It requires more than a day's devotion . . .

In Life Without Principle, Thoreau wrote

"It requires more than a day's devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day.... Really to see the sun rise or go down every day, so to relate ourselves to a universal fact, would preserve us sane forever."

Today, I'm stepping out the front door and setting my feet on the pilgrim path.  More than a day's devotion.  I'm on my way to Houston to meet up with Dad, then - tomorrow - he and I will fly to Spain.  We will make our way to the start of the Camino by way of Madrid > Pamplona and expect to be walking by Sunday.

Together, we'll see the sun rise and go down every day for 500 miles.

From SFO to Houston, I'm carrying my pack and what I've come to think of as my "civilization bag" (the laptop, cosmetics, 'normal' clothes).  I'll leave the civilization bag in Houston.  Yes.  I see the figurative as well as the practical meaning.

I'm scared.


I turn once again to John O'Donohue:

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography 
That invites me to new fronteirs
To break the dead shell of yesterdays
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dreams no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

(from, A Morning Offering - from To Bless The Space Between Us)