“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 […]
It was pretty clear to Julio that I wasn’t doing so well physically (more due to my handful of leg & hip injuries than my equally noticeable fatigue), so he graciously chose to send his friends ahead and slowly walk with me the rest of the way into Najera proper – where he then guided […]
After dinner I chose to sit outside and soak up a level of profound calm and soul-full gratitude that I had not known in many a moon – well, in at least the past few days … 😉 “In this beautiful life I wish to keep walking gently. I want to treat all of life […]
As usual, I was once again offered a soft bed upon which to lay my head. And as usual*, I chose instead to find a more humble & solitudinous place to rest the same … *Far more often I chose to do so to keep from inflicting my fellow pilgrims with my occasional bouts of […]
Rising super early and setting forth into the thick calm of the pre-dawn morning was always a special Joy along The Way – this particular morning was no exception … “And with this steady passage of days walking through this godly isolation wilderness, my heart grew calm just as steadily. It seemed to slowly fill […]
Whether walking a pilgrimage or living through the everyday, carrying symbolic trinkets & baubles can prove to be powerfully Meaning-full – for one, allowing the traveler to always have a gift on hand that is ready to be given to another who might be in need of such a kindness, and for another, to allow […]
“Until every soul is freely permitted – and indeed encouraged – to investigate every book and every creed and every dogma on its own merits (or lack thereof), the world cannot be truly free. In truth, humankind will remain enslaved until there is mental grandeur enough to allow each man & women to have his […]
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