Sep 12

A Gift of Grace: Walking with My Children

“Wanderer, your footsteps are the path . . .

the path is made by walking”

A. Machado

Lately, I’ve heard myself automatically declare my latest vacation, “a trip of a lifetime.” I surprised myself; why would I instinctively use such a significant answer to the conventional question: “How was your trip?”

It was wandering within Wayne Dyer’s book, “You’ll See It When You Believe It”, that led me to understand why those words were my perfect answer. Dyer declares that “. . . our days are the precious currency of a life.”

Now, I’ve had some days filled with phenomenal personal adventures. Breathtaking, astonishing and extraordinary, each of them helped me create lifetime memories. But none did I ever describe as a trip of a lifetime. I finally recognized what that phrase meant to me after I began writing this blog for my daughter, Leslie.

My discovery took me back to 2017. I was finally realizing a personal goal: to complete a 100-mile walk as a Camino Pilgrim. I and three other intrepid souls began our trek on the Portuguese Camino, ending it 11 days later at Spain’s Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. My footsteps on “The Way” honored the life of my son, Matthew. Officially writing his name on the certificate, proving I had completed 100 miles as a Pilgrim in his name, accomplished that bitter-sweet goal.

I experienced an incredible variety of breathtaking landscapes and engaging interactions with other Pilgrims. But, in the end, the gift of this walk was my intention for all those thousands of footsteps . . . to carry my oldest child in my heart, each new day, through each new pathway. That trip, I realized at its end, had become 11 days of precious currency: a collection of richly beautiful, heartfelt memories.

Now, here I am in the late summer of 2024, reveling in the joy and gratitude of completing my second trip of a lifetime. This journey found me a day-by-day wanderer through Italy’s Cinque Terre pathways. My goal this time was to daily wander, happily uninterrupted, with my youngest child by my side.

I call my daughter many things: accomplished, intelligent, beautiful, hard-working, athletic, gracious, forgiving, compassionate, a loving wife, an amazing mom, and a terrific Mimi. And now, for the first time, I can call her roommate. At the first mention of the two of us traveling to Italy together, I began to feel the same pull of purpose I had seven years ago . . . to shape new paths together with my child.

Our intention, to wander and discover, created our pathways. We trekked up and down steep, incredibly beautiful and sometimes surprising mountainous pathways; our footsteps took us along shore-line beaches, up ancient stairs toward relics and gorgeous views, and down streets into quaint shops for local color, wine and vegan gelato . . . all as we adventured onward together. Each new day, side-by-side, my child and I wandered through stunning and uplifting pathways, each now a part of me, rich with love. At its end, this second journey of a lifetime was a collection of 10 days of unforgettable memories, made by walking. Precious currency indeed.

I wish you wonderful, wandering adventures ahead, filled with beauty, comfortable shoes and heartfelt memories.