I invite you to handwrite on a small and LIGHTWEIGHT scrap of paper a word or hope/prayer/dream or name or any message you'd like to send on Camino, and mail (or hand) it to me.
I will take these with with me--in this little plastic baggie (boy would medieval pilgrims ever love ziplocks & plastic)--from the foothills of the Pyrenees to Finisterre, the end of the world, and there burn them at the seashore. We hope to arrive there shortly after summer solstice.
If you want to, give or send me your scraps of paper before I leave on May 8.
Those of you who don't have my address, can email and I'll send it to you.
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This reflects some pondering I've done about what a spiritual pilgrimage means to me this time round.
Some people approach the Camino as they might the Appalachian Trail, purely as a physical undertaking. But it's been a pilgrimage for hundreds of years, and that's important to me. But how?
My sense of what religion/gGod is all about has changed. Ten years ago, spiritual meant "metaphysical" to me--something wispy and ethereal, like the silvery strands in the pensieve in Harry Potter.
Now it is physical... embodied in the solid, living bodies of me and other people on Earth, connected in person or through shared Story, and--through memory--also to people who once were here.
Carrying people's words on foot, like a messenger, fits the way I feel now.
I like the idea of the spiritual migrating form the metaphysical to the physical.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd be much more likely to trust an angel with sturdy boots and a strong pack than one with wings and a halo.
Those halos don't seem very practical.
I wish you and Margaret a save trip. That's my only message. Happy Easter! :)
ReplyDeleteI love it. I'm working on what I want to write down.
ReplyDelete