a new pilgrim sole

Thirteen springs ago, I set out on a 500 mile walk by myself across Spain.  While I walked, I never listened to music or talked on the phone.  I didn't even have a device with me, just a backpack full of clothes, a walking stick, and some water.  Every day, I woke up, laced on my shoes and walked for a bunch of miles.  I moved my feet and wandered through the country and thought.  Sometimes, I had the company of strangers, many of whom became friends, but a lot of the time, I thought my thinks and then found an internet cafe and wrote in brief bursts here on this blog.

It was a wondrous time, one of the best and most memorable times of my life.

For the intervening years, I have always said that I was going to walk more.  And I tell myself that I am going to write more, too.  But I rarely do it, not really.

This spring, as we all face the Coronavirus, I'm walking again, and I'm doing it mostly by myself.  In these days when we are discouraged from getting together, from socializing indoors, what else can we do but walk?

So I'm restarting this blog because when I move my feet, I start to think in writing.  Having just finished walking for an hour and a half in my new neighborhood, I hurried through the door--mostly because I really needed to pee--but partly because I was so eager to sit down at my computer and write.

Here we are, people.  In this new normal, we walk.  We walk alone, we walk together.  The pilgrimage is different, but I'm putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward.  I hope you'll join me.

Buen camino.