I finally managed to join this blog!!
We were in Germany when Gary started speaking about his pilgrimage for the first time and it immediately caught my imagination. I have been attracted to the idea of covering very long distances by foot for some time and joined the Long Distance Walking Association beginning of the year. So far it has only been an attractive idea. Our combined experience of longer walks consists of a walking holiday in Spain and a couple of ad-hoc walks in the local area.
If we want to be successful we need to put some training in as the distance we want to cover in a month is: 565 miles / 910 km (YIKES!!!!!)
My training plan is to cover the distance by Christmas this year on my treadmill and join some organised long distance walks from the end of the year onwards.
..........................900km to go
Doris
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Emissaries
I mentioned that there were two things that occurred in the last two days. The second of these was the imminent arrival of Doris’s sister, husband and their too small children, to stay with us for ten days.
They are really lovely people who are always generous with their time and friendship when we visit them. Our house is, however, relatively small and, not having children, we are used to having it to ourselves. I think I find these visits a bit more of a strain than Doris, as I am an only child, whereas Doris has two sisters and two brothers.
The children are delightful but the fact is that I am not used to being around children – except when I was one! I just don’t know how to engage and participate in the games. I am not embarrassed or stuffy about it but, for me, it is a bit like looking at a car engine that isn’t working. I would like it to work but simply don’t know what to do to make it happen. I have tried, with a little success, but it is tough, especially as my German is lousy. Doris is, of course, brilliant with them.
So although I am genuinely happy to see them, but as their visit comes hard on the heels of four-day visit to Germany, I have to be honest and say that I would have preferred some time to ourselves. Ten days feels like a long time. And then this morning, I managed to reframe it and am greatly looking forward to their stay with us.
Before I go on, let me say that despite talking about spirituality in my first post, I am not a very touchy-feeling person. My Myers Briggs personality type profile (http://keirsey.com/personality/nt.html) describes me as “a Rational”. I am one of those myopic people who value truth above feelings. It is not a trait I admire in myself or others. Clearly, people are more important that an ephemeral notion of truth which, in any event, is in the eye of the beholder anyway.
Self-knowledge is great thing and I have worked hard to compensate. I still find myself, however, in situations saying, “no that is wrong” or more usually, “that film/book/programme is rubbish” without thinking about the effect of my words on the person I am speaking to – even if they are the most important person in my nlife. In short, I can seem to be a real non-caring areshole.
Disclaimer out of the way, I can now recount my reframing. What, I asked myself, if I regarded the visitors as emissaries from the place that is the destination of my pilgrimage? Should I not put aside my selfish discomfort to the welcome these….er Kings of the East? Should I not, getting biblical, wash their feet? With apologies to Satish, that one will have to be metaphorical for me.
Like a lot of reframing - mine at least – it sounded, at first, a bit ridiculous. But playing with the idea and pretending that it were true did change my attitude. What a strange thing is the human brain that it falls so easily for such trickery. But to my delight, it worked! I am now genuinely sorry that I will be away tomorrow night and will restrict my trip away next week to one rather than the usual two nights, so that I don’t miss out on seeing them.
How nice it is to have visitors – we should do it more often!
They are really lovely people who are always generous with their time and friendship when we visit them. Our house is, however, relatively small and, not having children, we are used to having it to ourselves. I think I find these visits a bit more of a strain than Doris, as I am an only child, whereas Doris has two sisters and two brothers.
The children are delightful but the fact is that I am not used to being around children – except when I was one! I just don’t know how to engage and participate in the games. I am not embarrassed or stuffy about it but, for me, it is a bit like looking at a car engine that isn’t working. I would like it to work but simply don’t know what to do to make it happen. I have tried, with a little success, but it is tough, especially as my German is lousy. Doris is, of course, brilliant with them.
So although I am genuinely happy to see them, but as their visit comes hard on the heels of four-day visit to Germany, I have to be honest and say that I would have preferred some time to ourselves. Ten days feels like a long time. And then this morning, I managed to reframe it and am greatly looking forward to their stay with us.
Before I go on, let me say that despite talking about spirituality in my first post, I am not a very touchy-feeling person. My Myers Briggs personality type profile (http://keirsey.com/personality/nt.html) describes me as “a Rational”. I am one of those myopic people who value truth above feelings. It is not a trait I admire in myself or others. Clearly, people are more important that an ephemeral notion of truth which, in any event, is in the eye of the beholder anyway.
