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Sweaty Pilgrim

“Nowadays, to be on the road is to be home.”
St Columba

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Over the long, hot summer of 2018 I spent ten weeks on the road, on a "hitch-hiking pilgrimage around sacred places and public houses of the British Isles".


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Pilgrim’s progress

Just put one foot
in front of the other
leave all fancy
(angelic-apparition / beatific-vision / instant-enlightenment)
plans behind

And pray daily
that sore twinge
on the bottom of your big toe
doesn’t slip and slide into a blister

Trust the path before you
and if you believe in God
trust God
otherwise
just trust your legs

Trust the path
trust your knees
trust your feet
trust your toes

No fancy pants
no fancy plans
just one pilgrim foot
in front
of the other
pilgrim foot
and then that foot in front of the other

And when you ease into your wayfarer’s bed
at the end of another well-trod day
invite your aching salty smelly body
to softly open its pilgrim belly
and to the rafters raise

exhausted hymns of gratitude
and silent songs of praise



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The Map of Possibilities and The Map of Actualities


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CLICK HERE
for pictures of my 2012 hitch with Melangell the iron hare...

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   © Stephen Hancock 2023                                                                                                                                                                Energy is Eternal Delight