On Wednesday, August 30 at 7:00 p.m. (Pacific time), Brandon will host a “sendoff” for me as I embark on the Camino de Santiago for a pilgrimage that is both personal and missional.

Paris first. Then off to St. Jean Pied de Port for the first night of the formal Camino. At least that is what I thought.

“I write. I experience. I teach.” Those words feel pure and true.

THE BIG LAUNCH—If all goes the way I am imagining it, I will take the months of May, June, July of next year to cycle the 4,100 miles of the Lewis and Clark Trail building the momentum for putting a pilgrimage infrastructure on this route.

Such a journey takes great intentionality—not in the sense of planning, but in the sense of listening, moment by moment, for the next right step.

Pilgrimages don’t actually start the day you take Step One on some specific route. Pilgrimages start the day that you DECIDE when you are going to take Step One.