Pilgrimage for Katrina Victims
December 30th, 2010 PilgrimageNo Responses » Read or Post Your Own
In doing some fundraising for the 2011 Peacemakers Camp Scholarship Fund, I did some thinking about past fundraisers I’ve participated in, and remembered my 2005 Bicycle Ride for Katrina Victims.
Now that I’ve taken down all links to the website about that adventure, I realize that it’s a shame to not have that story posted on the web. Here’s a link to the now-decommisioned website: Natchez Trace Bicycle Pilgrimage for the Victims of Katrina
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Inspiration
June 22nd, 2010 Appalachian Trail, Pilgrimage, WritingNo Responses » Read or Post Your Own
I just read the last few pages of Just Passin’ Thru and set the closed book on my nightstand. Winton Porter’s book about the Appalachian Trail and his experience running Mountain Crossings store & hostel near Blood Mountain was a sweet, well-written, and funny account of trail life and community. And it has inspired me to pick back up the book I began writing in 2003: the story of my 2002 southbound thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail.
I began writing as a way of fulfilling my promise to begin “writing sermons” after I finished hiking. What that meant, I didn’t know. Where to start, I had no clue. So, I just made sure to plop myself down in a chair each day and wrote down a story from the Trail. As a result, there’s a large file on my computer filled with vignettes of the AT. No structure, no background. Some poorly written, some lovely.
And today I open that file up for the first time in probably five years. Reading and scanning through the paragraphs, I’m somewhat disappointed to find that much of the writing is the reminiscence of a 23-year-old trying to make sense of a life-changing experience. There’s no narrative flow and the stories are bogged down in details.
After several years of practicing the craft of storytelling, I’ve thrown away any idea that my stories report facts. Instead, I want to convey truth and human condition. So the book that I now envision writing is not simply another account of a thru-hike. It’s a series of stories from the Trail that illustrate the pilgrimage that my hike was and that my life has become.
How to accomplish that without being preachy or didactic is something I will have to work hard at. But Winton Porter pulled it off in Just Passin’ Thru and I thank him for inspiring me in this directiion.
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Welcome to the new FriendlyPilgrim
July 6th, 2009 Welcome!No Responses » Read or Post Your Own
FriendlyPilgrim.com has become a blog! All of my writing and information about pilgrimage, rites of passage, and Quakerism still exists on this website (see navigation bar above this post).
From now on, I will be posting my personal writings, thoughts, photos, and information on this blog. Please bookmark it and visit often.