Process in the Present

Now training the necessary moves towards final stages; distances approaching what will be the course of the daily enterprise on Camino.  Thus 20k today July the 15th with the start about one month away and the departure to Spain about three weeks.  This continues with some let off as the start approaches in order to maintain fitness while giving the body and mind a chance to build up for the task at hand; to engage in another phase of the continuing process of life in the present; engage and live in the process.  As I was training the 20k today in heat that finished at 30 C the thought that came around was the importance of staying in the moment of the process or the present; neither looking back to what was nor being deluded into the illusion that there is a finish.  Each time we worry about the regrets of the past; or focus on the finish ahead thinking issues will be resolved we are deluded and miss the clarity of the present.  Stewardship of the precious present; gifted from God is after all the only reality that we in some sense control; ourselves and how we react in the present.  Training today then rather than focus on finishing 20k it was better to focus on the surroundings of the area where I walked; the sounds of a neighborhood waking for a new day at the end of the work week.  Early there is little outside the melody of the birds that changes as the sun rises higher in the sky.  Humanity then begins to come back to public life; fellow morning walkers appear; then vehicles; then sounds of lawn mowers.  All is interspersed with the sound and sight of squirrels running about. Internal sensitivity is also part of the present requiring awareness; the reactions of the body on this particular day to the new distances; to the differing heat and humidity; to the need to adjust the weight of the pack loaded for training within a pound of a full load on Camino.  With a sense of your own pacing and level of clarity the body tells you when to take on more water for the water lost through sweat.  The only reality over which we have some vision of control is the present.

I wonder then how living out the present faithfully to the principles we have come to call our personal ethic of conduct; not regretting or celebrating past nor dwelling on the glories or peril of the future that may come changes us.  Perhaps it changes how we participate in the continuous need for things like peace in society; equality and respect among people of all races and cultures.  There is no valid utopian vision of the future to be achieved; rather the need for each of us beginning with ourselves to stay in the process or processes that generate peace, equality; respect etc.  The teaching of Jesus does then not take us to a finish but rather becomes the tool of our stewardship of the precious present.

Just Bob

Training Reflection for July 5

Training the "Necessary" 

As one looks to the pilgrimage of El Camino de Santiago de Franco one source says training is helpful.  Leslie Gilmour suggests that though training is not absolutely needed one may enhance the experience beyond a lot of early pain by preparation; stands to reason.  Thus starting the day after retirement I added  physical training  to language training in preparation for what is to come.  The suggestion of the author was for twelve weeks of physical preparation; like most starting slowly and building.  Building in the heat of the South Carolina summer is no fun; but no training that I have experienced is ever fun; always simply necessary.  Physical training; walking significant distances prepares both the body and the mind; not just the body.  As you walk free of technology; meaning no head phones; you allow yourself to be open to contemplation.  Perhaps contemplation may be based upon devotional reading completed earlier; upon reflections on the sermon heard at the last sabbath; upon your own search for the true servant self that God has created in your life.  The prayer is that with both language and complete physical training the pilgrimage may yield the hope for which it is taken; always open to the possibility that God has surprises beyond what one may expect; in fact that may be the only certainty that in humility one may expect.  Training is necessary; no question; but not fun; also no question.

Just Bob