backpacks

On my summer booklist was Cheryl Strayed's Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail.  Though I'm not a backpacker, the great writing and universal story of grief and transformation captured me from page one.  "With warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her."  I finished the last quarter of the book while curled up on a plane heading to California.

Two days later my parents introduced me to the movie The Way, -the story of Tom and the international group of people he meets making a pilgrimage on the "El Camino de Santiago" from France to Spain.  Tom's journey also frustrated, strengthened and healed him.  In ways that touched my heart.

With my mind full of life changing adventures, it felt so right to strap on my beloved pewter back pack.  Instead of the high sierras or a French countryside, I backpacked through Greenville airport, then Houston, then Ontario and then back.  But this was a pilgrimage, nevertheless.

In the quiet of my plane seat I determined that my Wild experience, my Camino journey was 14 months of CPE training in a Spartinburg hospital.  But I've had many Hajj moments and seasons.  From school and church days to my current tour with my hospice team. 

If a pilgrimage is a search of moral or spiritual significance, then every time I dust off my backpack alone or journey to a new space with others, my quest is expanded and enriched.

I love this review of The Way.  "Gradually the experience of the Camino works its way into the spirits of the pilgrims. They become mirrors for each other, helping to strip away the protective layers that have preserved their pain and isolation, and with their new vulnerability, freeing them to feel and connect once more. In the end, the message of this poignant film is that opening our hearts to others is the real miracle. Connecting with them through kindness and laughter and joy is the magic that invites the presence of God."

Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.   Psalms 84:5 NIV