Don't hop on the bus through the mesate

[Michael P. Barham]

I highly recommend  NOT skipping the mesata -- it is part of the pilgrimage.
In fact, I will be preaching on that this coming Ash Wednesday.

I have found most people confuse boredom with inner struggle.  The reality
of such wide open, flat spaces means we lose the distraction of figuring out
where to put our feet.  The mesata is where people can really start feeling
the sting of the burning questions or concerns prompting them to walk in the
first place.  It is easier to avoid such needed self-evaluation and inner
contemplation when you are basking in the beauty of mountains or constantly
worrying about where to put your feet so you don't trip.

However, it takes a willingness to engage with ones self, and not look
peripherally at life -- we are so used to not allowing things to effect us,
we put up barriers.  If we take those down, I think we can find the routine
and simplicity of the Mesata offers us a great beauty.  But, then again,
most of us are used to what the media tell us is beautiful, or that complex
is beautiful, so we fail to look for the inner beauty of things -- perhaps I
am suggesting nature has an inner beauty as well as a superficial one.

In preparation for the meseta, may I suggest the book, The Solace of Fierce
Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spiritualit, by Lane.  Pilgrim at
Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard is also good for helping us think about how
any part of nature can be inspiring if we open ourselves to it -- but, then
the romantics like Thoreau tought us that too.

If you have to skip some, I suggest you at least take a couple of days to
walk in the Meseta, so you begin to get a little of the inner journey quite
different from the inner journey experienced walking in less open/flat
spaces.

Pilgrims in the middle ages HAD to experience the Mesata, they didn't have
the option of a bus  -- our taking such liberties, I think, detract from the
"pilgrim" experience of having to endure even the parts we don't find
particularly interesting, hopeful we can learn to see beauty and deepen
knowledge.

There is also a beauty of its own -- listening to the chirp of a bird carry
over seemingly endless space -- we might be reminded of our mortality, but
we might also experience the infinitude of life (for those who believe in
eternal/after life).

Peace,
Michael Barham