Away, away, from men and towns, To the wild wood and the downs— To the silent wilderness Where the soul need not repress its music (from An Invitation, by Percy Bysshe Shelley) April is National Poetry Month. Last Monday was Earth Day. And here in Seattle, there’s spring in the air. So it’s no surprise my … More Away, Away From Men and Towns (An Almost Wordless Wednesday)
When we first set out to walk the Way of St James from Le Puy, France, all the way to Santiago and then on to Finisterre, I knew in theory we would need rest days along the way. I understood that a person can’t—well, shouldn’t—walk a thousand miles without stopping to re-fuel now and then. … More The Importance of Rest Days
“A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.” – Seth Godin, Tribes This week, almost 300 members of my own special tribe gathered at the YMCA Camp in Black Mountain, NC. We are the American Pilgrims on the Camino, pilgrims and future pilgrims from across … More The Chemin du Puy: My Talk at the American Pilgrims on the Camino National Gathering
I started to suspect that I’d been misinformed before we even started walking. At the Pilgrim’s Welcome Gathering in Le Puy-en-Velay, Eric and I struck up a conversation with a friendly French woman who asked how far we would walk the next day. I told her the name of the town where we thought we … More Making Reservations on the Chemin du Puy (the Le Puy Camino)
One of the incredible, unexpected things that happened when I took my personal experience on the Camino and shared it with the world, is that other people started sharing their experiences and passions back with me. I’ve known and depended for years on the strong Camino community of former and future pilgrims, but in the … More “Don’t Overthink It” and Other Advice Shared With Hike the World
What is it like to walk the Via Podiensis, the Le Puy Camino? I’m starting to gather my thoughts and my notes for a talk I’ll give at the American Pilgrims on the Camino Gathering of Pilgrims next month in Asheville, and I keep coming back to the story of this day, which happened on … More A Day on the Chemin du Puy: Saint-Côme d’Olt
Need something to listen to on these long winter nights (especially for those of you in the Pacific Northwest, facing another week of being snowed in*)? My interview with Out There Podcast about walking a thousand miles on the Camino de Santiago released this week. Last December, a radio producer came to my apartment and held a … More New Podcast with Out There: On Being a Secular Pilgrim and a Non-Outdoorsy Hiker
I’ve written about a lot of things on this blog over the past three years, but I’m not sure I’ve ever gone back to the basics and explained how I got here in the first place. (Or if I did, it was so long ago and is so buried in the archives that it’s worth … More Why I Walked the Camino de Santiago
When people ask me why I took a three-month sabbatical from my life in 2015 to walk the Camino de Santiago, I try to describe the sense of burnout and mental exhaustion I was feeling. Postmodern adulting had burned me to a crisp, destroyed my attention span, and left me far too attached to my … More Is Walking the Camino Going to be the Status Symbol of 2019?
The air was still chilly, and so when they happened into a tiny village store that just happened to have cheap wine, oranges, and cinnamon sticks, Eric’s plan for mulled wine was born. … More Mulled Wine, Camino-style
