Good Evening Friends and Family,
I wanted to share with you an exciting event in our lives –
although I can picture a number of you rolling your eyes and thinking “I always
knew those two were a stick shy of a cord”.
Jamie and I have decided (with some prayerful soul
searching) to go forward with our on-again, off-again, trip to Santiago de
Compostela, Spain – Camino de Santiago Frances.
God willing, we will be leaving Coupeville on June 27 and return on August
8. And again, God willing, we will begin
our walk from St. Jean Pied de Port, France and some 36 days and 500 miles
later arrive at Santiago de Compostela.
Here is a link with some background on the pilgrimage if you’re
interested:
Both Jamie and I have been intrigued by the “Camino” (the
way) for some time now. And we just
recently came to the conclusion that it’s now or never. Our bodies daily remind us that we’re not
getting any younger. We think there will
be many fascinating aspects to the journey – history, physical challenge, art,
culture, architecture, language, and of course, a subject most near and dear to
me, food. And it’s an adventure – for 42
days we will really have no idea where we’ll rest our heads that night. That is way outside my comfort zone. But as the time approaches, I find that most
importantly I’m hoping that this experience will draw me closer to God and to
Jamie. It will certainly stretch my
faith and should provide plenty of opportunity for prayer and meditation.
As I said, part of this is the physical challenge. In fact, I have qualms as to the wisdom of
self-induced torture. And we’re paying
for the privilege. How crazy is that? Nonetheless, in the past, when jogging or
otherwise exercising my intrepid athletic skills, I’ve found a certain
closeness to God when I sense that I’m on the verge of coronary arrhythmia. So, hopefully, the bodily fatigue will serve
a purpose as well. I just hope that I
won’t have to come home, tail between my legs, in utter defeat. Your prayers are appreciated.
So, we’ll soon be going off-line. Computers are not making it into our
backpacks. We hope to see each of you
again soon and we can swap hugs and stories.
Our little pilgrimage begins.
With great love,
Doug and Jamie
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