Happiness within you

snow on the ground leaving Montbonnet

  

"Your success and happiness lies in you. 

Resolve to keep happy, 

and your joy and you 

shall form an invincible host against difficulties."

~ Helen Keller

Pilgrim's Prayer

on the Napoleon Route over the Pyrenees

 Lord show me the way
and give me strength to follow it

~Pilgrim's Prayer of St Birgitta (of Sweden, 1303-1373)

-given to me by Elisabet from Sweden
 before I started the Chemin from Cluny

Reaching out

crops waving in the wind between Montcuq and Lauzerte

"There are things you can't reach
but you can reach out to them
and all day long.
The wind,
the bird flying away.
The idea of God."

~ Mary Oliver

God on the journey

"The feeling remains that God is on the journey too."

~Teresa of Avila

The day I walked to Los Arcos the landscapes were simply stunning, all day

but for some unexplained reason (maybe I was a little dehydrated)

in the latter part of the walk everything seemed too hard

and I had this awful feeling of being lost

that I would never find a village

that I would wander aimlessly here for hours...

But when I reached the village, there was a group of Irishmen 

sitting outside a cafe who asked how I was

and for once I said the truth - that it was hard and I felt lost.

They were my angels- I sat and conversed with them

I had dinner with them and I was 'found' again.

They were all fervent Christians these Irishmen

and it seemed like God knew I needed looking after this day.

Love changes everything

Françoise and Roger on the plateau above Cahors on a very hot day

"Love,
Love changes everything:
Hands and faces,
Earth and sky,
Love,
Love changes everything:
How you live and
How you die"

~Andrew Lloyd Webber
(see the whole song YouTube)
 

This was a day when I had a lot of contact with Françoise and Roger, and they turned out to be guardian angels. I had met them the previous evening in the convent at Vaylats where we shared the evening meal together. After lunch this day, I ran out of water in the unexpected heat. Somehow or other it seems that we met a local who discovered we were low on water... he returned and gave my angels some water. They ran in the heat to catch up to me to share the water...cold fresh water.... Their kindness in giving me the water was every bit as restorative as the water itself. 

I never saw Françoise and Roger again after this act of kindness: I would love to know how they got on, and if they reached Santiago... 

How can you explain?

 On the plateau above Le-Puy-en-Velay - on the first day of walking

"How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, 

and the hills and the sky?  

Anyone knows they are.  

How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm, 

the rhythm of the day and the season 

instead of the hour and the minute?  

No, you cannot explain.  So you walk."

~Author unknown, from New York Times editorial, "The Walk," 25 October 1967

It was something very special, the frisson of joy that I knew as I walked into the countryside at the top of the climb out of Le Puy. All going well, I was embarking on something that would let me be a walker in the outdoors for weeks and weeks to come. 
I have just returned home from a Camino gathering in Hamilton: how good it was to be with a group of people who had also walked, and who understood, who didn't need an explanation about 'why' you would do such a thing...

For Kay and Craig

'climb' in the Auvergne region

on the first day out of Le-Puy-en-Velay

(This post is especially for Kay and Craig 

who are both about to start walking from Le-Puy-en-Velay in the coming week.)

"Watch your way then, as a cautious traveler

and don't be gazing at that mountain

or river in the distance

and saying, "How shall I ever get over them?"

but keep to the present little inch that is before you

and accomplish that

in the little moment that belongs to it.

The mountain and the river can only be passed

in the same way

and when you come to them

you will come to the light and strength

that belong to them."

~Kelty

Found on the sidebar of Mary Pott's blog 'Landing on my Feet'

in honour of her daughter who died of cancer aged 18  

Glorious Dawn

  the landscape just past Astorga, early one morning following a thunderstorm

“Let the splendour of your glory dawn in our hearts.”

~Liturgy of the Hours 

 Quote from Picturing God Blog

Landscape

 Landscape after Estella

"It is a pity indeed to travel and not get this essential sense of landscape values. 

You do not need a sixth sense for it. 

It is there if you just close your eyes and breathe softly through your nose; 

you will hear the whispered message, for all landscapes ask the same question in the same whisper. 

'I am watching you -- are you watching yourself in me?' 

