Carpe Diem #1741 Santiago de Compostela

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I have had a nice weekend, relaxed and going with the flow. It was a weekend with a lot of activities, but I enjoyed it. This month our theme is "an act of devotion" and all the prompts are pilgrimages all around the world and today I have chosen for that one pilgrimage that we have done several times here at CDHK ... Santiago de Compostela.

Santiago de Compostela is the capital of northwest Spain’s Galicia region. It’s known as the culmination of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, and the alleged burial site of the Biblical apostle St. James. His remains reputedly lie within the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, consecrated in 1211, whose elaborately carved stone facades open onto grand plazas within the medieval walls of the old town.

Pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela

We walked this pilgrims route back in 2014 (January / February) while we were visiting Shikoku Island, another pilgrims route we have walked together, and that will return this month too.

a whispered prayer -
pilgrims on their way to Santiago 
walking the Path of God
reaching out to their deepest thoughts
seeking the Light

seeking the Light
while chanting psalms or mantras
pilgrims on their way
enjoying Mother Earth's beauty -
a whispered prayer

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 15th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... be inspired and have fun!

Carpe Diem #1740 Munchner Jakobsweg

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yesterday I told you that I hadn't time to create our new episode, so here it is. By the way I will not catch up the delayed post, but will give you this episode instead. (This week we have four regular episodes).

This month we are traveling around the world searching for pilgrimage-routes as an act of devotion. We have seen already a few beauties and today I hope to inspire you through a not so well know short pilgrims-route in Germany. Today we will take our walk on the so called "Munchner Jakobsweg".

The "Munchner Jakobsweg" is not just one route, but there are several, all starting in another place. The "real" "Munchner Jakobsweg however starts in Munchen (or if traveled back) from Lindau. The "Munchner Jakobsweg" is the german start to wander to Santiago De Compostela. Along the Munchner Jakobsweg you will also see the signs with St. Jakobs Shells as we (maybe) know from our pilgrimage to Santiago earlier here at CDHK.

Direction Sign somewhere along Munchner Jakobsweg

Thousands of travelers from the east of Europe had to travel through Germany to reach Spain. There are many “feeder” routes heading west through the country to get you towards France and Switzerland, then on to your final stop.

Unlike some other scenic routes in Germany, the St. James’ Way doesn’t follow one single but several routes taken by St. James. Legend tells that his remains were brought by ship and buried in Northern Spain — so, this route more follows the “followers.”

One of the most famous (and beautiful) routes travels through South Germany, through Swabia in Bavaria, ending at Lake Constance at the Swiss border (then continuing on through Austria, Swiss, and France).

Along this portion of the Way of St. James, you’ll find abbeys, monasteries, churches, castles, festivals, gorgeous natural countryside, other scenic routes, and the friendliest people. Jakobus, as he’s also called in German, would have been proud to travel along such a route; and you’re going to love it.

Sounds like a wonderful pilgrims route to me.

again on my way
walking to Santiago
to find myself

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 12th at noon (CEST). I hope to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. For now ... be inspired and have fun!

Carpe Diem #1140 arriving at the right moment

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Well ... here it is finally we have reached Santiago De Compostela. We have succeeded the Road, an equivalent of the Road Jesus had to take on His final days, but here it is not going to stop. Here at Santiago De Compostela it starts ... the final piece of life as we know it ... here at Santiago de Compostela we have seen the Lamb and we have seen our future ... Here at the end of the Road we finally can see the connection with the divine Tarot, which I mentioned in one of my earlier posts this month ... We have conquered life and we may enter into the Love our Creator, Higher Spirit or what ever name you choose for that Power.

Finally Paulo recovers his sword what was taken from him at the start of his Road to Santiago ... he finally gets it back from his Master.

I love to share a short piece of text from "The Pilgrimage" to celebrate that we have, together with Paulo, done it.

[...] "As the lamb looked at me, I could read all of this in his eyes; now he had become my guide along the Road to Santiago. For a moment everything went dark, and I began to see scenes that were reminiscent of those I had read about in the Apocalypse: the Great Lamb on his throne and people washing his vestments, cleansing them with his blood. This was the moment when the God was awakened in each of them. I also saw the wars and hard times and catastrophes that were going to shake the earth over the next few years. But everything ended with the victory of the Lamb and with every human being on earth awakening the sleeping God and all of God’s power.
I was worthy of my sword because I knew what to do with it." [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

The Lamb (part of a painting by Grunewald)

