Hours Of My Life

 Day: 0, Miles Today: 0, Miles To Date: 0  Today started with the Paris Metro to  the train station. The high spread train was so nice. Lots of leg room, comfortable, fast. We really need to build that train from Dallas to Houston.  Le Puy is the starting point of my Camino. (Not THE Camino, but MY Camino.) It begins with the 7:00am Pilgrim’s Mass at the Cathedral. At the end of Mass, after a Pilgrim’s blessing, the  floor opens up exposing stairs out the bottom of the church right onto the steps shown here and then I’ll officially be on my Camino. 

“…he will give a crown of beauty for ashes…” Isaiah 61:3  I landed in Paris after a flight where I was seated next to the nicest young couple. They were from Mexico and headed all over Africa. Now that’s really an adventure. I went to Mass today at Notre Dame. Amazing & beautiful are inadequate to describe the restored cathedral. A more accurate word is Glorious. The whole building works to raise my mind to Heaven   More important is the Hope. When I visited ND in 2006 and again in 2019, it was more tourist attraction than church. But today, the pews were filled with the faithful and the reverent. Even the thousands of tourists were respectful. The church and the faith have risen from the ashes and are stronger than before. 

(The title of this post is a wink to my mother.) I think todays post might be longer than most that follow, and that's due to 2 things: There's a lot to say, and I have an actual keyboard. Starting tomorrow, posts will be from the phone. Today's the day. I retired yesterday, and I leave for Camino today (3/29/25). The general iternary for the next few days is:   Sat: Depart Dallas   Sun: Arrive in Paris, mass at Notre Dame   Mon: Train to Le Puy-en-Velay   Tue: Pilgrim's Mass, then start the Camino   Remaining 87 days: walk, walk, and more walking.   End of June: Come home, tired, more fit, closer to God. Why are you doing this? In my first post, I answered 3 of the  top 4 questions about my Camino. Today, I'll give the current answer to "Why am I doing this?". Note that I fully expect this answer to change over the coming 12 weeks.  There are 3 reasons I want to walk 1,000 miles across France and Spain: Adventure. Think about chapter 3 of my life...