12. Fresh Start

12


Fresh Start!

Very early in the morning I come down to the common dining room where a luxurious pilgrim’s breakfast of cheese, wurst, bread and coffee has been spread for me.

After breakfast, I shoulder my huge American backpack (donated by Cousin Rose in Anchorage, Alaska) and stride boldly out into the bright winter morning sunlight of suburban Rosenheim.

Children in colorful winter clothing are waiting for school buses and a few early dog-walkers are out with their pets. Until my lungs cool off a bit, I breathe out clouds of sparkling silver mist.

I love this moment.

I’m totally free—my body, just a little tired from yesterday’s hike, is eager for today’s exercise—the cold, crisp “town” air on my face––I’m wearing gloves, a warm parka and a new woolly hunter’s cap with sun visor and fold-down earflaps which I have decorated with an edelweiss badge and am using my pilgrim’s staff which I have dressed up with an evergreen sprig and blue and white diamond pattern Bavarian ribbons. I am so bright and cheerful that I smile, even laugh out loud from pure joy as I stride along. Such sensation! Such delight! Such pilgrimage!

Tomasito, 2009


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