[...] "The Master held out the sword to me, and I grasped it. I looked about for the lamb, but he had disappeared. But that did not matter: the Water of Life fell from the sky and caused the blade of my sword to glisten.' [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

the sound of rain
on young leaves of Ivy
I bow my head

© Chèvrefeuille

[...] "I have so much to do now that I have recovered my sword. The secret of my sword is mine, and I will never reveal it to anyone. I wrote it down and left it under a stone, but with the rain, the paper has probably been destroyed. It’s better that way. Petrus didn't need to know.
I asked my Master whether he had known what day I was going to arrive or whether he had been waiting there for some time. He laughed and said that he had arrived there the morning before and was going to leave the next day, whether I appeared or not.
I asked how that was possible, and he did not answer me. But when we were saying good-bye and he was getting into the rental car that would take him back to Madrid, he gave me a small medal of the Order of San Tiago of the Sword. And he told me that I had already had a great revelation when I had looked into the eyes of the lamb.
And when I think about it, I guess it is true that people always arrive at the right moment at the place where someone awaits them." [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

How often we can say "I was on the right place at the right time"? I think we all will have such experiences. You walk somewhere and you see the most wonderful garden in full bloom. You were there at the right moment. You listen to the radio and than there it is that song that brought you and your loved one together. You were there at the right moment.

Isn't it wonderful? We can say this also for our haiku or tanka. We were on time at the right place to celebrate that beautiful moment, that spiritual moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. This is what the Road has taught us ...

Camino sign

** I couldn't retrieve the owner of this photo, so please let me know, if it's okay to use your photo. I have credited this photo to the website were I found it. **

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 4th at noon (CET). I hope to publish our first episode, the first stage of our new journey through the land of the Rising Sun, later on.

Carpe Diem #1139 listening

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yesterday I promised you to publish the first prompts of February, but I have to say I am sorry I hadn't time to start creating the new prompt-list, but I have created our new logo for February already. I will share that new logo at the end of this episode.

We are on our way to Santiago De Compostela and we reached the end of this pilgrimage almost, but before we enter Santiago De Compostela there was another thing Paulo had to learn. About that is this new episode. First I thought to title this episode "silence", which also had fit the entire episode, but finally, just seconds ago, I decided to title this episode "listening".

Listening is a gift not everyone can listen, not everyone can be that listener that can and will help you to solve your problems or give answers on your questions. It is something like ... "sorry I didn't understand your problem". To help an other being in need you have to understand what the other asks you or from you, without understanding you cannot respond in the correct way. Let me try to re-form that response that used above. "I see what you mean, what can I do for you?" Isn't that incredible? Just rephrasing the response shows that you have listened, really listened, to what the other said.

Radiotelescope Dwingeloo (The Netherlands) (Dutch website)

The above picture shows you the Radiotelescope of Dwingeloo, a small village in my country. A radiotelescope is ... a big ear ... that listens to the sounds from the Cosmos, the stars, it's always on it always listens to the sounds of the stars and the cosmos ... that's what listening is. You have to be prepared to listen always to the sounds, the feelings, the emotions, the words and more from those around you. If you are a good listener than you are a blessed being, because it's not meant for every one to be a good listener.

I love to share a quote from "The Pilgrimage" about listening:

[...] ‘We are not smart enough to be able to listen to the silence! We are just human beings, and we don’t even know how to listen to our own ramblings. You have never asked me how I knew that Legion was about to arrive. Now I will tell you how: by listening. The sound began many days before, when we were still in Astorga. Starting then, I began to move along more quickly, because all the indications were that we were going to meet up with him in Foncebadon. You heard the same sound as I, but you were not listening.
‘Everything is contained in sounds – the past, the present, and the future. The person who does not know how to listen will never hear the advice that life offers us all the time. And only the person who listens to the sounds of the moment is able to make the right decisions.’ [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

Listen to the sound of the wind it will reveal you the sacred wisdom of the Road to Santiago

Petrus, Paulo's guide, asks him to sat down and than told him about the "Listening Exercise":

[...] 'Relax. Close your eyes. Try for several minutes to concentrate on all of the sounds you hear in your surroundings, as if you were hearing an orchestra playing its instruments. Little by little, try to separate each sound from the others. Concentrate on each one, as if it were the only instrument playing. Try to eliminate the other sounds from your awareness.
When you do this exercise every day, you will begin to hear voices. First, you will think that they
are imaginary. Later, you will discover that they are voices of people from your past, present, and future, all of them participating with you in the remembrance of time.
This exercise should be performed only when you already know the voice of your messenger.
Do this exercise for ten minutes at a time. " [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

You just have to try it to experience it, and I think it's not really necessary to know the voice of your messenger, your guardian angel. It's like listening to the wind, close your eyes, experience the spring breeze, you can feel it on your face, you can feel it playing with your hair ... the spring breeze (by the way all kind of wind) whispers his/her message in your ear. You can listen what the wind does tell you, it is the word of the Creator, Higher Self or what ever name you will give it.

