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I finished my pilgrimage as scheduled, on the morning on Saturday 12 July, when I hiked the last 7 miles from my campsite in the corner of a large windy field shared with a few sheep. Got to John O’Groats up there in the northeast corner of Scotland before the businesses that sell trinkets and…
read whole postTicking Clock
The clock is ticking on this pilgrimage as it winds down. I’m writing from a campground in Melvich on Wednesday. And, God willing (everything is God willing), I will walk into John O’Groats on Saturday morning. So many of my thoughts have been turning to some sort of summary, or gathering together of loose threads,…
read whole postRoadblocked
Back near the beginning of the month I took a couple days off from walking to rest and rejuvenate. I stayed with friends of Ann’s in the village Kirkby Malham. It sits in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. (If you’ve seen any of the episodes of “All Creatures Great and Small” on PBS – which you…
read whole postSomeplace to Lay My Head
One thing about this trip, that I think I’ve mentioned before, is that there is no set path to follow. Everyone who does this LEJOG – Land’s End to John O’Groats – does it their own way. I’ve mostly been following a bicycle route published by Richard Barrett in order to walk mostly on roads,…
read whole postMy Sheep Hear My Voice
Sheep have been one of the constants of this long walk. I have no clue how many I’ve seen, but it must be thousands or even tens of thousands by this point. Which, of course, has me thinking about the Good Shepherd and the sheep of his flock. The New Testament records several sayings of…
read whole postUpdate on this Pilgrim’s Progress
As of today, Monday 9th June, I am in the city of Carlisle, Cumbria, in way northwest England. About 10 miles of walking from here is where I cross the border into Scotland. The bicycle route I’m following has really suited me so far, and I expect that to continue. It’s usually quite easy to…
read whole postThomas à Kempis on Midges
“There is no creature so little and so vile as not to manifest the goodness of God.” (Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Book 2, ch. 4) Really, Thomas? When I was young, I questioned whether the goodness of God was manifest in gnats flying around me on a summer afternoon. (I was also not…
read whole postBeing and Doing
Doing what it does and being what it is for all these years, it has stood there. It was old when our grandparents were just born. It was old even before that. When the United States were still a Confederation, when Washington was leading the colonial army, when Plymouth Rock had yet to be stepped…
read whole postSeldom Grow in Sanctity
Thomas à Kempis, in his classic “The Imitation of Christ,” has this interesting line: “Few are improved by sickness; so also they that go much on pilgrimage seldom grow in sanctity.” (Book 1, ch. 23) Those of us who say we are on pilgrimage at the moment have to deal with this. What was Thomas…
read whole postSpiritual Ages and Stages
“Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God”Hebrews 6:1 (NIV) The central idea here seems to be that there are, if you will, “ages and stages” in the Christian…
read whole postWild Horses … or Ponies
Bonus blog post to share a short video of some wild ponies I encountered as I crossed the Black Mountains yesterday. They apparently roam freely up on the moors. I was walking that ridge for hours before I met any other people.
read whole postToo Rich and Not Enough Time
I’m sitting in the border village of Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales. It has over twenty bookshops, and is often described as a “town of books.” It is both the National Book Town of Wales and the site of the annual Hay Festival. The population is fewer than 2,000. I spent much of the day wandering from…
read whole postIt had to be yew
The village of K– was my immediate goal. To see an 800 year old yew tree in their churchyard. They’d mentioned it on their web page. That seemed important enough to go a ways off route. As I was leaving the town before K– I checked the map on my phone and everything seemed in…
read whole postMeditation
Colossians 3:2-3: “Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” There are times we Christians forget this, both in our pilgrimage life and in our other life. On pilgrimages we can too easily get caught up in a spirit of…
read whole postCoincidence?
Coincidences seem to pop up quite at random. Some, I don’t believe, are random at all. Late yesterday afternoon I walked into the village of Sourton, Devon, UK on a rail trail called “the Granite Way.” I first headed toward the church, which was easy because the back of their property borders this old rail…
read whole postLEJOG Pilgrimage Church Visits on Wednesday 23 April
There’s a saying, isn’t there, that timing is everything. And God’s timing is the sweetest. Today I walked the lanes from Heligan to about 1.5 miles short of Fowey. I was able to visit 2 churches along the way, see another couple from outside. And walk by some buildings that looked like they may have…
read whole postPrayer of One Who is Living in a Strange Land
Far from my friends and acquaintances, I find myself in a strange land where as yet I know but very few people. But I know Thee, O Jesus, Thou Son of the Highest, as my Immanuel, my Brother, and my best Friend. Therefore I now turn to Thee, and humbly beseech Thee to have mercy…
read whole postAlmost a week in…
And it’s clear I’m not a professional blogger. I get to the end of my walking day and writing/editing a lot isn’t the first thing on my mind. Since I am trying mostly to “wild camp” – that we call “stealth camping” in the US – what is on my mind is to find a…
read whole postStarting with the First Step
My first steps were actually leaving home with Ann on Sunday afternoon as she drove me to Dulles Airport. But today I took the first of my footsteps carrying me the length of the United Kingdom. After eating that modified full English breakfast I walked town a bit waiting for 11:00 bus, which left station…
read whole postAnd so it begins
This morning I’m eating breakfast in Penzance. Then I catch a bus to Land’s End. Then I walk. Yesterday, tho, was another long travel day. Came with train delays, first on the train I took out of Bristol, making me late getting into Taunton where I was to switch trains. But the incoming trains there…
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Pathology: the Study of a Path 