Pilgrims' Home

Friends have asked if I have an itinerary. Many are offering to pray and join me in the walk. I welcome your solidarity. Please join me.

I am already discovering through preparation that the Camino is a physical and spiritual journey. I am also learning that these two aspects can reduce the Camino to a sport or to an individualistic tour and vacation. As I ponder my own reasons for going I have pondered if the Camino is at all an escape, meaning Nineveh was calling but the Camino seemed a better second destination. Because 500 miles of walking is better than obedience to God’s calling. I have wrestled with the "why" of the Camino. Just yesterday someone asked, "Now why would you walk 500 miles? My friend did the Camino in four days - isn’t that enough why does it take you 34 days?”  I laughed at his question, even more at his comment. Why does it take me 34 days to do what his friend did in 4? Can't I get the pilgrimage experience more quickly? Can't spiritual journey be more efficient? An emerging question over the past months One of the questions in my non-published writings continue...

"He did not regard equality with God as something to grasp, but he gave everything of himself away and took the form of a slave." Today is my last day in the office. I will be giving my office to a colleague for a few months while WTS completes the construction. I felt the need to make shelf space for my colleague before she arrives. I spent a few days boxing up personal belongings and a few shelves of books. With each book boxed and each note filed, I felt a growing release from the tasks in front of me and a calling to the work ahead, namely recollecting, walking, and writing.  Paul’s words concerning Jesus were an invitation to me, “Let the same mind be in you as in Christ Jesus…. He did not regard equality with God as something to grasp, but he gave himself away and took the form of a slave.” I desire this mind and this practice.  The angels are saying, "Let go and breathe. Do not grasp at the world you are walking away from. Release your hands, and rece...

The road in the end taking the path the sun had taken, into the western sea, and the moon rising behind you as you stood where ground turned to ocean: no way to your future now but the way your shadow could take, walking before you across water, going where shadows go, no way to make sense of a world that wouldn't let you pass except to call an end to the way you had come, to take out each frayed letter you had brought and light their illumined corners; and to read them as they drifted on the late western light; to empty your bags; to sort this and to leave that; to promise what you needed to promise all along, and to abandon the shoes that brought you here right at the water's edge, not because you had given up but because now, you would find a different way to tread, and because, through it all, part of you would still walk on, no matter how, over the waves. - David Whyte  ©2012 http://www.davidwhyte.com/pilgrim/

Almost daily someone asks me, “Aren’t you on sabbatical?” I channel positive energy and respond, “Not yet. Not until July 1st.”  They are asking a generous question. It’s summer, and sabbaticals start in the summer; people expect me to vacate. My internal response, however, is battling with two emotions - frustration and fear.  I am frustrated because I have not yet started sabbatical and have a load of administrative tasks to do. I am frustrated because I have enough sabbatical-itis (eerily similar to senior-iris) that I do not want to disconnect before necessary. I am fearful because I wonder, “Do people want me to leave, now? Are people ready for me to get out of the building and go do something else?" The ride of emotions amidst trying to complete my work and deal with me is too much. Both my anger and my fear are unwarranted, and most days I can take a deep breath and appreciate both my love for WTS and others’ positive intentions in asking.  But...

The time has come to begin heavier training; “to take the first step, the step I don’t want to take” to quote David Whyte. This past week I committed to walking almost 10 miles as a training walk. Those who complete the Way of Frances advise that training for a pilgrimage is a dance between “taking a long walk” and “going on an inner journey.” I have been traveling the space of inner journey lately, which has been notable in terms of communion with God, others, and me. Yet now, I also need to be attentive to the walking portion of the pilgrimage. I laced my shoes; filled my bottle; and loaded my pack. It was 87 degrees. I double-checked the map on my phone to measure and clarify the route. I thought I was 7-8.5 miles away from home - my planned destination. Just over 90 minutes later, I learned I was wrong, and 9.5 miles is significantly more than 8.5 miles. I began the walk with strength and excitement. I wondered what would fill the quiet space of step-after-step. Though...