What's in the Pilgrimage Creations Newsletter this month?

• We're going to India.
• From Steps.
• Walking classes.
• Book reviews.
• Cancelations
Finding your Camino Rhythms.
Preparation for walking seminar.

We're going to India

As many of you already know, we are nomads at heart. We have been here in Santa Fe a couple years and it is time to move to the next stage/step of our pilgrimage of life. It is not to leave here that we go, but to move to the next place. We want to heal some of our body aches and pains and we know that Yoga, naturopathy, and Ayurveda are good for that; so we are off to India. We will leave in October.

Initially, we will spend two months in Lonavla near Mumbai at a Yoga hospital, Kaivalyadhama. We have been there before, twice in 2004 and again in 2011. "Hospital" is a bit of a misnomer from an American point of view. It is a place to rest with naturopathic massages, Ayurvedic cleansings, vegetarian food, and twice daily yoga, all in a relaxing atmosphere. And you don't even have to attend any of that; you can play hooky any time you want. Some days that is the thing to do.

We will enjoy an extend stay in India. We will go there on a one-way ticket and only leave when we feel it is time. After the first two months cleansing our bodies, we will be visiting likely more than one ashram for spiritual renewal also. We want to stay in India long enough to let the Indian culture sink in to us. We visited India for four months in 2004 and another four in 2011. Now we want to live there a while. And maybe we will walk there too.

I have not written about those former visits to India. This time I intend to write. This will be another pilgrimage in our pilgrimage of life. It belongs under the Our Pilgrimages tab of Pilgrimage Creations. Look for it in the next few months and for its expansion as we live this stage of our lives.

We are leaving our rented home here in Santa Fe (Does a nomad ever dare to buy a home?). We are packing up our belongings and putting them into storage for the duration. When we come back to the States, we will decide where to live.

Steps

Here are a few posts from Steps, our almost-daily sayings, meditations, and observations on our pilgrimage through life.

Set sail
A ship is not meant to sit safely at dockside. It is for sailing out on the sea where there are wind and waves. It is meant to move around in. So is life. Set sail and move out into life's churning and sometimes dangerous waters.

Pleasure and pain
Do not deny pleasure or pain. Both are part of life. Life must be full and abundant. Let life happen.

A lifetime
How long do you have to live? A lifetime!

Walking classes

Petra's Walking with Awareness walking classes here in Santa Fe are still on. She will continue with them through September until just before we leave for India. She wants to pass on some of her experiences of many years of extended walks.

This is a walking class of a different kind. You will learn how to walk with more joy, awareness, and relaxation. At the same time you will develop your strength and health. Step by step you will experience how walking can also be a meditation.

Click the link above or go to Our Offerings, Walking classes on Pilgrimage Creations for details.

Book Reviews

This month we have a couple book reviews for your pleasure. Whether they are old friends or new acquaintances to you, they are worth looking at either for the first time or again. They speak of a Camino and a Spain of the 1990s, a Camino and a Spain that may not be any more.

Nancy Louise Frey, Pilgrim Stories: On and off the Road to Santiago, University of California Press, 1998. This book is an academic study of the pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago and the experiences of people walking it just before the turn of the century. Nancy gives you a good feeling for what can happen as you open yourself to life on this marvelous excursion into self and the universe. She has any good insights. I return to it often to rekindle slumping spirits.

Gees Nooteboom, Roads to Santiago: A modern-day pilgrimage through Spain, A Harvest Book, Harcourt, 2000 (translated 1997, original copyright 1992). Gees' pilgrimage is in a car. It is a pilgrimage with many detours and detours to the detours, as he puts it. You will visit remote churches and castles, Spanish and Camino history, and great cities before you finally arrive in Santiago. His insightful observations open subtle aspects of pilgrimage. My well-annotated copy of this book sits on a ready shelf for me to flip through every now and then and revisit some vision of the Spanish psyche or his own wanderings.

Finding your Camino Rhythms canceled

Our Finding your Camino Rhythms walking offering will not happen this year. With the deadline for registration only ten days away, we canceled the walk. The interest was not there this year. Perhaps we will offer it again sometime in the future if people show interest and we are inclined to accompany them.

Preparation for Walking a Pilgrimage on hold

Our Spiritual and Practical Preparation for Walking a Pilgrimage online workshop is on hold now that we are going to India.