Category Archives: Pilgrimage Diary

Pilgrimage diary March 6th

IMG_0127The usual rush to church last night for Ash Wednesday. I took this slightly wonky photo of the church, all lit up. The word penitence came up quite a lot and I had a think about my sins. I had a row with my teenage daughter this morning but I think all mums do some of the time. We seem to be OK again now. I’m struggling with one of my colleagues. IT is an unforgiving profession. The most annoying thing is to pretend you know what is what when you don’t. I’ve managed to keep calm by not talking to him very much but that is hardly a Christian way to act.

The list of what I haven’t done that I should have done is enormous. ‘Sins of Omission’ the old confession calls them. Is each one of them a sin? I hope not or I’m done for.

The word ‘righteous’ came up quite a lot. I quite like this word. My internal translation is ‘at right angles to’. I imagine a well fitting joint, a book sitting on a well made shelf, a bottom sitting on a comfortable chair. In that sense I’m not apart from God, but the joint is rattling a bit, the book is leaning at 45 degrees. With just over a week left of work I’m handing stuff over, getting other people to take responsibility. Because our computers are managed by another company there are a whole lot of people I work with that I’ve never seen. I had a long chat with one of them, Kevin, about my work break. He had done something similar to travel in North America. I explained that this was a sort of spiritual journey, but I wasn’t sure where it would lead. I’m amazed how encouraging and receptive people are.

I cooked a sausage casserole tonight and I’m going to sit down and watch telly with Lucy. More tomorrow.

Pilgrimage Diary – Shrove Tuesday

When I started this blog I never meant it to be a personal diary. I have never kept a diary so why start now? But in about a month a group of us will be walking from Reigate to Canterbury. A distance of just over 80 miles. So it seems right to record the journey to the pilgrimage as well as the event itself. I’m going to try to write something every day, however short.

So, how do I feel at the moment? Exhausted, stretched too thin, very glad to be giving up work in two weeks time. At the moment I am driving west every evening, almost along the route we will be walking. Last night I drove into huge rainclouds, with Dire Straits on the CD player. Then, when I reached Reigate Hill, the cloud broke up. This has been a very strange way to leave a job. Everyone has been very sweet and supportive which is nice and I don’t have any doubts about where I’m going. An unusual aspect of this company is that the owner sends out e-mails with words of wisdom and quotes. He seems to favour L. Ron Hubbard which is interesting. So, in the spirit of this blog my quote is a book title:

If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat (By John Ortberg)