as such ever incidental. No, I go to the desert to find peace – peace in […]
I continued on steadily despite the sweltering heat and eventually made my way into the small village of Ventosa. There was a city festival going on at the time, and the loud revelry of the same seemed to distract the townsfolk from the opportunity for hospitality that my presence was affording. And yet even though […]
I removed my shoes while resting there in the garden of Ventosa’s church of San Saturnino and allowed my feet to revel in the grace that was the temporary replacement of the Camino’s oft-unforgiving path of dust and dirt and rocks and thorns with the garden’s lush carpet of cool soft grass. And while I […]
“Some have often asked whether The Way is before us or within us, and the answer is: Yes. For we are all driven both from within by our resident conscience (what some call the spirit, or even the Soul) and from outside – by the world of Oneness & Harmony that ever summons us to […]
It was some time thereafter that I stumbled somewhat exhausted into a tiny wayside pilgrims’ rest-stop on the extended outskirts of the city of Najera – a rest-stop where I found not only a fountain of fresh cool water, but also fellow pilgrim Julio, a doctor from Paraguay who introduced me to the delicious wonderment […]
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