After my short hermitage-chapel stopover I had continued on my way out of town, and at the very outskirts of the same I had encountered Marie (From Quebec – pictured herein) sitting on a wayside bench. I think she could tell that I was ready for a break as well (it was extremely hot out that afternoon, after all) and had invited me to sit with her and rest for a bit. What followed was an amicable interchange about our lives and our walks and our longings, and even though she was openly skeptical about the logistics of my Journey (ie that I was actually doing so “on faith”, without ever carrying or using any money whatsoever – a concept the viability of which more than a few of my fellow pilgrims never did choose to grasp or accept), she had quite kindly offered me half of her lunchtime sustenance (a loaf of bread and a nectarine) regardless. She had thereafter returned to The Way ahead of me, and yet it didn’t take long for me to catch up top her again, and once more to offer my heartfelt thanks for her generous act of caring, and once more to wish her well along her own journey …

“If you ever wish to fully uplift a person, all you have to do is refuse to mold them into your vision of what you wish they were. Indeed, if you ever want to fully liberate another, all you have to do is encourage them to be the fullest version of the person they were created to be. The eyes that see who the other should be cannot ever see God within them, while the latter can see nothing less.” ~ via Craig D. Lounsbrough

Filed under: Peace Pilgrimage #02: Walking HOME (2019) by Scaughdt