If you are old enough, you may remember a young Steve Martin whose routine included the phrase, “Let’s get small!”  So odd was this that it naturally got laughs.  But for Pilgrim Life it is the very core and purpose. Get Small is the fifth and last quality of Pilgrim Life.  We started with “Get Out,” and went on to “Get Dirty,” “Get Lost,” and “Get Stupid.”  Those were things that need to happen in order to “Get Small.” By... Read more

Who does not know the snarky T-shirt that says “I’m with Stupid,” and its companion T-shirt, “I’m Stupid?”  Stupid is never a good thing. In Latin American cultures, its equivalent “estupido,” is a real insult.  Yet for the pilgrim, getting stupid is both inevitable and even desirable. This is the fourth of five guideposts to Pilgrim Life Like the first three, they begin with a story from my travels. There I was on a bus going the wrong way in... Read more

The third ‘rule‘ of pilgrim life is to Get Lost. Halloween of 2017 I was vis iting family in Albuquerque.  I decided to climb Sandia Peak. The trail was obvious, the sun bright. Halfway up I saw frost on the trail, which then turned to snow, and then ice on large rocks. Relieved to reach the top, I followed the sign to the cable car which would take me back down.  It was closed. Not a soul was in sight. Going... Read more

The Second Rule of Pilgrim Life is, “Get Down and Dirty.” Check out my previous post for the first rule.  Getting Dirty is a natural – inevitable – result of the first rule, if you do it right.  I could and will add “Get Wet,” because that happened on every journey. Drenching rain between Carlisle and Bowness on Solway, walking Hadrian’s Wall Pounding rain along the Camino Ingles to Santiago Heavy rain in the Nahal Dolev Nature Reserve on the way... Read more

After writing this blog for two years, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for me to move on, to ‘get outta here.’  Why? Well, you could say “the flesh is willing but the spirit is weak.”  If you have read any previous posts you may have detected that writing this blog has not been easy otherwise I would do it more often.  Patheos would prefer I post twice a week.  As it is, I am down... Read more

 You would be entirely within your rights to say, “What took you so long.”  I wasn’t on the trail, wasn’t ill, wasn’t occupied with something vital and urgent.  What gives?  I’ll try and tell you what took me so long.  But it took me a while to figure out. Maybe I Do Not Know That’s what I thought for a while.  But when I was honest, what I was thinking was, “Why bother?” My interest in writing this is... Read more

No, “Dallying with Demons” is not about the election.  OK, maybe it is, but in the way Norman Mailer’s “Why We Are in Viet Nam” is.  To remind you, I was in France last month, and near the end, I wrote in my diary: 19 October “To all who go on pilgrimage, Your demons will come along. Out in the world alone, you are exposed to the elements of yourself as well as the elements at large.  With the mind at... Read more

“Hi honey I’m home,” said many suburban husbands long ago.  But in my case, I am back in North America after three weeks in Europe, falling sleep at 830 and waking up at 3 AM because – jet lag. Yes, I was back on the path, resuming my gradual walk from Canterbury to Rome.  And somewhat like the famously bad joke about flying in from Las Vegas, “boy are my legs tired.” Did you Have Fun? People ask that question... Read more

Despite my many journeys, I am still prone to a disease I call ‘peregrinus nervosa,’ the nervous pilgrim.  In a couple of days I shall fly to Europe and resume my long walk that began a year ago in Canterbury.  The process for each journey is about the same in terms of planning.  Spouse has checked my itinerary, twice, as have I.   After a dozen such experiences you would think this would be almost casual, but no. Serenity is For... Read more

Standing in the Fellowship Hall of the Arch Street Quaker Meetinghouse, I saw a poster, “Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There.” You doubtless get the joke. Quakers worship silently. That was back in 1981. Since then it has been snatched by other meditative types. But it also relates to Pilgrim Life, though in a roundabout way. As a seminary student I learned about the Catholic Base Communities movement, which often incorporated “Liberation Theology” into their work, and its practice of... Read more