JUL 17 2017 – THE PILGRIM
On the personal news front - I’ve had my head down and hands to the grind stone, busily working full time over the last 5 weeks with another few weeks to go, as I am desperately trying to pay for for my overseas holiday and put some funds back into the credit card. It is my own little ‘Camino’ to Morocco and Spain. In 2012, I made a ‘Musical Pilgrimage’ to the US, visiting and singing in places that were dear to my heart. Now it is time for another pilgrimage - A pilgrimage of the Heart ( to become a 'Peregrino del Corazon’ as my Spanish lessons are teaching me.)
It is a time to fill my heart with Beauty and Joy. To be filled with the warm sun of the Sahara, the colours and sounds of the Fez markets, the exquisite beauty of the Alhambra, to feel the ground of the Camino through Galicia in Northern Spain…. My heart is ready for this, and I am enduring this bitter winter by holding this hope of the warmth to come. The preparation has not gone the way I had hoped - because in the midst of this, I have been carrying a foot injury, that has necessitated me seeing the podiatrist, getting orthotics, and burrowing into my much needed funds…. But as ever, I am hopeful that ‘All will be well’ and will be as it is meant to be when the time comes for me to leave.
This is something I wrote in my journal recently that anticipates this longing for me.
PATH TO BEAUTY
It has been a long and arduous journey…
A journey of walking through darkness
Walking through the narrow thorny way..
I have despaired at times -
Given up.
Sat on the floor - lost!
Sobbing hard
Blinded by my pain, blinded by my tears
But the light called me on.
I don’t know how,
But I got up
again and again -
I walked with the pebble of Sorrow in my shoe.
I walked and walked...
I carried Grief
like a heavy pack on my back.
I didn’t know the road…
But I put one foot in front of the other.
I found a resting place or two
along the way…
A Japanese Bathhouse...
The healing hands of a masseuse…
Breaking down the hardening of my shell…
I didn’t want to get hard
I wanted my heart to stay soft.
Though I wept more not less
I chose to keep my heart of flesh.
I got to know my darkness.
And after awhile
I was not afraid of the dark.
I learnt to see in the dark.
I saw my shadows.
I learnt that I had to carry
my darkness with my light.
The two are one
Integrated, I am whole.
I am ready now
to walk again.
To begin my own ‘Camino’…
To take the pebble out from my shoe..
To swap my heavy pack for a lighter day pack..
I trust completely in the Path…
It will lead me -
And I will follow.
Because of the darkness
I have become the light.
I hold both together - in me.
Thank you for your attention and loving support of me and my music.
x Suzette