Slow Walking The Way

Yes. God’s Hotel by Dr. Victoria Sweet has been a constant companion these last days. I’ve chosen the following quote from a book review in the Huffington Post because the pilgrimage described is close to my heart. Not so much the actual one mentioned here more my attraction to the wisdom of walking. Of taking a walk or journey for a spiritual purpose rather than a journey to get somewhere in particular.

These past five months in North America while not involving a lot of physical walking have been in a sense a pilgrimage. A personal spiritual journey. Where the path has lead, the events and very much including the sudden death of my Dharma brother Rev. Alexis,  continues to unfold with no end in sight. Although my flight back to the UK is booked for early March.

There is an ancient pilgrimage, 1,600 kilometers to walk, from south central France to the frontier of Spain and then due west to Compostella. In France, the path is called le chemin and the route the Saint Jacques de Compostelle Pilgrimage. In Spain, it is el camino and known as the Santiago de Compostella Pilgrimage. But the term that pilgrims for a thousand years have used is The Way. It is a journey of body and soul, a means of seeing, feeling and being that a person unleashes from within: This is a spiritual force, non-sectarian and universal, and a means of finding the purpose and human connection that are as essential to a life well lived as they are hard to achieve (Journey for Body and Soul).

God’s Hotel opens a window on the evolution of our health services and the evolving of the approach to health care. The most engaging aspect of the book is looking in on the very personal account of the evolution of one doctors growth and insight into her profession. From the traditional ‘professional’ doctor/patient relationship to one less starchy, rule bound and pressed for time. Professionalism is not compromised.

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5 thoughts on “Slow Walking The Way”

  1. I wish Victoria Sweet had written a book about her Compostella pilgrimage. I am fascinated by pilgrimages. Our previous Abbot designed a kind of pilgrimage in the Abbey grounds. Certain places to meditate. I meditated under a tree near the front parking lot. I remember looking up and seeing a little bird singing his heart out every time I was there.
    Dr Grace, the Buddhist, was the Abbess of Green Gulch, in a relationship with a woman whose name I forget. They adopted a little disabled girl. A film was made about them and was shown in Mill Valley a few months ago.

    1. Yes, I know what you mean Rosemary Victoria writing a book on her pilgramage. All the same her insights sprinkled through her book Gods Hotel on what she derived spiritually while walking were so interesting. Nice to have all that expanded and in one book. You will have to write and ask if she would do that, why not?
      And thanks for the info on Dr. Grace. Could you send me the name of the film if you have it?

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