SUMMITING KILIMANJARO––Discovering endurance and answering the riddle of what is enough
His first words to me through the ether about the xplor.earth team at the summit of Kilimanjaro said it all…. “Everyone safe, some not very lucid, but thrilled nevertheless after having pushed body and mind to extreme limits. Proud of the team, from 15 to 53 years...
The language of hope from the hidden and hurting in Jordan
Our driver greeted us at the Queen Alia International Airport after a 20+ hour journey from California. We stopped at a shawarma fast food place for dinner and he introduced himself saying, “My name is Salam, it means peace in Aramaic, the language of Jesus.” No one I...
Bluewater–where deep calls to deep
This is a story about the good stuff. About when you get that feeling. A feeling that doesn’t make sense, but you act on it anyway. Where feeling turns to force. No, not the over-the-top, Hollywood-science-fiction-blockbuster kind. These are the gentle whispers. The...
Ballerinas, machine guns and Corcovado––a dance with doubt in Brazil
On the heels of my dad’s death last July, a fellow pilgrim on El Camino de Santiago invited me to stay with her in the mountains outside of São Paulo. Yes, please. I had no expectations other than I’d spend my days writing in a charming mountain hamlet where I’d talk...
The exotic journey of the heart
These first golden weeks of the new year always uplift my spirit. I hope they’ve done the same for you. There’s nothing quite like the promise of a new year to tune into dreams and passions. It’s been over a year and a half since I sold most of my stuff, stored the...
Your little bag of hope
Only hours after touching down in Sao Paulo, I received this little bag of hope. See, I had no underwear. It’s a long story, but I promised Dad, I’d keep it short (see below). On our drive into the remote mountains of Sao Paulo, my friend and I stopped at...
One Nation. Under God.
I returned to the USA from my missionary work in Spain a week ago. I had a few detours along The Way which I never expected but God never let go of my hand. This Independence Day means more to me than any other. I helped serve pilgrims with a team of people on El...
El Señor & Seville, Spain–learning to trust and obey
It is the beginning of the fourth week of Easter and the beginning of my fourth week in Spain. In the months leading up to my trip, a dear Camino friend from Brazil had asked me to meet her in Seville before I was due to serve pilgrims on El Camino de Santiago in...
God, me, the pelican and the sea
https://www.laurasmagicday.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/pelicansurfer.mp4 I can’t believe this is my first post in 2016. I began this year making a dream come true by living in Malibu for three months. As I get ready to say goodbye to Malibu, I’m spending a little...
My Love Letter To Paris | Une lettre d’amour à Paris
Dear Paris, I dreamed of falling in love in your arms, among your rues and cafés. In your cotton-candy sunsets the sky above The Seine blazed. A violet-blue blanket descended and your famous lights filled my soul––the flickering Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge’s flirty...
A pilgrim in Paris – Flechas amarillas (yellow arrows)
Adjusting to Paris was one thing, life without flechas amarillas (yellow arrows) was another. I missed them. The way they appeared just when I thought I’d taken a wrong turn on El Camino. Their bright, even urgent call on the darkest foggy morning. Their playfulness....
A pilgrim in Paris (una peregrina en Paris)
I soared above Santiago. Over The Bay of Biscay I spotted the Camino del Norte. My heart began to understand what it meant to have walked across the entire fiesta-filled, rioja-swilling, bagpipe-playing, country of my literary idols where ancient wars had been won and...
A peregrina’s journey on The Camino de Santiago : The End
Last Friday, September 11, I walked into Santiago and completed my pilgrimage on El Camino Frances. The same day the remains of the murdered American pelegrina had been discovered. I’ve hesitated to write about the end of my pilgrimage because, in a sense, The Way...
A pilgrim’s prayer
Tomorrow I walk into Santiago, by the grace of God. As I prepare to enter Santiago I remember The Way this week… It’s only 7ish and I’m lying in my bottom bunk of the albergue bed, exhausted. Ever since I’ve been lying down I’ve noticed the way the chickens sound in...
Metaphors, Pocahontas and The Lord
I’ve walked 600 KM across France and Spain and have only 200 KM left to Santiago. One thing is certain, everything I experience on the path is a metaphor for life. I jokingly told my friend, “No metaphors before breakfast.” As Santiago approaches, every step I...
A Dios, the meaning of life and the miracle chicken
NOTE: This post is from last week. I had a few set backs with WIFI, etc… this week’s post is coming soon…. Written 8/17/15 Walking the camino for fourteen days has taken a toll on our bodies. Some have been camino-ending. Fortunately...
Yellow butterflies and the key to the castillo
I am writing tonight from my bottom bunk at the albergue as thunder and lightning from a sudden storm sweeps over the one-time Kingdom of Navarra, what I never knew this region of Spain was called until I walked the camino. At dinner tonight a Basque man named David...
The pretty pilgrim (la pellegrina bonita) & the fifth threshold
Me + TGVs + France = LOL!!! I literally sprinted to make my train this afternoon. Not because of missed connections or anything. As a matter of fact I was feeling pretty proud of myself as I sat in the “Le car” winding my way through the streets of Paris to...
Hermits, dandelions, ladybugs…and a prayer
“If the path is beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.” –– Anatole France In my last post I mentioned that The Spirit has revealed Himself to me a handful of times in my life. In the week after I typed those words, during my mission work here in Prague at the...
A world begins….freedom in The Spirit
There are a handful of moments in my life when God’s revealed Himself to me. One of them was when I delivered my daughter Candice. I’d been given too much morphine too quickly and found it hard to breathe on the operating table. The Spirit spoke to me through the...