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…
Who am I to tell you how to seek and find the all-confounding, all-demanding, all-providing and glorious God that is Love? Who am I to offer guidance or reassurance that might help you stumble blindly into it, as I have, over the self-inflicted wreckage of fantasy, frustration, false images, failures, hidden frailties and forlorn hope?… Continue reading Who am I to tell you…?
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?
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…
In 2018 I did something back-to-front, I walked the pilgrimage path of the Camino de Santiago backwards. Starting from Spain's most Westerly coastal town of Muxia, I crossed the country from West to East, via Santiago de Compostela, and into France through the Pyreneean mountain range, which acts as a border between the two countries… Continue reading The Way of the Rose & the Alchemist’s house
The paths to peace take many forms and, sometimes, meditation, contemplation, silent reflection or prayer are not actually the key ingredients that nourish us whilst we meander along our own particular way. Sometimes a dream or a passion burns so fiercely inside us that the only way to find inner peace is to give that… Continue reading When spirits take flight…
I've been told in the past that I have 'a way with words'. Sometimes someone says it when I write something that appeals to them. Sometimes it's when I've listened to what someone has said, responded with the underlying message that I've heard, and been told "That's exactly what I was trying to say but… Continue reading Just trying…
For as long as I can remember, whenever I’ve tried to find an answer to the question ‘What is my purpose?’ or ‘What is my destiny?’ the infuriatingly simple and equally mystifying answer that invariably popped up was “You’re here for people like you”. Over the years I’ve tried decoding that to mean “Listening to… Continue reading Blessed be the Navel-Gazers…
There are few things that engage the human psyche more completely than a good story, well told. Whether it's the story we tell about ourselves or about others; the one about our relationships or our past; our internal story about the world and how magical or doomed we believe it is; or the multiple and… Continue reading The Never-Ending Story
The Endless Beaches of Costa Calma This week I visited the South of the island and took a walk along its linked and seemingly-endless stretch of golden, sandy beaches. I set off with the intention of exploring a little, walking to a ‘Spit’ of land I could see in the distance and then returning to… Continue reading Castles in the sand…
La Casa de Paz 