On Sunday morning I was delighted to wake up to the sight of snow on the ground and a forecast of heavy rain to come. An important part of these next three weeks is about checking that my waterproofs keep the water out, and my thermals keep the heat in. If anything's not working quite as it should I'd rather find out now than when I arrive in Ireland.
Sure enough, I discovered that my waterproof coat needed re-proofing, which wasn't the biggest deal ever. The biggest deal ever was discovering that my hiking boots no longer repel water, they let it in, a lot. On further inspection I found a few cracks in the leather and around the seams which meant that new boots were going to be needed. Before making the sort of journey I'm going to be making in February I'd want to make sure that my boots were well and truly walked in, not head off with a more or less brand new pair. So, my 'training walks' are now less about getting as fit as I'd like to and more about introducing feet to boots and boots to feet and making sure that they can play nicely together.
On Wednesday and today I took my new boots out for a walk. There's a little bit of chafing on my right ankle but nothing especially out of the ordinary. Walking the boots in means walking a lot more slowly than I normally would and even stopping now and then. I posted a Reel on Instagram as I walked, reflecting on the times when maybe slowing down or even stopping is something that all of us need to do.
I don't like stopping when I'm on a long walk; I get myself into a bit of a 'slow and steady wins the race' kind of a mindset. You don't have to go fast, but you do have to keep going. There are however two things I carry with me which slow me down in helpful and health-ful ways.
When I made my pilgrimage in 2010 I put together a little prayer book, with sets of readings and prayers to be offered in the morning, at midday, afternoon, evening and night. It's a set of prayers that I still often use privately today (and semi-publicly when I'm walking with my son, Barnaby). One of the things I'm very strict about is stopping at noon for Midday Prayer and three o'clock for Afternoon Prayer. So it is that I've found myself saying my prayers in the torrential rain on an exposed hillside, under a motorway flyover coming out of Glasgow, pressing myself as far back into a hedgerow as I can as endless tourist buses career along the rather narrow A83 towards Inveraray (if you're on a tourist bus, all roads lead to Inveraray). It's important to me that on these pilgrimages life fits around prayer and not the other way around, as can so often be the case.
The other thing I carry which prevents me from just putting my head down and stepping smartly through my surroundings, is my camera. I might write about photography in a later blog. In fact, I'm sure I will. Apart from the births of my two children the arrival of photography in my life is probably the best thing that's happened since 2010; indeed, there are probably days when those two children feel that in fact I'd rank my camera ahead of them in my affections! Having that camera in my hand keeps me connected to my surroundings and attentive to all that I can see. Each time I take a photograph it's an act of thanksgiving for God's good gifts in Creation, in it's own way a kind of prayer.
What keeps you connected? What helps you to keep going when the going isn't good? It's always good to stop sometimes, remember and give thanks.
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