Street tiles - the Pilgrims Way

         A pilgrimage is like no other journey. It extends beyond the borders of our normal experience, locale, or expectations. One on a spiritual pilgrimage never fully arrives at the preconceived destination.

       Our recent pilgrimage to northern France is just now beginning to unfold two months after returning, now presenting me with meaningful soul-gripping inspirations, now revealing graces the soul needed to receive, now revealing exotic beauty and splendor --- all, now, as I ponder my pilgrimage photos.

       Each photo worth a thousand words has created its own story, a story lain latent since the September travel. A thousand-words narrative inspires and titillates my imagination. Pictures of windows prompt me to wonder about the ancient history just beyond the rippled glass. War-scarred Gothic-shaped doors open to a story I will never know but can venture to imagine. My photos have become the unexpected gift of our recent pilgrimage.

       Every so often, my photos take me on the pilgrimage again, this time in solitude, with time to appreciate the exotic beauty of nature, street scenes, cathedrals, and  worship experiences. I hear the magnificent Gregorian Chant when I see the vine-covered door opening to the Benedictine monastery chapel at Solesmes. I smell warm candle wax when I see the side chapel at Liseaux. I taste the distinctive plum clafoutis when I see Le Bistrot de Flandre at Trosly.

     Each of us are on a spiritual pilgrimage of some kind, to some destination, on the pilgrims way. If we ponder the photos of our journey, what do they reveal to us about our soul?  

                                                            --by Jan