In March 2020 the Camino brought me to the city of Logroño in Spain, and the COVID lockdown kept me here until the end of June that year. That happenstance, coincidence or act of Divine Providence (depending on how we view life and what happens to us within it) enabled me to meet and spend… Continue reading Path of Peace…
...it's entirely true. Not one single part of it is made up, elaborated, exaggerated or false. I always felt that it was an experience that was deeply personal, private and meant only for me. But the older I become, the more I wonder about such things. I wonder if we're meant to share everything that… Continue reading I’m going to tell you a story…
We´re now one week into 2021 and, not for the first time in my life, I feel a little out-of-step with the rest of the world. Almost everyone I know (and the vast majority of those I don´t but who share their views on both social and the wider media) seem to have had a… Continue reading That Light in the Distance…
There´s a Celtic folklore belief in something called ´Thin Places´. These are places around the world where the gap between Heaven and Earth is so thin that the magical quality of Heaven can be actually, physically felt. Clarity; perspective; sudden recognition of what really matters in life; feelings of immense peace and great joy; a… Continue reading Be the Change…
Angels lend their wings to the seeker of knowledge - Moorish proverb A young man knocked at the door of the (still closed) church hostel this week and asked if he could stay. He was Julien, a French pilgrim who has spent the last few years living in Japan and is now walking the Camino… Continue reading Where there´s a will…
Two people inspired me to start writing my blog again this week and they did it subtly and unintentionally, just by telling me their stories, which came straight from their hearts. Talking to both of them felt a little bit like looking in a mirror because, although we had different views and experiences in relation… Continue reading “Start here, start now…”
It’s just over two months since my Korean flatmates left Logroño, carried away into the darkness one morning in a taxi bound for Barcelona airport and then onwards, by plane, back to Seoul, family, friends and home. It’s amazing how quickly that time has passed and how things have changed, both for me and for the… Continue reading Why not take all of Me?
"Always speak the truth, even if your voice shakes" It’s more than two weeks since my last blog post and what a two weeks it’s been - in all of our lives. How quickly the world and our experience of it can change. How effectively Life teaches us to embrace the contradictions of our humanness: fragile and… Continue reading Fear is the Key…
Early this morning the clocks sprang forward one hour, symbolically reflecting this time of change and our forward movement into Spring. I hear birdsong all around me (all the more audible for the lack of vehicle hum and city noise that usually fills the streets here). I frequently see storks overhead, making their way to the… Continue reading Home thoughts from abroad…
I’ve written a number of blog posts during the last week, since stopping the Camino de Santiago and going into ‘lock-down’ isolation with 3 fellow pilgrims here in Northern Spain. But my silent inner voice has shaken its head and rejected them all. I don’t know why, which is not unusual, but I know enough to… Continue reading The Clearing…
La Casa de Paz 