Most travelers hurry too much...

the great thing is to try and travel with the eyes of the spirit wide open, 

and not too much factual information. 

To tune in, without reverence, idly -- 

but with real inward attention. 

It is to be had for the feeling...

you can extract the essence of a place once you know how. 

If you just get as still as a needle, you'll be there."

~Lawrence Durrell (Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel)

Early Morning

In the countryside after Astorga- walking early- 
with the remnants of a thunderstorm still in the air

"I'll tell you how the sun rose a ribbon at a time."

~Emily Dickinson 

On warmer days in France and Spain 

I always preferred to start walking in the morning cool.

To walk as the world awoke to a new day 

was always a time of real joy for me

deep quiet joy.

And this particular morning I walked with my Quebec friends.

It had been an unbearably hot night,

until in the early hours, a loud thunderstorm began. 

We were glad to escape early, 

though nervous lest the storm return while we were in the open.

We were all excited, after so many days of 'flat' walking

to be heading for the mountains again, 

towards Rabanal del Camino... Foncebadon..... Cruz de Ferro...

places of mysterious names, 

all in the higher land that we couldn't wait to climb.

green tree and blue sky

 

En route for La Romieu 

"I thank you God for this most amazing day,

for the leaping greenly spirits of the trees,

and for the blue dream of sky

and for everything which is natural,

which is infinite, which is yes."

~e.e. cummings 

H/T to George for quote

Hillary Quote

My Quebec friends eating lunch near the high point on the Route Napoleon over the Pyrenees.

 “It’s not the mountain we conquer, 

but ourselves.”

~Sir Edmund Hillary

We had looked at the altitude charts for weeks,

fearing the day we had to ascend the pass over the Pyrenees. 

In the event, we found it was 'not so hard'.

The weather was kind the day we crossed

not too hot or cold, and just a little cloudy near the top.

And we found that our weeks of walking in France had prepared our bodies well.

The crossing- which we split into two with a night in Orisson-

became an event of great joy!

 

Rainbow at Orisson

part way up the pass over the Pyrenees

a magnificent rainbow draped the evening skies

“What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination

will affect everything. 

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, 

what you will do with your evenings, 

how you spend your weekends, 

what you read, who you know, 

what breaks your heart, 

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. 

Fall in love, stay in love, 

and it will decide everything.”

~Pedro Arrupe S.J. 

 

The evening spent at Orisson, part-way up the Napoleon Route over the Pyrenees,
was one of the most precious times on the whole Chemin for me.
The view was magnificent, out across the 'layers' of hills and mountains.
Then a rainbow came, and was draped right across the sky and the mountains.
(This photo of just a portion of it gives merely a hint of the glory.)

These outdoor glories, the small ones and the large ones,
are treasures in my heart
and noticing them
has seeped within
as a reason for my being.

If God is the Song

French family walking amongst the fields and wildflowers above Bessuejouls

"If God is the song and we are the singers

We are filled with the fullness of God

If God is the song and we are the singers

When we sing we are one with God"

~ From "If God is the Song"

by Fr Chris Skinner SM on the CD "Serenity"

I carried a little 'packet' of songs and poems and readings

to inspire me along the way.

In the early days, one of my favourite songs was

"If God is the Song" by Chris Skinner,

truly a song of joy.

But- one day in my very first week-

I had the words for this song in the pocket of my shorts

to reach easily, so I could sing as I walked along

and- it rained- drenching rain.

In coping with the rain and cold,

I never thought about the pieces of paper in my shorts pocket.....

So the words for this song, became irretrievably soggy....

By the way, 'next time'

I intend to sing more freely

without checking first that nobody can hear me...

I will not be so timid!!!

Sing to the Mountains

"Sing to the mountains, sing to the sea.

Raise your voices, lift your hearts.

This is the day the Lord has made.

Let all the earth rejoice."

~Bob Dufford SJ

It was such a special day crossing the pass over the Pyrenees
from France into Spain.
We had looked at the steepness of the altitude charts for weeks beforehand
with trepidation in our hearts (!)
but in the event found we were well prepared after weeks of walking.

I took it slowly, and reveled in the views.
How fortunate to get such perfect walking weather
-not too hot, and mostly clear views- no rain in sight!
There was joy in my heart as I climbed.....