Listening ... well I don't know if I am a good listener, but for sure I will try to be a good listener worth to have given that gift ... the gift of listening.

alone

only the spring breeze

listen

© Chèvrefeuille

Another one:

along the Road only the sound of nature to enjoy listen just listen

© Chèvrefeuille

Our new logo for February 2017

And a last one from my archives which I published in response on our Winter Retreat last winter:

rustling leaves telling stories from all over the world the silence deepens © Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope I have inspired you again with this post. This post is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 3rd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1138 hospitality

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We have only three days left this month so I hope we will succeed to enter Santiago De Compostela, but we will see. After these three days we will start with a new month full of beautiful prompts ... and as I told you in one of my earlier posts ... that will be another wonderful pilgrimage like month. Why? Well let me tell you ...

We are all haiku poets, and tanka poets and poets of all those beautiful Japanese poetry forms we know, but what do we know about that land in which the roots are to find of our poetry? Next month we will go on a kind of pilgrimage through the land of the Rising Sun, the land of haiku ... Japan. It is one of my dreams to visit Japan for real, but ... well I think it will stay a dream for a long time.
I hope to have the journey ready next Sunday, maybe it will not be complete, but fo sure I will publish our first seven (7) prompts next Sunday if of course nothing comes in my way ...

Paulo Coelho the author of The Pilgrimage

As you know we are walking the Road to Santiago together with Paulo Coelho the world famous author from Brasil. His "The Pilgrimage" is our guide along the Road. In 2006 Paulo invited the Norwegian TV to join him on the Road to Santiago.

To make this pilgrimage more real I have searched all over the Internet and found a wonderful movie about The Road to Santiago De Compostela, its for sure worth to watch, but I couldn't copy it to here, so I will give you the URL to watch this movie titled The Way (find the movie HERE)

Along The Road to Santiago you can always find shelter at old barns, small villages, hotels, homes and more that is one of the "laws" of the Road to Santiago, while you are on your Road to Santiago as a pilgrim, wearing the St. James Scallop, you always will find a place to stay, to rest, to eat and drink, but also to sleep. This is also the deeper meaning of walking the Road ... be grateful for everything you got. The people living along the Road will give you shelter because they know that giving you a place to rest will give them a good feeling and it gives them the love, the unconditional love of our Creator.

This episode is about "hospitality". What is it? What does it mean to be friendly and loving to another being? We see this already in the shortness of our poems ... haiku shows us in just a few lines how to be friendly for your surroundings, for nature and the people around you. Nature gives us its hospitality to be in the beauty of nature. We may walk through nature, we can make use of all that nature gives us ... but in return for her hospitality we have to respect her and that's what haiku means. That's what the Road means and that's what the Road teaches us.

Beautiful Nature Along The Road To Santiago

Look at the beauty of nature along the Road. She cherishes us, she gives us comfort, she gives us love, she gives us hospitality ... so let us respect her ... she is all we need.

silence
a babbling brook
cherishes me

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Fevruary 2nd at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1137 The Bridge

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Thank you all for your support according to my exam of today. By the way I passed the exam, so I may now prescribe medicines for my oncology patients. It was a though exam, and at first I was very nervous, but finally I became more calm and could do the exam with a good result.

January is almost over and we are entering the last stages of our Road to Santiago. It was (and still is) an adventure to make this pilgrimage in the virtual world together with Paulo and his guide Petrus. We have learned a lot I think and maybe there will be a time to walk this Road for real ...

This episode I have titled "The Bridge" and it refers to the following passage in "The Pilgrimage":

[...] One morning we arrived  at an immense bridge, totally out of proportion to the modest stream that coursed below it. It was early on a Sunday morning, and, since the bars and taverns nearby were all closed, we sat down there to eat our breakfast.
‘People and nature are equally capricious,’ I said, trying to start a conversation. ‘We build beautiful bridges, and then Mother Nature changes the course of the rivers they cross.’
‘It’s the drought,’ he said.
‘What do you know about this bridge?’ he asked me.
‘Nothing,’ I answered. ‘But even with the drought, it’s too big. I think the river must have changed its course.’
‘As far as that goes, I have no idea,’ he said. ‘But it is known along the Road to Santiago as the “honorable passage.” These fields around us were the site of some bloody battles between the Suevians and the Visigoths, and later between Alphonse III’s soldiers and the Moors.
Maybe the bridge is oversize to allow all that blood to run past without flooding the city.’
‘However, it wasn’t the Visigoth hordes or the triumphant cries of Alphonse III that gave this
bridge its name. It was another story of love and death.'

