Day 1 and 2
Wednesday and the start of the Forty Pilgrims project.
Somewhere in Northern Spain, my old friend Simon has begun his Camino de Santiago, a simple mission to put one foot in front of the other as he carves
out a journey on foot, over 900km of trails, roads and pathways. He is heading
for Santiago, and further yet to Finisterre, the ‘End of the World’. He carries
with him 40 prayers, one for each day, one for each pilgrim that is
energetically walking with him. He is supported by 12 guides, energetically
supporting him, as indeed, does his circle of friends, family and unseen imps.
For me, here in Southern Spain, I am marking the beginning
of his adventure, and the beginning of a forty day support network by walking
my own Camino. It is short. Just 10km. Not much compared to the long walk. But
mine holds challenges of its own. I am walking the Caminito Del Rey, a notorious
daredevil pathway, just half an hour from my mountain home in Andalucía. The
Caminito Del Rey was once known as the most dangerous pathway in the world. It
was closed in 2000 due to numerous fatalities on the route. A crumbling
pathway, stapled to a sheer cliff, running down a gorge into a glorious valley
and back into another sheer gorge posed quite a lot of challenges for me.
Fortunately, it has just been refurbished and opened in March this year to the
masses. At least I wouldn’t be clinging to the sides for dear life…
My morning meditation was brief as I connected to Simon and
his journey. I recited the prayer he had written for the guides for the first
time and could feel, with delicate perception, the energy of the 53 people upon
this adventure. It is a curious thing intuition. But I have found it possible,
when you silence your mind and open your heart, to pick up signals and
information from the depths of your being; the bit that is more connected to
everything than the gibbering idiot that runs amok in the top paddock!
At this point, I am excited and full of love for the new
circle of people I am about to connect with. I am also a little scared of the
fact that I am on my way to a grand challenge for myself. It was my intention
to reach the highest part of the trail and recite the guide’s prayer, offering
my support to Simon and the group.
The day was full of promise, and even though we had a
forecast of unseasonal rain, the weather was perfect and our walk through the
gorge was full of joy. I felt supported and safe, even though I have previously
had a rather large dose of vertigo and fear of large spaces beneath me. This
was different. I felt the support and safety of the group and my own guides. True
to my plan, at the highest point, a vertiginous bridge that crosses the gorge
100m above the river, I read the prayer. I connected back into the circle and
crossed the bridge. I even stopped for a photo midway.
In my interview with Simon, we talked of many things. We are
old friends and don’t see each other much. But he is a poet and I am a writer
and musician. We have a lot in common. I have been on a grand adventure myself,
travelling the world and such, but have always felt fear in the face of certain
things relating to me. Most of them are creative fears which result in
ingenious procrastinations of the highest degree. That is not to say that I
don’t get things done. In many ways, I am living a charmed life. I am playing a
grand game of manifesting and experimenting but most of it has related to me
giving things to other people and forgetting about myself.
Sometimes, even though we might be surrounded by fantastic
things, if we keep missing the mark of where our soul focus is at, where our
true north and our hearts desires lie, then it doesn’t matter which paradise we
find ourselves in, it won’t be enough.
This notion leads me to this. Our soul loves challenges; it
is what gives life its zest. It loves to move through them, and move onto new
challenges. Sometimes though, we get stuck on one challenge and we hit up
against it so much that we become numb to it and forget it was ever there,
naming it just life. Yet life can be so much more. That is just a moment. Our
heart will continue to have desires. The potential for them to be met is always
present.
For a long time I had a big old fear of heights yet
yesterday I conquered it - it did not even seem to be there. It got me
thinking, where did that fear live and where did it go? The night I got back, I
started a yoga practice again. I figured, if Simon can put one foot in front of
the other over 900km and forty days then I can manage 5-10 minutes of yoga
every morning and night. I realised that what fears and dreams need is action.
Fears need to be hugged. Dreams need to be stepped toward. We have dreams a
plenty and we don’t need to work toward them all at once, we don’t need to
fight them or forget them or think they are impossible. We do need to do something
though. Acknowledge our fears and then step forward into our dreams.
Today has been a rather productive day
for me having begun writing this journal series about The Forty Pilgrims
Project. I have been faced with the usual challenges of my day to day work life
and I keep coming back to my heart. I keep looking at life just a little
differently than I did yesterday. I am already more motivated, having stepped
into being part of this circle, crossing a wobbly bridge, creating more and
marking my day with joys lived rather than frowns endured.
Every now and again, I check into that energetic circle of
53, silently offering up a prayer to Simon, wondering if that was him asking
for a bit of support and energy. And yeah, I did manage 5 more minutes of yoga
this morning.
Love, love, love...
Love, love, love...
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'The Forty Pilgrims Project' series is a blog inspired by a journey. Simon Welsh, poet, writer and new paradigm adventurer is walking the Camino de Santiago - a simple mission to put one foot in front of the other. Carving
out a journey over 1000km of trails, roads and pathways, he is heading
for Santiago, and further yet to Finisterre, the ‘End of the World’. He carries
with him 40 prayers, one for each day, one for each pilgrim that is
energetically walking with him. He is supported by 12 guides, energetically
supporting him from afar.
This
is my journal of his 'Forty Pilgrims Project' - an observation from the
outside, as one of his guides and friends. An exploration of my own
journey by his side, as we connect in the quantum field.
Matt
is a singer/songwriter, musician, poet and writer of words. He is
exploring the forests of consciousness, time and space, and surfing the
waves of thought, love and being. Getting lost and wiping out are
adventures in themselves!
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