Evening Reflection: Tuesday 25 June

I'm writing this 'evening reflection' halfway through the next day, for reasons that will become clear.

The photo shows a pond in Epping Forest, where I stopped for a walk partway through the day. If you're having trouble making out the water, there isn't any - the hot weather has completely dried it out. I took this photo mid-morning. By early evening I was this photo.

I set off early yesterday (about 5am) refreshed but a little tired. I wanted to get past London before the traffic built up and, as I wrote in a previous post, I failed miserably. After I finally got over the Woolwich Ferry I was anxious and on edge from wrestling with the traffic and decided to push on out of London as quickly as possible - so missed the chance to see anything on the way.

I chugged on down to Maidstone where I hoped to pick up a few supplies. It was baking hot and not great fun walking around the streets. My cassock attracted a lot of attention and some light-hearted mocking - I've experienced that before, but not for a while. I couldn't help but wonder how Kent portrays itself as a county overrun with asylum seekers, illegal migrants, small boat refugees and so forth ... and yet the streets of Maidstone (and Canterbury, where I am now) are unbelievably white. When I walk through the streets of Leicester my cassock excites no attention whatsoever, because I'm dressed like half the men in the street, mostly south-east Asian Muslim men in their thobes. But in Leicester this isn't called being overrun, it's called diversity or inclusion or just 'Leicester'. I missed that.

After Maidstone I decided to press on and head down Canterbury way, since it seemed fairly close. I arrived at a campsite around 5pm, set up my tent and had a shower, decided around 6.30 to have a lie down for a bit ... and that we me, gone, until about 7am this morning. The hours of riding combined with the traffic in London and the hot sun had all exhausted me. I was a dry pond.

This isn't the pilgrimage I'm aiming for, so this morning I decided to reset. First decision: yesterday I covered 170km and that was far too much (on a scooter, wanting to take in the places I pass). I'm going to limit myself to 100km a day from here on. Second decision: cities only when absolutely necessary. They're just too stressful (I made an exception today to visit Canterbury, because I didn't want to miss the Cathedral). Third decision: more stops, more praying, more rest, less pushing! I've got in my head that the journey is long, but haven't got my head round the idea that the time I have is generous.

It's surprisingly hard to adjust my pace. Day to day life, especially at Launde, can be so full on and I think I've become used to the pacing, the pressure, the adrenaline rush that pushes you through then lets you down with a bang at the end of the day. That's not this pilgrimage. So. Wednesday will be a rest day, a slow day, a reset day.