"The Honorable Passage", or Orbigo Bridge

‘During the first centuries of the Road to Santiago, pilgrims, priests, nobles, and even kings came from all over Europe to pay homage to the saint. Because of this, there was also an influx of assailants and robbers. History has recorded innumerable cases of robbery of entire caravans of pilgrims and of horrible crimes committed against lone travelers.’
‘Because of the crimes, some of the nobility decided to provide protection for the pilgrims, and each of the nobles involved took responsibility for protecting one segment of the Road. But just as rivers change their course, people’s ideals are subject to alteration. In addition to frightening the malefactors, the knights began to compete with each other to determine who was the strongest and most courageous on the Road. It wasn’t long before they began to do battle with each other, and the bandits returned to the Road with impunity.' [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

Bridges ... bring people from different sides together, in a way our Haiku Kai can be compared with a bridge. Here we come together, haiku poets from all over the globe ... we have build virtual bridges from a lot of countries to here ... and I am proud of it.

from all directions
bridges lead people together
to be together

creating and celebrating poetry
from the land of the Rising Sun

© Chèvrefeuille

Let us protect all those bridges that brought us together ... a warmhearted family of haiku poets. Thank you all for crossing that bridge in harmony with each other out of unconditional love.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 1st at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1136 Imagine this ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As I told you all yesterday I am busy with preparing an exam I have to do tomorrow (January 27th) and it takes more time than I had thought so today I love to trigger your inspiration, your muses with another beautiful image along the Road to Santiago. So I have taken the easy way (again) to save time for my exam.

Along The Road to Santiago (© photo I don't know whom is the owner of the photo I found it at the website hidden in the link under the image)

This is a very beautiful overview somewhere along the Road. The "milestone" in the front is the usual marker for the Road, the scallop.

This episode, imagine this ..., is a kind of Carpe Diem Imagination. So let the image be your source of inspiration.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 31st at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1135 that moment ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This will be another short episode, because I have to prepare an exam I have to do next Friday. It is not an easy exam so ... I need that time, but of course I cannot let you without inspiration. Therefore I have chosen to share a scene which Paulo encounters while on his road to Santiago.
As you all know haiku is only an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. I love to challenge you to use the given scene to create haiku or tanka ... life in that short moment ... feel the power of haiku.

A beautiful scene in the above image ... in this scene you can see a bit of the scene Paulo saw.

[...] "We arrived one afternoon at the ruins of an old castle of the Order of the Knights Templar. We sat down to rest, and while Petrus smoked his usual cigarette, I drank a bit of the wine leftover from lunch. I studied the view that surrounded us: a few peasant houses, the tower of the castle, the undulating fields ready for sowing. To my right appeared a shepherd, guiding his flock past the walls of the castle, bound for home. The sky was red, and the dust raised by the animals blurred the view, making it look like a dream or a magic vision. The shepherd waved to us, and we waved back. The sheep passed in front of us and continued down the road. .... It was an impressive scene … " [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

I think this will do it ... I hope I have inspired you to create haiku or tanka based on a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 30th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1134 beyond control

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Do you know the feeling that you are loosing control? That time (for example) is like grains of sand through your fingers? Or ... that technical problem I had earlier this month ... I couldn't control that, and it made me "mad and angry", because I couldn't do what I love to do ... keeping CDHK alive and running. Those few days when I couldn't use my PC were beyond my control ... Life is beyond control. No one can hold control on life or the world ... that battle we always will loose.
But ... maybe we have to let go control? And just accept the things we will encounter on our path? I think this is one of the lessons the Road to Santiago will teach us or has taught us.

We are on our way to Santiago De Compostela, walking that famous route, St. James Way or The Camino, the Road to Santiago. This month we were on route to Santiago together with Paulo Coelho and his guide Petrus. We are reading "The Pilgrimage" and there are only a few days left before this month will be over ... maybe we will succeed in our goal, maybe not .... well ... that's beyond control ... we will see let go of it .... we have had the precious experience to wander through the northern part of Spain we only can be happy ...

let go
the caged bird
reborn

© Chèvrefeuille

Along The Road to Santiago

Beyond control ... that's the title of this episode .... And it refers to something I read in "The Pilgrimage". During his journey, his pilgrimage, Paulo encounters several difficulties beyond control. One day he is attacked by a horrible dog and he remains with wounded hands. That same dog encounters him many times and one day he goes to a gypsy fortuneteller to ask her why this dog is so many times on his path. It turns out that this dog is his demon, his back-pack, he still has to carry. That dog will leave him alone only when he conquers his fears, his pride, his greed and more.

