Pilgrim Lost is inspired by the Camino de Santiago but focused on living in the everyday.

On our most recent podcast, Kari and I mused on the surprising attraction non-religious people have to going on ancient Christian pilgrimage.

Today, I would like to expand those themes by starting a conversation about the ways that pilgrim living embraces a counter-cultural lifestyle.

Who doesn’t love to be counter-cultural?  We all know that so much of the status quo is not soul-feeding.  It is too often fueled by fad.  Any thoughtful person believes that our media-saturated, immediate gratification, entertainment-focused, multi-tasking, tyranny-of-the-urgent society is the dietary equivalent of a Walmart candy aisle.

Pilgrims, while admitting we are often “lost," desire to counter these challenging if not destructive societal trends.  For instance…

Pilgrims love slow.  I was talking to a group of teens and tweens this last week about pilgriming and I told them that when I go on long walks, it often takes more than an hour for my brain to stop pinging.  It is the slow of the walk and the slow of my mind that my soul needs.

Pilgrims love quiet.  Be it meditation or wilderness escapes, it seems that the soul cannot settle unless the cacophony is curbed.

Pilgrims love the old.  On that last podcast, Kari and I discussed that our world is 15-minutes old.  Snapchat is a metaphor as well as a mobile app.  We avoid the old.  We hide away the elderly in institutions.  We tear down historic brink buildings to erect glass and chrome high-rises. In stark contrast… the Camino escorts pilgrims into millennium-old buildings, ushers them along paths rutted by millions of feet and sings to them from ancient bell towers.   Pilgrims don’t have to be religious to love the old.

Pilgrims desire honesty.  When walking the Camino, bodies break down and shoes wear thin… and so conversations have little patience for the trivial.  The everyday pilgrim’s intentionality also jumps to honesty be it by journaling, through their art or during a walk along the beach.

Pilgrims notice symbols.  On the Camino, the pilgrim’s head is always attuned to the next scallop shell or yellow arrow… or Templar cross or walker’s crook.  The pilgrim’s slow and intentional choices open’s their eyes to everyday symbols — changing leaves, beggar’s cup, distant siren — that otherwise would go unnoticed.

Pilgrims cherish strangers.  Walking across Spain affords the pilgrim hundreds of momentary friendships, passing and significant conversations that stimulate and feed the soul.  The everyday pilgrim is surprised by how moved they are by the passing stranger who offers a short exchange, allows you to take their photo in an iconic moment or shares a memory that finds its way into a future short story.  

I will stop there.  

It seems to me that there are two ways to spend a life:  passively and thus simply consuming and “entertained” OR intentionally and thus harvesting the meaning all around us all the time.

Thank you for getting lost with us. 

How would you add to this conversation?