On an unknown road

 Somewhere after Navarrenx, in the Basque country, nearing the Pyrenees

"I’d rather be stumbling along an unknown road

than safely cooped up in even the nicest cul-de-sac"

~Paul

on People for Others blog

I loved walking down this wet path, under the shelter of trees dripping with the rain. It was refreshing and enlivening. And flat and easy- which was not to be the case on the chemin later in the day!

"Thursday's child has far to go!"

 Distance to Santiago on sign on outskirts of Le-Puy-en-Velay

 "Only those who will risk going too far 

can possibly find out how far they can go."

-- T.S. Eliot

Incidentally, there was another sign 

not too many metres away from this one 

that gave another, even longer, distance estimate. 

It is probably as well I never noticed it at the time!!

And yes, I am a 'Thursday's child'
-prophetic that saying!

Peace on the road

On the road to Los Arcos

"I'm not sure where I'm going.

Can't you give me a sign?

What's that? Peace? Why, yes, Lord.

This road is full of peace. It hangs in the air.

It's everywhere. You mean that's it?

Peace is the sign I'm on the right road?"

~in "Psalms for the Road"

by Joy Cowley

a New Zealand writer

Actually, the afternoon of the day I walked to Los Arcos,

the road on which this beautiful photo was taken,

turned out to be a 'hard day'.

For no apparent reason I felt despondent

as if I was 'lost' on the winding road

that held no signs of any village or farmhouse,

as if I would never arrive to sanctuary that afternoon.

Maybe part of the reason was simply that I was dehydrated.

But when I arrived, I was 'nurtured'

by a wonderful group of Irishmen who shared dinner with me,

and a gentle massage therapist who worked wonders on my legs and ankles.

I felt despondent, and some simple kindnesses worked wonders.

Thanks to my angels.

"Patient Trust" - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ

St Martin sharing his cloak, Moissac cloister, France

"Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We would like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet, it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability -
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually - let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don't try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time,
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming in you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete."

"Patient Trust" - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