This scene looks familiar I think. Maybe not ... Maybe you know that classical novel by John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, a Christian allegory in which the leading character, Christian, has to carry a heavy burden until he reaches Calvary. Than he feels how the presence of the Holy Spirit reveals him the love and care of Jesus Christ. Right at that moment his burden comes loose, it's taken away by his saviour.

In this similarity we can see also that we aren't in control ... the Cosmos, Higher Spirit or what ever name you choose is in control. Again I sense that to go beyond control is letting go ...

Let us take a look at a quote from "The Pilgrimage":

[...] ‘In the life on the Road to Santiago, certain things happen that are beyond our control. When we first met, I told you that I had read in the gypsy’s eyes the name of the demon you would have to confront. I was surprised to learn that the demon was a dog, but I did not say anything to you about it at the time. Only after we arrived at that woman’s house – when for the first time, you showed the love that consumes – did I see your enemy.
‘When you chased away that woman’s dog, you did not place him anywhere. You didn’t hurl the spirits into a drove of pigs that was thrown over a precipice, as Jesus did. You simply chased the dog away. Now his force wanders along behind you, without a destination. Before finding your sword, you are going to have to decide whether you want to be enslaved by that force or
whether you will dominate it.’ [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

Along the Camino

[...] ‘A threat leads to nothing if it is not accepted. In fighting the good fight, you should never forget that. Just as you should never forget that both attacking and fleeing are part of the fight. What isn’t a part of the fight is becoming paralyzed by fear.’ [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

The above quotes show you what I mean I think. We can be in control, with letting go. Defeat your demons and become free .... go beyond control ... let go ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 29th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1133 walking the Road

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month we are on our way to Santiago De Compostela together with Paulo Coelho and his guide Petrus. We have learned a lot and we have seen a lot. This Road to Santiago is really awesome and it turned out to be a spiritual adventure.

Today I love to challenge you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on a photo. I haven't enough time today to create a long episode, so what's easier ... just share an image to inspire you.

The Road to Santiago

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 28th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1132 ‘The wrong answer will indicate the right one.’ (Petrus)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are almost at the goal of our pilgrimage of this month, Santiago De Compostela. We have walked the Road together with Paulo and his guide Petrus while we were reading "The Pilgrimage". During our walk we learned a few exercises, and maybe just as Paulo did, we don't see or know the purpose of these exercises, but than ... there is this situation, a problem to resolve or something and finally we see the purpose of these exercises.

While Paulo and Petrus are on their way they encounter a sacred cross that has broken and fallen. Paulo shakes his head, but doesn't do anything to resolve this. Petrus however commands him to repair the cross. And than Paulo experiences in a spiritual way what the Saviour has felt.

Wooden cross somewhere along the Road to Santiago

[...] ‘The wrong answer will indicate the right one.’ The impossible solution would be to try to drag the cross to a different place; I no longer had the strength to do that. It was also impossible to try digging deeper into the ground. So if the impossible answer was to go deeper into the earth, the possible answer was to raise the earth. But how?
And suddenly … I could raise the earth!
I began to collect all the stones nearby and placed them around the hole, mixing them with the earth I had removed. With great effort, I lifted the foot of the cross a little and supported it with stones to raise it higher off the ground. In half an hour, the ground was higher, and the hole was deep enough.  Now I just had to get the cross into the hole. It was the last step, and I had to make it work. One of my hands was numb, and the other was giving me a great deal of pain. My arms were wrapped in bandages. But my back was all right; it had just a few scratches. If I could lie down beneath the cross and raise it bit by bit, I would be able to slide it into the hole.
I stretched out on the ground, feeling the dust in my nose and eyes. With the hand that was numb, I raised the cross a fraction and slid underneath it. Carefully, I adjusted my position so that its trunk rested squarely on my back. I felt its weight and knew that it would be heavy to lift but not impossible. I thought about the Seed Exercise, and very slowly I squirmed into a fetal position, balancing the cross on my back. Several times I thought it was going to fall, but I was working slowly; I was able to sense the direction it might take and correct for it by repositioning my body. I finally achieved the position I wanted, with my knees in front of me and the cross balanced. For a moment, the foot of the cross shook on the pile of stones, but it did not fall out of place.

