It’s 5:45 am and my flight to Paris is less than 12 hours away. This is starting to get real. I think I’ve got all the items that I will take with me. I packed up my backpack last night and checked the weight: twenty-five pounds. I’m glad, my goal was thirty pounds, but now as I consider 963 miles of walking, I’m thinking twenty might be too heavy. Oh well, I might be discarding some things along “the way”.

The last couple of weeks people have been asking me, “Are you ready?” And I’m never quite certain how to answer the question because I’m not quite sure what question they are asking. Am I ready for the flight: well I have my ticket, but it seems as I get older spending many hours on an airplane is harder and harder. This one – just out of shear bad luck – is 18 hours long. So, my complete answer to this form of the question is an emphatic- NO. I am not ready. Do I have all the stuff I am taking with me ready: I have my boots (broken in), my cloths (trousers, shorts, long/short sleeve shirts, underwear, socks), rain resistant jacket, toiletries, iPad, sleeping bag and yes PASSPORT (third time renewed). BUT can I really know what I am going to need for every contingency on the trail—Survey says– NO. Am I physically ready for the hike: How can you be ready for a 963 (by the book) mile journey that will take about 65 days to complete–So short answer: NO. Am I ready emotionally for the journey: I will miss Juliette everyday and I don’t know if I have prepared her enough for me being gone so long. So, NO. Am I spiritually ready for the pilgrimage: If I was, Why would I need to take one?

Which leads me to the 1st question of this journey  which I borrow from John Bierley’s book A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago (pg. 38):

How do you differentiate pilgrimage from a long walk?

My answer: A long walk is a physical journey from which you expect improved fitness and perhaps an emotional lift. A pilgrimage is a long walk through which you endure physical, emotional, and spiritual hardships for the specific purpose of attaining a better understanding of God and an understanding of the purpose he has for you in this life.

“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!”  Psalms 39: 12-13.