I know: it sounds like a truly inflated statement, more than a bit presumptuous on my part  Just who do I think I am?  Touching the world?  There are, at least according to some counts, 195 countries in the world.  I couldn’t name or accurately place even half of them, yet my goal is to “touch the world”?  Huh?  Let me explain a bit.

While walking across northern Spain, my footsteps will be mingling with those of pilgrims from many parts of the world.  The potential is there for a grand exchange of insights and traditions, perspectives and opinions.  A touching and a sharing of worlds.

500 miles!  45 to 50 days?  That’s a lot of time on my hands.  Well, no, not on my hands, but on my feet!  You know what I mean, though: a lot of hours to fill.  From the very beginning, it has been my intention to use many of those hours in a sacred way, a “touch-the-world” kind of way.

For one thing, I intend to bring YOU with me.  If we are related in any way, if we’ve ever gone to school together, taught with one another, biked or hiked or skied or canoed or played whatever with one another, acted or watched plays together, prayed or praised together, listened to each other’s stories, cared for each other’s children, interacted with each other’s parents, or worked together towards a common goal, then I’ll be carrying you and your hopes, dreams, aspirations–and , it must be said, your disappointments and difficult times, too–with me.  Call it “prayer,” call it “positive vibes,” call it a “lifting up,” it’s my intention to be doing just that for you.  One of my favorite quotes, credited to Ram Dass, is: “We’re all just walking each other home.”  I’ll be doing that–walking with you, hoping you’ll walk with me–in April and May and into June, in a much more intentional manner than what I already do.  (Hope that doesn’t creep you out….)

So, yes, carrying you and your concerns with me.  That’s one of the sacred ways in which I hope to touch the world and make my pilgrimage much more than “just Katy’s Camino.”  But there’s more.  (Remember: I’ll have a lot of hours during which to keep my mind and spirits occupied!) 

I’ll be attempting to walk in solidarity with people the world over.  With women who walk great distances to secure clean drinking water, with refugees seeking safety and security, with immigrants looking for a permanent home and a life with hope and dignity, with children walking the fields to help with planting or harvesting, with young ones covering great distances to get an education.  I’ll be thinking of those who can’t walk: the elderly left behind in near-empty villages or in understaffed facilities; with prisoners of all kinds who would give anything for a fresh start and for the freedoms that I take for granted; with those who are crippled by diseases that shouldn’t still exist and by wars that should never have been fought.

There are no shortage of situations–domestic or foreign–on which to focus.  About which to ponder.  For which to pray.  On which to act.  To which to respond.  In the process, I anticipate many moments of deep gratitude for a life which, in comparison to the lives known by many, has come so easily. and been so good….

I’ll be busy!