wooden cross somewhere along the Road to Santiago

‘It’s a good thing I don’t have to save the universe,’ I thought, oppressed by the weight of the cross and everything it represented. A profoundly religious feeling took possession of me. I remembered that another person had carried the cross on his shoulders and that his damaged hands had not been able to free themselves from the wood or the pain as mine could. This religious feeling was loaded down with pain, but I forgot about it immediately because the cross began to shake again.
Then, slowly raising myself up, I began a rebirth. I couldn’t look behind me, and sound was my only means of orientation. But just a while ago I had learned how to listen to the world, as if Petrus had guessed that I was going to need this kind of knowledge. I felt the weight of the cross and sensed that the stones were accommodating each other. The cross rose bit by bit, as if to help me in this test. It was as if the cross, itself, wanted to return to its position, framing that section of the Road to Santiago.
One final push was all that was needed. If I could get into a seated position, the trunk of the cross would slide down my back into the hole. One or two of the stones had been dislodged, but the cross was now helping me, since its foot remained in place where I had built up the wall. Finally, a pull on my back indicated that the base was free. It was the final moment, just as at the waterfall when I had had to fight my way through the current: the most difficult moment, because it is then that we fear failure and want to give up before it occurs. Once again I sensed how absurd the task was, trying to raise a cross when all I really wanted to do was find my sword. But none of these thoughts was important. With a sudden thrust, I raised my back, and  the cross slid into place. At that moment I recognized once again that fate had been directing the work I had done.
I stood there expecting the cross to fall in the other direction, scattering the stones I had placed. Then I thought that maybe my push had not been strong enough and that the cross was going to fall back on top of me. But what I heard was the muffled sound of something hitting against the bottom of the hole.
I turned carefully. The cross was upright, and it was still trembling from the impact. Some stones were rolling down their slope, but the cross was not going to fall. I quickly put the stones back in place and embraced  the cross so that it would stop wavering. I felt alive and hot, certain that the cross had been my friend throughout all of my work. I stepped away slowly, improving the placement of the stones with my feet. I stood there admiring my work for a long time, until my wounds began to hurt. Petrus was still asleep. I went over to him and nudged him with my foot. He awoke with a start and looked at the cross. ‘Very good,’ was all that he said." [...] (Source: The Pilghrimage by Paulo Coelho)

In this piece from The Pilgrimage we read that Paulo uses the Seed Exercise to bring the cross in an upright position. Sometimes we need such an impossible situation to learn how to cope with it. Than we will remember that what we need to accomplish it.

In a way you can compare this with what is know as the impossible question, the koan, which we all will know, because of the fact that haiku (and tanka) can be such a koan, an impossible question that cannot be answered except through an "aha-erlebnis", a moment of clarity of mind.

The Road to Santiago ... it's a beautiful road to walk, but it certainly isn't an easy road ... It will "torture" you, but it also will "surprise" you. The nature along the Road is breathtaking and the hospitality of the people along the Road is legendary ... yes it is an once in your lifetime experience and I hope you have felt this during this month.

along the road
poppies start blooming again -
the scent of straw

© Chèvrefeuille

a whispered prayer -
pilgrims on their way to Santiago
walking the Path of God
reaching out to their deepest thoughts
seeking the Light

seeking the Light
while chanting psalms or mantras
pilgrims on their way
enjoying Mother Earth's beauty -
a whispered prayer

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 27th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1131 meditation

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Do you meditate? Do you know "agape", the love of the Lord as he radiated to His disciples at the last meal before His trial and crucifixion? That strong love you can feel as you meditate. Meditation is not only something we learn from only the Eastern religions and spiritual movements, it became part of our Western philosophy too. Meditation helps you to focus and come in close contact with the spirituality of nature and the Cosmos. Meditation can give you the peace you need in your life.
I think everyone of us mediates and I believe that everyone has his/her own way (and reasons) to meditate.
To me meditation gives me the peace of heart I need. It makes my mind clear and silent. It helps me to bring that silence into my mind. As you all know I am a very busy person, not only through my work, but also through being your host here and through all the things I love to do. Than there are days that my mind and heart cannot become in peace or silence ... than I meditate.

This is what Paulo learns during his pilgrimage to Santiago and I hope to reflect that here this month while we are walking the Road to Santiago on the virtual highway. Isn't it wonderful that we can enter the whole world through the Internet? We can visit libraries at the other side of the globe, we can visit places and countries everywhere on our planet just by "walking" the virtual highway.
A while ago we visited for example Shikoku Island to walk the once in a lifetime pilgrimage of Buddhists along the 88 temples of Shikoku. We have visited a big part of the European countries. We have conquered the steppes and the taiga of Mongolia and Russia. We traveled along the Trans Siberian Railway without leaving our home, just by "walking" the virtual highway.

The Road to Santiago

This month we are on our way to Santiago walking the Road of Saint James, finding our roots of spirituality, finding the silence and the depths of our heart and mind ... awesome.

As Paulo and Petrus (his guide) are on their way to Santiago they use several exercises to find their deeper grounds. And today I love to introduce to you another wonderful exercise we can do ourselves. This exercise is called "The Blue Sphere Exercise".

The Blue Sphere Exercise

Seat yourself comfortably, and relax. Try not to think about anything.

