Why Make Pilgrimage?
The Good Old Future
Walking is our species’ evolutionary advantage, the travel you are designed to do best. Without cars, trains or planes, human movement is slow and intense. Discarding expectations of instant arrival, the whim of journey becomes sacred. No lines, straight or dead, restrain movement. Feet follow eyes follow mind follows heart.
Freedom like this is no abstract noun, but a natural skill and active blessing, forcing responsibility, discovery and delight. .
Pilgrimage is the ultimate ‘waycation’, a journey to meet this land and yourself as part of it. Living on the path, you can re-establish your animal independence and reclaim the fullness of your time, land and body.
By reclaiming your holidays (holy days) as slow journeys via footpath, you can rediscover your inheritance of nomadic freedom. It is what you have been seeking all along.
You-Time
On the path, the everyday influences of colleagues, boss, family and friends no longer dominate our lives. What to do - how to speak and think - the good you make real - becomes who you are.
Pilgrimage offers a simple space to be your best self, in a world normally replete with mechanisms to make such a goal nearly impossible. This is an opportunity to be ‘just’ you, to remember that this is enough - more than enough. You are not the house you own/rent, or the car you drive, or the job you do. You are not the ones and zeroes in your bank account. As a pilgrim, the stripped back truth of who you are has room to breathe and express itself.
Of course, this means you will also encounter your worst habits and thought-forms, your laziness, selfishness, anger and willingness to blame others. But without the comforting distractions of television, phone and work, you will have to face these unhelpful neuronic shortcuts, and deal with them. This is what makes pilgrimage such a transformative experience. It removes the impediments to your meeting - and being - yourself.
In the modern world, who really owns their time? Not even the ultra-rich can afford such wealth.
But between the roads, pilgrims inherit the earth.
Community
We are all strangers wandering a strange land, ultimately unsure of ourselves or our path. This is what binds us together. A wandering journey is the common metaphor for all humanity on earth. If we can recognize this, and understand the transitional nature of existence, then perhaps forgiveness and healing become easier to find. We need only to support each others' quests, and trust that despite seeming disharmonies, they all fit together in some (as yet) invisible way that is vast and perfect.
Mind
Pilgrimage blows away the cobwebs of corridored minds, to offer continuous fresh perspectives. It is harder to dwell in sorrow when you are moving through beauty all the time. The scent of a bluebell wood is potent ancient therapy. Problems that pilgrims daily face - what to eat, where to sleep, how to stay warm and dry - are so large and vital that smaller and more complex issues become eclipsed. Nature, with her beautiful basic requirements for life, can help to heal us, by letting us pay more attention to what most truly matters.
Blood and Muscle
Walking is proven to reduce stress, and lessen the risk of all sorts of nasty illnesses. You will burn off fat and gain muscle. Your blood will flow more vigorously, and you will feel more alive. Feeling more in contact with your body, you can remember how to trust it more. Pilgrimage is what you are made to do. It makes deep physical sense.
