Come walk with me in Jerusalem and I'll paint a portrait dabbed with history, blood, and desire. When you visit the Old City use artistic nimbleness. The streets are paved with pale limestone blocks, some as big as the pillow on your bed, shiny and smooth. I walk down...
Category: "Pilgrimage 2015-16"
5th Graders Growing Up During the Occupation
What if from the time we are 5 years old, all problems between people were handled with compassion and clarity? At Ramallah Friends School (RFS) children are empowered to address interpersonal problems. And then they take action to follow-up on the problems. I...
A Jew & a Quaker Work for Justice
Jean Zaru is a Palestinian Quaker who speaks and writes about current life in occupied Palestine. What is a Quaker response? I listened closely as Jean spoke at the RamAllah Friends Meeting last Sunday. "I'm not saying that the oppressed are blameless, but it's hard...
Talking with Jewish Settlers
On a cloudy day Jonathan and I took a bumpy bus-ride to Gush Etzion where Palestinian Ali Abu Awad started talking to Jewish settlers. We heard the following story from 3 settlers. The three work for the program Roots. They organize after school programs for both Arab...
Peacework in Hebron Palestine
Hebron is a tinderbox. There are confrontations daily. Before the sun rises the melodic cry of the muezzin drifts across the dark city. People cook their tea and have pita, yogurt, and diab (mix of tahini and grape syrup) for breakfast. Hebron, maybe 1/2 million...
From Europe’s End to Asia’s Beginning
I've completed El Camino, and now I immerse myself in the thick problems of conquest and domination. My friend in Seville wants to go on a trip in to Cuba before it is wide open to US traffic. Cruise ships will be going there next May. How strange is that? Let's rush...
Light on El Camino
"Walking I'm listening to a deeper way... All my ancestors are behind me, "be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands which come before you." Linda Hogan Why am I doing the Camino? I have a meaningful job, a loving family, and...
El Camino after 35 Days
We are climbing the Cordillera de Cantabrica expecting soon to be in Sarria. Our high point today was 4360 feet. We woke up at 6:30 to a drizzle and left at 7:30 with a steady rain. The Holm oak and the chestnut trees swallowed the stoney path. It was hard walking....
Don’t Give Up Before the Miracle!
Yellow arrows are the most common waymarks on the Camino. In addition to arrows there are yellow scallop shells on a blue background posted on road signs and on two foot tall cement posts. In larger towns and cities the municipality usually embeds metal scallop...
Leaving Castille
EE Camino de Santiago is so beautiful. Parts of the trail are over 2,000 years old, built by the Romans in their quest for Spanish gold. We sail past fields of vineyards, our backpacks bobbing up and down—each foot placed carefully on uneven paths. Wheat, barley, and...