Michael Spies

I've been.walking for 51 days and nearly 950kms now. By the time I finish it will be 1000km. That is a lot of time for thinking, singing, swearing suffering, and screaming at the weather and at the tarred roads.
I started this trip after Easter and a long period of fasting to get my head and thoughts free, to get out of the insanity of our World at present.
This Camino is not a religious thing for me, but it definitely is a spiritual journey!

Time to reflect on the world, on myself and my life.
It has helped me sort out my fear of the economic crisis that is heading toward us and to identify how I want to meet it.
It has helped me take farewell from relationships that are no longer in my life and deepen those that are central to me.

It has given me the.space to reflect on death and suffering and has thus helped me to live even fuller, as if every moment could be the last.
It has once again let me become aware and astound at the beauty of god's creation, but also become aware of what humans are doing to this creation.

It has given me the gift of encounter with Carina the Portuguese who walked with me for a few days, with the bubbling, lively Stefania, (Miss beep beep road runner) from Italy, It has given me the encounter Miguel Antade who started the hostel in Porto, the encounter with Ruth and Dietmar from Tamera and the wonderful meeting with Fernanda from Casa Fernanda and Diego and Julia from the Quinta Estrada Romana. These were deep experiences that will stay in my heart.

As I walk these days I am listening to the newest book of Veit Lindau: "GENESIS". Once again Veit has totally surprised me. He did this with "Liebe Radikal", which had a profound impact on how I see myself, my role as a man, and was the impulse to sort out my issues with my father and my mother and to look into the topic of death and our passing.
He again surprised me with "Die Königin und der Samurai", and now once again with "Genesis".
Without 100% co-creation between men and women we have no chance of Solving the problems of this world. The expansive masculine energy of "LOGOS", unbalanced by the intuitive feminin energy of "EROS" (Not to be misunderstood with the limited sexual sense), has brought the world to where it is.
"GENESIS" calls upon women to become aware of their immense strength and unique intuitive intelligence and to bring this energy into the world.
On men Veit calls to stop suppressing their masculine energy of "LOGOS", and bring it into harmony with "EROS" the feminin energy in each of us, and put it at the service of the world. The book calls upon both sexes to become aware of and free the suppressed "dark" side of our personalities to once again become whole.
The way Veit reads ithe book is incredibly inspiring and I can totally recommend it to both man and woman.
A must read!

This prayer of Saint Franciscus came up in the book and touched me deeply:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal lifeRead more