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.

Something is definitely stirring.

It is clear that this Pedal Pilgrim work will be need to be intimately involved with Native American populations.

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.

Nothing like a mountain to expose our limits and reveal our capacities.

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

If you are looking for a plan from me, I have to be honest—I don’t have one. But I do have an intention.

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.

Silly me. I should have already known this lesson. The path IS the message. And right now, what’s showing up on the path is a pretty heavy dose of paralyzing fear.

We still need pilgrims, but now rather than claiming the land we are traveling on we need to restore our relationship with the land with every sacred step or pedal stroke.

As much as I love the Declaration of Independence I wonder if we will be better served now by a Declaration of Inter-Dependence.

I have noticed in recent years that more and more people are replacing their one word titles with a long list of descriptors to let their readers know “what they are.”

This has always felt more like a movement than a project. Projects have plans. Movements follow energy.

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.

“In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.” A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean

Kalos Kagathos. Beauty and virtue or beauty and goodness. That is the philosophy underlying the gymnasium in ancient Greece. Those are the words that finally made my double major in college make sense.

Americans are increasingly looking for opportunities for personal transformation and going by foot, by bike and by canoe or kayak on adventures of self-discovery.

Seriously, listen to that statement: In America, taking a walk across the land is a luxury reserved for only the very well off. Somebody forgot to tell Forest Gump that!

Do you love because it is the right thing to do or do you love because your soul is on fire and your heart is aching to dance with the divine?

“Pilgrimage may be thought of as extroverted mysticism, just as mysticism is introverted pilgrimage.”

‘Brian, it sounds like you are approaching this with a “ready, fire, aim” strategy.’ I wasn’t sure what he meant. “Think about it, Brian,” he said. Finally, I stated the obvious. “Oh, you mean I am firing at my target before I really know what my target is.” He smiled and said, “Bingo.”