1. Feel how good it is to be alive. Let your heart feel free and affectionate; let it rise above and beyond the details of the problems that may be bothering you. Begin to sing softly a song from your childhood. Imagine that your heart is growing, filling the room – and later your home – with an intense, shining blue light.

2. When you reach this point, begin to sense the presence of the saints (or other beings) in which you placed your faith when you were a child. Notice that they are present, arriving from everywhere, smiling and giving you faith and confidence.

3. Picture the saints approaching you, placing their hands on your head and wishing you love, peace, and communion with the world – the communion of the saints.

4. When this sensation becomes strong, feel that the blue light is a current that enters you and leaves you like a shining, flowing river. This blue light begins to spread through your house, then through your neighborhood, your city, and your country; it eventually envelops the world in an immense blue sphere. This is the manifestation of the great love that goes beyond the day-today struggle; it reinforces and invigorates, as it provides energy and peace.

5. Keep the light spread around the world for as long as possible. Your heart is open, spreading love. This phase of the exercise should last for a minimum of five minutes.

6. Come out of your trance, bit by bit, and return to reality. The saints will remain near. The blue light will continue to spread around the world.

This ritual can and should be done with more than one person. When this is the case, the participants should hold hands while they do the exercise.

It's a wonderful way of meditating. I will bring you the comfort, peace, love and silence you need to break loose from your daily life. You just have to try it to experience it. It's really awesome.

Meditation ... I love it!

Blue Sphere

magic experience
surrounded by a blue sphere
I find my peace

© Chèvrefeuille

deep silence
closing my eyes
the blue sky

© Chèvrefeuille

What a wonderful experience this was. I hope it will inspire you to create haiku, tanka or an other Japanese poetry form.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 27th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1129 friendship

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We all need friends and friendships. Friends are necessary, because in times of sadness and joy you can depend on them. In times of sorrow they will comfort us. In times of joy and happiness, they will be celebrating with us. Friends ... we all need them.

In "The Pilgrimage" by Paulo Coelho, Paulo develops a friendship with his guide Petrus. They are on the Road to Santiago together and they will help each other to conquer the "devils" on their path, but they will also be happy together, or cry together. That's friendship.

Friendship isn't easy, it's a continuous "battle" to keep your friendship alive. Of course there will be friends who don't want to give energy to hold their friendship alive. If you have such a friend, let him go (is what Petrus, Paulo's guide says) he / she is not your friend, at least not your real friend.

In times of sadness you get to know who your real friends are, because they will stay close to you, they will comfort you, they will cry with you and they will give you new energy to go on.
As you all know my dad died last year, as did Jane Reichhold, it made me very sad and I wept a lot, I became depressed and I saw "friends" go, because they couldn't handle my sadness and my tears ... at the end of that period I had only one friend left ... Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This warmhearted and loving virtual family became my friend ... and that makes me feel alive again.

Friendship ... cherish your friends, cherish them because they will always be there for you not only in life, but also after life ...

Friendship

[...] ‘Once, a poet said that no man is an island. In order to fight the good fight, we need help. We need friends, and when the friends aren’t nearby, we have to turn solitude into our main weapon. We need the help of everything around us in order to take the necessary steps toward our goal. Everything has to be a personal manifestation of our will to win the good fight. If we don’t
understand that, then we don’t recognize that we need everything and everybody, and we become arrogant warriors. And our arrogance will defeat us in the end, because we will be so sure of ourselves that we won’t see the pitfalls there on the field of battle.’ [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

Isn't it wonderful? Friends forever always there to give a helping hand in all things that happen.

raindrops
they fall one by one
and become one

© Chèvrefeuille (from my archives)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 24th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1128 Imagine the Road to Santiago

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I haven't enough time today to create a full episode of today's CDHK month in which we are on our Road to Santiago, a beautiful pilgrimage. While we are walking this Road we are reading "The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho.

I love to inspire you today with only an image, say this is an episode of Carpe Diem Imagination. Here is the image to inspire you. It is taken somewhere along the Road to Santiago.

Somewhere along the Road to Santiago

This "special" episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 23rd at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1127 penitence

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

The Road to Santiago, one of the most famous (and most  beautiful) pilgrimages has secrets, but also along the way you can find wonderful villages, cities and beautiful places like churches and cloisters. Somewhere along the Road to Santiago you encounter a village named Osbanos where you can find a church devoted to Felicia of Aquitaine. In that church built somewhere in the 12th century a murder took place. Here is that story told by an old wise man which Paulo and Petrus met along the Road.

