Carpe Diem #1118 Recklessness

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you can see, the problem with my weblog has been solved, both side-columns are back were they belong. It had to do with the amount of posts which I showed on the homepage. First there were 10 posts immediately to read now I have brought that back to five posts and that solved the problem.

Today we are going on with our Road to Santiago De Compostela, but before we can go on our way we need a guide. As you can read I have titled this episode "recklessness" and that my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers is what we don't need on our Road to Santiago. To arrive safe at Santiago we cannot be reckless and that's also what Paulo encounters on his first steps on the Road to Santiago.

After Paulo had said goodbye to Mme Lourdes he left the village and walked in the direction Mme Lourdes had send him. After a while he encounters a gypsy. He presumes that the gypsy is his guide and he says "hello" to him. The gypsy looked at him and said "I hadn't thought that I would met you so soon". That response makes Paulo a bit disconcerted, but he sees no harm in responding to what the gypsy says.
Than another man appears and says to Paulo "You don’t have to climb a mountain to find out whether or not it’s high." Paulo had forgotten the most elementary rules of self-protection, a safe word or password, and had thrown himself body and soul into the arms of the first stranger he had met. “The ship is safest when it’s in port, but that’s not what ships were built for,” he said, as the correct response. Meanwhile, the man looked directly at the gypsy and the gypsy stared at the man. Both confronted each other, with no sign of fear or challenge, for some time. Then the gypsy left the knapsack on the ground, smiled disdainfully, and walked off in the direction of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.

[...] “My name is Petrus”, said the new arrival as soon as the gypsy had disappeared behind the huge stone that I had circled a few minutes earlier. “Next time, be more cautious.” [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

In this short description of the scene we see that Paulo had almost said the wrong things to the wrong guy and maybe he could have been robbed or something. He had forgotten, in his haste to go on his way to Santiago, the most important thing that will help you to survive ... "self-protection".

Somewhere on the Road to Santiago

In our life we all sometimes have to cope with such situations and be careful whom we are connecting with. In this time of Internet, smartphones and more like that stuff we have to be careful. The world has become smaller through the worldwide web and not only in the "visual part of the Internet" we have to be careful, but also on the so called "deepweb". The "deepweb" is the part of the Internet we cannot see or use carefree.

In life that's also true I think. Life can bring us a lot of joy, but also a lot of sadness. We have to be careful always I think this is the first lesson Paulo learns here as he has started his pilgrimgae to Santiago. The Road is tough and he needs a good guide, not only a guide to point him the physical path, but also the spiritual path. The Road to Santiago is a tough road, it's a road were you will encounter yourself. Your deepest feelings, your deepest happiness, your deepest sadness and so on.

So ... as Petrus said to Paulo "be careful, be cautious. The Road to Santiago is a "mean" road and you always have to be on guard ... recklessness ... is deadly". This is the lesson of life. Life isn't easy, but it is a joy to be alive, but stay aware ...

high in the sky

against the blueish of blue 
the white of an eagle © Chèvrefeuille An eagle is always aware ... you have to be like an eagle to stay on the Road to Santiago. Don't be afraid for the things you will encounter ... they all will bring you enlightenment ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 10th at noon (CET).

PS. As you have noticed, and maybe I have said it in one of the earlier posts, there is no prompt-list this month. Every episode I create I create on a daily base after reading a part of "The Pilgrimage".