The standard image of a pilgrim is a walking figure. I enjoy the figure on the Mount of Forgiveness only a few miles outside Pamplona. The pilgrims are walking or riding. I thoroughly enjoy the lone pilgrim outside O Cebreiro who holds his hat as he strides into the Atlantic wind. Pilgrims moving! Yet pilgrims …
Category: 2024 September South West Coast Path England
260. Pilgrims’ Persisting while Visited by Serendipitous Joy
Tintsgel Methodist church Jenny and friends completed SWCP in eleven years! Mary has arrived in London! Yeah! So, my walking days have ended. As I mentioned in one of my earliest posts, I had a hunch that this walk would be different. It has been. As I try to put words to that difference, I’ll …
Continue reading 260. Pilgrims’ Persisting while Visited by Serendipitous Joy
259. Pilgrimage: “Guests in the World”
St. Columbanus was a Celtic saint and a peregrini. A pilgrim for the last 15 years of his life, he died in 615. Esther de Waal quotes him: “Therefore let this principle abide with us, that on the road we live as travelers, as pilgrims, as guests of the world…” What a wonderful expression, “guests …
258. Odds and Ends: Humor, Political Statements, and Art
Because I try to write and include relevant photos centered around a theme, I don’t include all sorts of interesting photos, at least photos that I find interesting. I know the English have a sense of humor; however, that humor makes rare public displays. There are occasions though. Sometimes the humor depends upon the observer …
Continue reading 258. Odds and Ends: Humor, Political Statements, and Art
257. Clouds
Early Light Porthleven Bude Rain coming Does anyone see me, I don’t care. I’ve got places to go, shapes to take, though I know not where. Like an actor in a play, I change. Sometimes in the first peeking light of morning, I let you see a bit of me, but only a bit. Sometimes …
256. The Wonder of Rocks and Stones
I feel them under my feet. I reach out to them next to me in order to steady my balance as I descend a slope. I see them above providing convenient handholds as I climb a steep incline. Slow-travel allows me literally to come into contact with primeval features of earth. As I slowly walk …
255. Apprehension and Expectation
I’m awake at 5AM. I’m apprehensive and expectant. I’m apprehensive because of the 100% chance of rain with wind gusts of 25 mph. In similar weather conditions, my 6 mile walk two days ago took 5 1/2 hours. I had to walk slower than normal with the driving rain, the obscure path, and the scrambling …
254. Adjusting to the Sea
Ilfracombe Interesting Fact: every part of Cornwall is never more than 17 miles from the sea. Porthleven As humans, we have always interacted with the sea. Here along the Cornish coastline, there are dozens of Neolithic sites. It is no accident that these very distant ancestors lived by the coast. Besides the fields and woods …
253. Keep the Water on the Right
“Keep the water on your right.” A wise reminder! That is the wisdom for those of us hiking the South West Coast Path from the north to the south. Growing up, I was not around water very often. My brother Chuck probably remembers better than me our boat ride on Lake Michigan or our family …
252. Stiles
I’m walking. I’m moving through some woodlands and approaching a grassy field. What do I expect, a stile. I don’t expect stiles in France. I don’t expect stiles in Italy. I expect stiles in England because these ingenious portals allow walkers to cross into fields where sheep, cattle, or horses feed, while assuring those animals …
Journeys: Explorations in Body, Mind, and Spirit 