Self-knowledge is great thing and I have worked hard to compensate. I still find myself, however, in situations saying, “no that is wrong” or more usually, “that film/book/programme is rubbish” without thinking about the effect of my words on the person I am speaking to – even if they are the most important person in my nlife. In short, I can seem to be a real non-caring areshole.
Disclaimer out of the way, I can now recount my reframing. What, I asked myself, if I regarded the visitors as emissaries from the place that is the destination of my pilgrimage? Should I not put aside my selfish discomfort to the welcome these….er Kings of the East? Should I not, getting biblical, wash their feet? With apologies to Satish, that one will have to be metaphorical for me.
Like a lot of reframing - mine at least – it sounded, at first, a bit ridiculous. But playing with the idea and pretending that it were true did change my attitude. What a strange thing is the human brain that it falls so easily for such trickery. But to my delight, it worked! I am now genuinely sorry that I will be away tomorrow night and will restrict my trip away next week to one rather than the usual two nights, so that I don’t miss out on seeing them.
How nice it is to have visitors – we should do it more often!
Many a slip 'twixt cup and lip
I am surprised to find myself back here already. We have not yet fixed a date for our journey but it is likely to be in the Spring of 2007, after my birthday in March, when the weather in Europe is likely to be kinder to our journey.
It is, therefore, very early to be starting this blog. I guess that it has something to do with making a public commitment to do the journey, together with the gift of some unexpected free time. So, having started, I expected that there would be some very long gaps between posts. I still think that this is still likely to be the case, unless I cannot restrain myself from commenting on the dire state of world affairs. Two things, however, occurred in the last two days, relating to our journey, about which I feel compelled to post.
Work is a little quiet at the moment because of holidays, sickness and a head butt outside a pub. This gave me the time yesterday to begin the blog. It also allowed me to leave work a little earlier than is my usual habit. In the spirit of our journey, I decided to walk to London Bridge station, rather than get a tube part of the way, as I usually do.
Half way there, I called Doris on my mobile to tell her that I would be home early. As I made to cross the road, gleefully leaving a message on our voicemail saying that I would be home early and I had started training, my ankle turned as I stepped off of the curb and my other calf muscle snapped like an overstretched elastic band. My two beat yelps and subsequent anguish were caught in full colour. I hobbled the rest of the to London Bridge and Doris kindly collected me at our local station.
Never can there have been a less auspicious start to a journey not even yet started.
PS I should have mentioned before that this is a joint blog of me and Doris
It is, therefore, very early to be starting this blog. I guess that it has something to do with making a public commitment to do the journey, together with the gift of some unexpected free time. So, having started, I expected that there would be some very long gaps between posts. I still think that this is still likely to be the case, unless I cannot restrain myself from commenting on the dire state of world affairs. Two things, however, occurred in the last two days, relating to our journey, about which I feel compelled to post.
Work is a little quiet at the moment because of holidays, sickness and a head butt outside a pub. This gave me the time yesterday to begin the blog. It also allowed me to leave work a little earlier than is my usual habit. In the spirit of our journey, I decided to walk to London Bridge station, rather than get a tube part of the way, as I usually do.
Half way there, I called Doris on my mobile to tell her that I would be home early. As I made to cross the road, gleefully leaving a message on our voicemail saying that I would be home early and I had started training, my ankle turned as I stepped off of the curb and my other calf muscle snapped like an overstretched elastic band. My two beat yelps and subsequent anguish were caught in full colour. I hobbled the rest of the to London Bridge and Doris kindly collected me at our local station.
Never can there have been a less auspicious start to a journey not even yet started.
PS I should have mentioned before that this is a joint blog of me and Doris
Monday, August 14, 2006
Rational cynic gets spiritual - shock horror!
It started in Germany and it will end in Germany. Maybe.
Together with my wife, I am going to walk from my birthplace, in the East End of London, to her birthplace in the north west of Bavaria. It will be my pilgrimage.
Now I know that this may not sound like a very religious pilgrimage but I am a secular kind of guy and it will be a spiritual journey for reasons I hope to explain. But first, let me tell you how it came about.
Earlier this year, my wife, who will henceforth be referred to as Doris, was listening to the radio while doing creative things in her studio. As I wandered through, I was stopped in my tracks by a mellifluous voice. It turned out to be Satish Kumar (http://www.resurgence.org/satish/index.htm).
