DAY12 - Mitchell, OR- Zero Day & The Search for a Driver

Hey. No one said this would be easy. If it were easy, it wouldn't need to be done.

The day began with the sweetest, coolest babbling brook. My tootsies were so achey and still swollen from yesterday's walk. Deliciousness!

And then we said goodbye to our driver Matthew. I started looking at maps, thinking through the route, planning how to manage the several days before our new driver arrives. And... then... a few hours into a very sweet and lazy "zero day": our new driver contacted us with heartbreaking news: a life-altering event that will keep him from joining us after all.

Okay lovely people. I keep saying that this Liberty Walk is an act of faith. I think I'm trying to reclaim that word, "faith" - rescuing it from politics and dogma. Faith as I understand it is not about knowing, but about the fearless walk with NOT-knowing. Walking with curiosity and courage; allowing myself NOT to have answers, acknowledging that there's really no way around this moment, just as it is. One step after the other.

In Zen we talk about the "intimacy" of "not-knowing." Holding open that space of deep connection with this life unfolding inside me, unfolding AS me, unfolding all around me. Not knowing. How intimate.

And then there's more explicitly theistic, prayerful language. "I have no idea where I am going," Thomas Merton famously prayed. "I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end, nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you."

After the shock of losing our second driver before he even started driving - I had some nourishing time connecting with my hosts here at the Spoke'n Hostel - Pat and Jalet. This hostel started as a vision for Jalet - a vision of creating a business centered around cyclists, anchored in this sweet desert town. She invested 9 months into scouting a place in town, trying to buy a property, working out the numbers - only to have the deal fall apart. She and Pat came to town one last time, ready to say goodbye to Mitchell... when they got a phone call from their pastor saying that a church in Mitchell was shutting down - did they want to take it over? That church is now this hostel.

Spoke'n Hostel is a sacred place, just like the McKenzie Valley Presbyterian Church where we spent our first night in on the road... just like the McKenzie Community track where we spent our second and third nights, and where Blue River residents gathered and were kept safe during the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. Our homes away from home have been sanctuaries and refuges all.

More and more I'm feeling the truth of this pilgrimage: finding the sacred place that's always right here, right under our feet.

AND, at the same time: I also do need to find a driver!

Do you want to drive Libby? Support and join our pilgrimage? Spread the word - and be in touch. Feel free to email me directly: esty@libertywalks.org

Pat and Jalet, co-creators of the Spoke'n Hostel

The tootsies are SO happy!