Making a trail

Back to the beginning, again and again.

A trail made by walking through birch woodland

I never want money to be a barrier to participation, so almost everything I publish on Pilgrimagic is free to access. But once a month, I write an update tagged “making a trail” just for the people who are kind enough to support my work financially. If you are among them, thank you.

And if you’re already a free subscriber, Substack might offer you a one-time pass to access this article. Please go ahead and use it.

I’m not sure where I think writing Pilgrimagic will lead, so the idea of making a trail resonates with me. The writing of American poet Muriel Strode inspires that phrase. In her poem, Wind-wafted Wild Flowers, she wrote, “I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.”

It also echoes Spanish poet Antonio Machado’s sentiment, “Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.” Walker, there is no path; the path is made by walking.

The process of making a trail means many unpromising turns and dead ends. And often, it means going back to the start, again and again.

The start is where I spent most of September.