Something about what he said made me realise that spirituality need not be equated with religion, or new age fads, as I had always done. And it made me realise that I had never given any real attention to the spiritual aspect of my life. This was quite a revelation to a secular person like me, raised at the altar of science and fact. One who always skipped the spirituality section of those life planning sessions that one is forced to endure on “executive” training programmes.
Although I only caught the end of the interview with Satish, there was enough to make me to want know more. So I bought his autobiography, No Destination, which I am in the process of reading. It is a beautiful book by a remarkable man. It is the sort of book that I enjoy reading now and again to get an injection of, dare I say, spiritual beauty.
Last week, visiting Doris’s family in Germany, I was reading the book. Satish explained that in Indian culture, it was a tradition to complete a pilgrimage before the end, I think, of one’s fiftieth year. He went on to describe his own pilgrimage, at that age, from Devon to Iona, visiting the holy places of Britain - an Indian former Jain monk on a spiritual journey around other people’s religious sites!
What really struck me about Satish’s description of that journey was that the much spirituality came not from the religious sites, often no more than museums, but from the people he met and the nature around him. (At this point, I have to hurriedly add that this is my own interpretation of what he wrote, filtered through my own lense. If I have misrepresented him, I offer him my profound apologies.)
Reading this, with my fiftieth birthday approaching next March, my subconscious began to contemplate the idea of a pilgrimage. By the time that I told Doris about it, I knew that it was something I wanted to do. Doris being Doris, the most open-minded free spirit I have ever met, was completely supportive. The only question was where to? And indeed, where from?
To cut a long story short, as my mum would say, but never does, we decided to walk from where I was born to where Doris was born – some six hundred miles. No cars, no buses, no planes – just a boat across the channel.
So yes, it may be a relatively secular pilgrimage but I know it will be good for my spirit. And it is after all, a journey to the birthplace of my Goddess.
Together with my wife, I am going to walk from my birthplace, in the East End of London, to her birthplace in the north west of Bavaria. It will be my pilgrimage.
Now I know that this may not sound like a very religious pilgrimage but I am a secular kind of guy and it will be a spiritual journey for reasons I hope to explain. But first, let me tell you how it came about.
Earlier this year, my wife, who will henceforth be referred to as Doris, was listening to the radio while doing creative things in her studio. As I wandered through, I was stopped in my tracks by a mellifluous voice. It turned out to be Satish Kumar (http://www.resurgence.org/satish/index.htm).
Something about what he said made me realise that spirituality need not be equated with religion, or new age fads, as I had always done. And it made me realise that I had never given any real attention to the spiritual aspect of my life. This was quite a revelation to a secular person like me, raised at the altar of science and fact. One who always skipped the spirituality section of those life planning sessions that one is forced to endure on “executive” training programmes.
Although I only caught the end of the interview with Satish, there was enough to make me to want know more. So I bought his autobiography, No Destination, which I am in the process of reading. It is a beautiful book by a remarkable man. It is the sort of book that I enjoy reading now and again to get an injection of, dare I say, spiritual beauty.
Last week, visiting Doris’s family in Germany, I was reading the book. Satish explained that in Indian culture, it was a tradition to complete a pilgrimage before the end, I think, of one’s fiftieth year. He went on to describe his own pilgrimage, at that age, from Devon to Iona, visiting the holy places of Britain - an Indian former Jain monk on a spiritual journey around other people’s religious sites!
What really struck me about Satish’s description of that journey was that the much spirituality came not from the religious sites, often no more than museums, but from the people he met and the nature around him. (At this point, I have to hurriedly add that this is my own interpretation of what he wrote, filtered through my own lense. If I have misrepresented him, I offer him my profound apologies.)
Reading this, with my fiftieth birthday approaching next March, my subconscious began to contemplate the idea of a pilgrimage. By the time that I told Doris about it, I knew that it was something I wanted to do. Doris being Doris, the most open-minded free spirit I have ever met, was completely supportive. The only question was where to? And indeed, where from?
To cut a long story short, as my mum would say, but never does, we decided to walk from where I was born to where Doris was born – some six hundred miles. No cars, no buses, no planes – just a boat across the channel.
So yes, it may be a relatively secular pilgrimage but I know it will be good for my spirit. And it is after all, a journey to the birthplace of my Goddess.
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