2 Weeks and Counting

Total This Camino:	0 miles.
Total 2023 Caminos:	0 miles
Total All Caminos:	1735 miles
Planes:	$ 1350
Total Planes:	$ 1350

Meaningful Moment

It's coming up on 4 years since I retired from my professional career as a software engineer.

Been taking Gimli, the 85 lb chocolate lab, downtown for some bird watching on those mornings when I'm not rushing off to the YMCA for pickleball.

It's an important addition to my life because it makes me smile when I hear him rushing down the stairs as he hears me messing around in the cabinet where his food is. He likes his morning ride, and I like taking him.

It's important for me to get out of bed and get the day started.

In an amazing coincidence, in the last 2 weeks I've come across Katie, my German study partner from several years ago while being out and about on the streets of Rochester. 

I'm not a believer in coincidence, but it seems to me like we should get our study group back together; we used to hang out at Equal Grounds coffee shop when practicing German.

Anyway with 4 years of retirement under my belt, I'm feeling an absence of purpose. Certainly covid aggravated the situation for me, as it has for tens of millions of Americans, and hundreds of millions of people if not more around the world.

Taking a job is out of the question. 

Absolutely enjoyed my 22 years in the military and my 20 or so years as a software engineer. Wouldn't change a thing. 

But I need something where I give back in an immediate way. I don't know how selfish that sounds when I say I need to volunteer in order for me to feel good.

But that makes it sound black and white, when like just about everything in life is shades of gray filled with nuance covered with possibilities and served with a mix of opportunity and chance.

Notable memories

It's been going on 16 months and I still miss my Zeke.

What Makes a Pilgrim?

Total This Camino:	0 miles.
Total 2023 Caminos:	0 miles
Total All Caminos:	1735 miles
Planes:	$ 1350
Total Planes:	$ 1350

Random Thought of the Day

What Makes a Pilgrim?

Imagine you are driving in the right lane of a busy expressway. Someone in the on-ramp wants to enter the expressway. Do you speed up to cut them off? Do you slow down because the driver is unpredictable? Or do you keep a steady speed?

A pilgrim is less about speeding up and slowing down, jostling through melee of life, and more about traveling in the world in a way that helps others. On my caminos, the pilgrims that stood out most in later recollections, shared moments of contemplation, solace, companionship and generosity.

I remember fondly some of the pilgrims that I’ve met over the years.

English Mick laughed … a lot.

American Cathy struggled … and persevered … succeeded.

Bienve lit up in the joy that Marie Angeles - his camino amiga, his “camiga”, brought to his life.

My Via de la Plata in 2014 ended in physically painful consequences. It took multiple attempts to merge into the camino spirit and land me in a mentally good place.

These are the gifts I brought back to America to share, especially with the transitory people in my life. I see that they are living, with varying degrees of success, their own “pilgrimage” as they try to survive the remnants of Covid and its devastating effects on the economy, daily life, family and friends.

A new direction in my life comes with a sense of calm for the trivialities and banalities of daily living … to wit, driving. I now extend grace to those on the road who are in a hurry or inattentive. I no longer rage and fume at being cut-off or stuck behind slow drivers. Because Mick and Cathy and Bienve and all the other pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago offered me compassion and understanding, I know that the behavior of others is a reflection on their lives, and has little or nothing to do with me. As I disengage from the chance encounter in traffic, I wish them well.

Overtly religious or not, I take a deep breath or two, a second or two of reflection and momentary shivasana as a form of prayer.   … And then I go on about my business, happy in my life.

	A moment of rest, refreshment and reflection Dec 5, 2022 Along the Munchner Jakobsweg, Diessen Am Ammersee, Bavaria, Germany