Perhaps the soul is the energy, the body the vessel. It does make sense. Perhaps life is short and we only get one chance. That also makes sense. Then what then..when the body is gone and the soul floats? How long does it float? You know, floats amongst us, the energy..you know what I mean.
I went for a walk not too long ago. I had a walking stick, the one I got in a shop in Spain….forgot the town, good town after you see David at the top of the hill, the guy with the fruit stand that seems to live there….”Donativo”…you know the guy if you have been there….Kind of like, you know the guy named Victor who walks with his horses as you ride them up the hill to O’ Cebreiro….(probably misspelled but if you were there, you know what I mean)
OK, Back to the walk…
So as I was walking down the nice paved road that runs along Liberty Bay in my beloved Poulsbo, WA, I had a feeling, a day-dream of sorts. It was the same sort of day-dream I had when I left Burgos, Spain and started walking through the expanse of fields where it starts to get a bit windy and cool, even in HOT July, again, you know where I am talking if you have been there…
The day-dream thought I had while walking in both places was that I imagined many souls around me. There is a scene in “Forrest Gump” where he is running through a desert road and there are many people behind him, following him on his road, you know the part where he turns around and says, “I’m kind of tired now. I think I’ll go home now..” You know the scene if you’ve seen the movie, and I know, you’ve seen the movie…Well, as I walk there is a sense of people walking with me, to my sides, right behind. I am not alone. They are talking in my mind. They are happy. They look good. They all have the same thing in common. Me. There are many people there with me on my walks. My Grandfather Richard Hull…My Great Uncle Larry, (the pen-pal I actually never met), a childhood friend named Eddie Travis, my Grandmother Beverly Hull who loved to walk, three of my dogs, Bo, Bo II and Annabelle, there are many others as well. Now, the people there walking with me, they grow in numbers from time to time, and as I get older, the numbers grow. The last addition to the crowd of folks I walk with is named Phil. Phil walks next to my Grandpa, they are for sure buds, and they chat about the same stuff. The voices of these people are in my head, my mind as I walk. The ones that meant the most to me in my life are on the walk with me. They were there with me in Spain in 2017, that is when I first noticed them. In fact, I swore I saw Eddie in a field as I was entering the last stages of the Camino, I heard his laugh.
He was still 19 years old. He has been 19 for 26 years now, never gonna age.
I remember hearing that Phil wrote in his walking log that even when he walked and no one was there, he didn’t walk alone. I am not for certain, but I have an inkling that Phil also had a crowd of folks walking alongside and behind him, walking with him around Raven Ranch.
Well, Phil, my brother, you are now a part of my tribe, walking with me when I walk as well.
I miss you, man!
I miss you all. I hope we all get together soon and have a big “Phil-Fest”:)
Love you, Ryck
P.S. Tonight we have a Waning Crescent Moon. Temps were mild, about 38, dry last few days here in Western Washington State. New Moon coming on Feb 1st.
Cheers:))
Dear Ryck,
You have to write to us more often… You are a wordsmith…
It is interesting you wrote about this with this date, 29th Jan… I had that thought of “not alone” that Phil wrote in his log-book in my mind a big part of the day…
These last years have been special for me in many ways, and while I have been on my own, definitely I have been “not alone”…
Love and hugs,
Cris
PS: I am sure my uncle Ruben is also walking next to your Grandpa, Great uncle Larry and Phil… I can definitely picture him in the tribe!
I like that idea very much, of not walking alone. It is nice to feel presence of those we have loved.
I surely miss Phil too and like hearing his words again as you post those.
Ryck, didn’t know any pilgrims lived as far north as us. Poulsbo is a lovely town. We are in Port Ludlow, just across the bridge.
I like the bit about the soul being the energy of the body or the animator of the flesh?Much as at a cosmic universal scale in Panentheism God could be seen as the soul of the universe or that which animates it but is also transcendent of the universe.So in Pantheism God and the universe are one and it is animated from within,soul and body being one but obviously this doesn’t mean that they are finite.In, Panentheism, which I prefer over Pantheism, the universe exists within God and God permeates it thus giving it life however is also in extension outside it.So it would be ,however,at the very deepest level all is One and there are no individuals and the animatior seems to have many faces but doesn’t really and thus many faces are made by the flesh and not by the spirit as it is channeled via the flesh.The more I muse over it and come to terms with my own mortality the more I think that this must be the answer….there are no individual souls to go to Heaven,or Hell for those of a different religions persuasion from the one we happened to have adopted by accident of birth,only reabsorbed back into the One which we never really left anyhow.As Plotinus said 2000 years ago,’the flight of the Alone to the Alone’.On a less mystical note I had to look up what 33F was in Celsius as we don’t use Fahrenheit(which is strange given the enthusiasm shown for miles,inches,etc!)3C not too bad, and it’s 7c here which is 45 Fahrenheit or 280 Kelvin.
Thank YOU Ryck for these wise words.
For many years I have been asked why I love to walk alone.
My answer.
I am never alone.
There is always, at a minimum,My God and I.
Looking Forward.
Oh Ryck. Now I can barely see out my eyes–there is some sort of blurriness there. I can feel a big hug. I can come over to Poulsbo any time!
Oh yes, Ryck, I felt that on the Camino very clearly, as well. One day, my pack felt so light it was barely there and later I received a message from a close friend saying, ‘Mary, I thought of you all day.’ On days when I walked by myself (not alone) I would choose one particular person to focus on, someone who had made a difference in my life – my godmother, my eldest sister, an encouraging teacher, St. Martin of Tours, etc. – and I thought about how they looked and how they were and all the things I loved about them. Those days, too, my pack was so much lighter and I knew they were helping me.
Thanks so much for this, Ryck! It’s a good reminder that one should practice this in everyday life, too.