Month: June 2018

Susan writes of her week at Emmaüs:

….. I was amazed by the variety of passing “pilgrims”: believers and non-believers, people walking alone or with friends, couples, large groups (like the five families and their parish priest from Paris who sang for us). What do they all have in common? I think it is a mixture of determination to move along the path, curiosity about the unfamiliar, and confidence that they will cope with what lies ahead. Walking is a way of using the regularity of movement to throw off what is habitual and free the mind. What did I learn in a week? To sit patiently and listen for the click.. click.. of walking poles, and to marvel at the world of interesting people beyond my own small patch.

Margaret writes of the colour which inspired her paintings:

“Green! It’s so green!”David said to me looking at the view from the terrace at Emmaus.  And this year it is.  A wet spring has held back the seasons by three weeks and the landscape of cultivated fields encircled by dense trees dipping into the valleys and over the ridges is lush and full with myriad greens.  The eyes of the pilgrims as they walk this section of the Camino dance on similar long, green views, and close by their path tall wheat plants are still green eared, the corn plants are barely above the ground, the hay field grasses wave in the breeze and the verges are speckled with wild flowers in white, pink, blue, yellow and purple.  One of the pilgrims we met lamented the lack of places to pray with others but she said’ “Creation is our chapel”.

She also writes about another painting:

The one of the chair is the last I did.  By then my eye and hand felt they were working together without my mind interfering.  I like still life and the chair with the jumper over it suggested to me someone was there but who? Where are they? What is happening?  What does it mean?