Osbanos

[...] ‘Right there. That’s the exact spot where love was murdered,’ said the old man, pointing to a small church built into the rocks.
The heat of the day was almost unbearable, and in all of the bars and villages where we stopped, the people complained about the drought. Because of the heat, we adopted the Spanish custom of the siesta and rested between two and four in the afternoon when the sun was at its hottest.
That afternoon, as we sat in an olive grove, the old man had come up to us and offered us a taste of wine. In spite of the heat, the habit of drinking wine had been part of life in that region for centuries.
‘What do you mean, love was murdered there?’ I asked, since the old man seemed to want to strike up a conversation.
‘Many centuries ago, a princess who was walking the Road to Santiago, Felicia of Aquitaine, decided, on her way back to Compostela, to give up everything and live here. She was love itself, because she divided all of her wealth among the poor people of the region and began to care for the sick.’
‘Her brother, Duke Guillermo, was sent by their father to bring her home. But Felicia refused to go. In desperation, the duke fatally stabbed her there in that small church that you can see in the distance; she had built it with her own hands in order to care for the poor and offer praise to God.
‘When he came to his senses and realized what he had done, the duke went to Rome to ask the pope’s forgiveness. As penitence, the pope ordered him to walk to Compostela. Then a curious thing happened: on his way back, when he arrived here, he had the same impulse as his sister, and he stayed on, living in that little church that his sister had built, caring for the poor until the last days of his long life.’ [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

Isn't it a wonderful story? Here the one who murdered love, his own sister, walks the Road and suddenly, how curious, he becomes the same as his sister ... This is what love can do with you when you are walking the Road to Santiago. It's a walk to enlightenment, to recover from all what happened in your life. At the end of the Road, there is light, there is the revelation that you are a good person, full of unconditional love.

first narcissus blooms conquering the long cold winter a new life starts

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 22nd at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1126 depend on yourself

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to present a new episode of CDHK to you, but first this: Yesterday our Spring Retreat 2017 "fragile beauty" has started, you can find the link towards the Spring Retreat highlighted at the left side of our Kai.

Yesterday I stated that the Road to Santiago has connections with the Tarot and I love to explain that. As you maybe know on all the Tarot cards of the so called "major arcana" you can see flowing water. This water is also known as "the path of life", as in Jesus is the Water of Life. This path, our Road to Santiago, has that goal too. As we walk the Road we will grow spiritual and become more in tune with our surroundings and the Cosmos. We will cleanse our souls with the water of life ... becoming a part of the bigger plan ...

Paulo has spoken with Father Jordi who has showed him a wonderful miracle with his scallops. They started to glow, yes Father Jordi is a sorcerer of the Tradition and he (Father Jordi) shows Paulo how he can reach the end of the Road. He has to depend on himself, not only on his guide Petrus, because he will not always have a guide to point him the way.

This is what the Road teaches us. Follow the directions given along the Road (see above image) than you will always return on the right track. In this I see the following: In our life we are learning constantly sometimes we do it our own way, sometimes we do it in a guided way. For example: As I was a youngster my parents taught me that you have to believe in God and in His Son. Of course I was delighted with that belief, but as I became older (and wiser?) I left the church were we were part of and became a member of an Evangelical church. I hoped to find the happiness of believing, but I didn't. In a way I couldn't find my path. I knew there was some goal which I had to reach, but I didn't know how. So I studied a lot of books and went to listen to several wise man and woman, but I didn't find what I sought for. Finally I decided to give words to my wishes, my believes and so I found my path ... without a teacher or guide. I had to depend on myself.

There is of course nothing wrong with following a teacher or a guru, but you always have to think "do I need him (or her), or is it a false prophet I follow? Depend on your own wisdom, your own knowledge. Let your heart speak for you and not your mind. Open up to the world around you ... listen to what nature tells you, or what say that Higher Power that is always around us ... and follow your own path ... we are all wise ...

Father Jordi says it in this way:

[...] ‘The Jacobean route is marked with yellow pointers, painted all the way across Spain. If you should lose your way at any time, look for the markers – on trees, on stones, and on traffic signs – and you will be able to find a safe place. Try to depend mainly on yourself ". [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

Yesterday I said "if you would like to know more about the Tarot than you can read the posts of May 2013". I remember that May 2013 was one of the toughest months to create, because of the "bad, occult name" of the Tarot, but I succeeded to explain that month that the Tarot is Divine ... The Road to Santiago is Divine too. It will bring us the secret knowledge of ages and it will show us how to grow spiritual ... I am just your guide, your host, but you have to do it on yourself. I cannot say how you have to use the posts for inspiration ... you have to depend on yourself ...

flowing with the stream
the High Priestess on her throne -
divine mother
gave birth to the Son of God
through the Holy Spirit

through the Holy Spirit
mankind opened their eyes
secrets revealed
seeking the way to the Inner Self -
flowing with the stream

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 21st at noon (CET).