While I so enjoyed sharing stories and lessons from the Evliya Çelebi Way with you, now I’d like to get a little more practical. What follows is a round up of information I hope you’ll find useful, should you be interested in walking the route yourself.
I will be leaving Turkey grateful for this unexpected lesson in navigation. We have to trust that the direction our compass is pointing in – whether what lies ahead is a less defined path, or perhaps there’s no path at all – is worth taking. It always is.
Having walked alone these last three weeks, another shadow moving next to mine made for quite a change. Yet again, the path had gone in a different direction from my expectations – the lesson then, I think, might lay in the space between.
And the final thing I realized, on a rainy Thursday afternoon in Turkey, is that the path knows exactly what we need and when. Warmth. Shelter. Direction. A guide. It’s up to us, then, to trust the path and its provision. The path, like life itself, is always right.
Every step of the way is the point – that much I hold onto, even as a perfectly round blister forms on the bottom of my right big toe. As for what will happen at the end? That, my friends, is still a mystery – and also part of the point, wouldn’t you say?
The shepherd walked with a grace I won’t soon forget, with a grace I hope to carry into all parts of my own path through life. The sight of him with his flock was worth walking three days to see, and will be worth walking another twenty for.
Being a pilgrim depends less on our means as it does on our mentality: To take our time with a journey, to not rush our destination, and to create space in each day for discovery, saying only—In Slow We Trust.
Hanna gave me a vista, context, the big picture, and I hope that wherever this finds you in life right now, that it might be of some reassurance to you as well – that the only call is to keep walking.
It’s on milestones like today, when I can look back and remember how much leaving London felt like a giant leap into the unknown, that I’m filled with so much gratitude that I’ve been able to keep going.
I’m welcoming the space this stillness will bring to my life – the space to dive into the story I’m hoping to share, and to dig deep into the lessons these last few years on the road have taught me.