Day 087a: Waking early, walking Free … (July 10, 2019)
Up and at ’em early once again this morning, and I paused for a moment to marvel at the highly artistic (and also highly informative) Route Map of the Camino that had been created and hung (I assume) by a pilgrim past. How far I have already walked, just in Spain alone – and how relatively close I am to the Santiago cathedral, the Camino’s traditional final landing (and the place where roughly 70% of my own Great Walk will have been successfully traversed)!
“Often we can get so caught up in our own struggles, our own smaller stories, that we forget our place in the larger tale – the indelible way that our actions, our choices, and even our words can and will blaze trails for those who come after us. And this trail blazing is not necessarily walking where there is no trail and leaving a fresh one behind. Trailblazing can also be walking an established route in a different manner (eg as a modern mendicant), or for a different (ie selfless) purpose, or to inspire the fresh rediscovery of an older Truth. Its is what we do when we find ourselves in the wilderness of trial or temptation, when we ourselves have no clear path to guide us except our own intuitive understanding of nature and our own desired destination. At times we must walk through the night, guided only by the stars – at other times we must trudge onward under the blazing Sun. We learn when to sit and rest, when to shelter from storms, when to gather water, and when to press onward. We are courageous and humble in equal measure, and yet are ever driven forward, not only by our ego’s desire to reach our destination, but also by our Soul’s yearning to serve; to leave a smoother way for others who will inevitably follow. Trail blazing is an art-form. It is how we find paths through what before was scary & unknown. We push aside branches or cut them back, we tramp down nettles and long grasses, we ford rivers and streams, walking stolidly & surely through inner and outer landscapes, leaving signposts along both as we flow along.” ~ inspired by Lucy Pearce
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