Anticipating

So I fill my pack. The buckles snap shut with a familiar click. The textures of clothing and folding metal; the rounded shape of the top pocket; the light press of the straps on my shoulders ; the weight of it; they are all so known and so redolent with the feel of senda under my shoes and the heat of the Spanish sun on my back.

I am longing to be there, where each step is a simultaneous welcome and farewell. To hear a dozen different languages everyday and have my English met with uncomprehending stares. Where everything I encounter will be seen for the first and for the last time. Where I am surrounded with antiquities and walking with familiar strangers.

This time I wish to enter as fully as I can into the path. I have a deep sense of call to this journey. I don't know what it is going to mean but I know that it is something about endings and that will be significant. So I don't intend to blog or tweet or facebook. It was difficult deciding whether or not to take a camera: in the end I decided I would ( a little waterproof Panasonic) but not so much as a way of making a record or sharing the experience as a way of helping me to look and see. Unless you share DNA or office space with me you won't have contact details. My children will have them, as will Debbie, but for anybody else I will drop off the planet on July 5 and reappear virtually in August sometime and in early September in corporeal form.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Hello Bishop Kelvin,
I don't know whether you ever think back to our conversations of last year or not, but here is an update.
Last Friday Jacob and Cristy's baby was born. A boy. Hamish William. They are very proud and slightly bemused first-time parents.
Hamish is a fine baby. He doesn't look like our side of the family at all and their is nothing of the look of the family gift about him.
Geoff an I will endeavour to support Jake and Cristy in any way we can, and, in particular, I will try to re-build a relationship with Jacob (which has never been entirely lost)
So...the best laid plans and all that.
It's not the first time that my plans and desires have taken over my mind. And, as ever, I have been firmly put in my place and shown that it is not I who is in control.
My faith is unwavering and I have peace.
I wish you and Clemency well on your pilgrimage.
LC

25 June 2015 at 16:31

Wynston said…

Go well, go safely. I'll miss a commentary along your way but look forward to hearing all about after you return.

27 June 2015 at 19:50

Elaine Dent said…

Not posting on my blog or on Facebook was an important decision for me during the latest pilgrimage. It helped me stay open to the moment and open to what God was doing without trying to analyze it or squeeze it into some polished form of communication to others. I could more easily be present to God with my true self without all the roles and masks I inevitably put on. I am finished the walk now, but not officially back until the 13th, and I am only just beginning to understand what the pilgrimage was all about. It is not what I thought it would be about. Now writing can be an important part of my processing. Blessings and God's peace on your journey. .

1 July 2015 at 23:48

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