The Trackless Path

They seek for their lost culture in the language, In the fishing, the ricing, and the dance. But they will not find it there. It was always found  In the need That they had for one other. That was what gave meaning to it all. Lose the need and you lose the culture.

The gifts of God are multitudinous, But the witness of God is the same To the heart and soul of man. And he who has experienced it Knows it.

Lessons from Raymond, the homeless man  Who helped prepare me for the road. To view previous lessons, find my playlist entitled: Raymond Lessons. Lesson 7: Tell them If you are to receive the things you need, You will need to let people know  What you are about So be authentic.  It is how every needful thing will come.

Lessons from Raymond, the homeless man  Who helped prepare me for the road. To view previous lessons, find my playlist entitled: Raymond Lessons. Lesson 6: Only Ask for What You Need “Only ask for what you need. Calculate how much gas you’ll need  To get to the next town of any size. And then ask for that amount. If they give you more, Give it away. “This is how it comes to me,” he said. And as if...

Lessons from Raymond, the homeless man  Who helped prepare me for the road. To view previous lessons, find my playlist entitled: Raymond Lessons. Lesson 5 - Count on Miracles “Let go of what you do not need,” he said. “And go to the place you feel. I have take my shoes off on one side of the bridge Because they were falling off my feet, Walked across the bridge And found another pair waiting for m...

 The truth is that I'm a leather tramp Because I'm broken to the grind. I can't go back forever. But by the grace of God And the help of friends, there is some rubber Turning down beneath my wheels As I move down the highway, And gas within my tank. And I trust that it will be so For as long as He sees fit, perhaps forever. Wouldn't that be a miracle?! But if it ever changes And I...

Lessons from Raymond, the homeless man  Who helped prepare me for the road. To view previous lessons, find my playlist entitled: Raymond Lessons. Lesson 4: Have lots of homes Raymond says, “The guy at the thrift store says  I can sleep under his awning. And many people in this town have said  That I can sleep on their porch. I am the homeless guy  Who everybody knows.” And I think, what a mercy in...

These are lessons from Raymond, the homeless man I met Who helped me prepare to live on the road. To view previous lessons, find my playlist entitled: Raymond Lessons. Lesson 3: Sleep Out in the Open “Don’t sleep in some hole,” he said. And he warned of tweakers. And yet, he also said  That after thirty years, He had never had any trouble. I decided to try “out in the open” On my first night back...

Rolling hills with a tank full of gas And no need to be anywhere  Anytime soon.

These are lessons from Raymond, the homeless man Who I met in Missouri, and who helped me  When I was preparing to make my journey by foot. If you are tuning in late and want to see previous lessons, Find the playlist on my channel entitled: Raymond Lessons. Lesson 2: Travel light Raymond had no more than a backpack. A hybrid kind, not a back-packers pack Just slightly larger than a normal backpac...

My heart longs for open spaces, No man’s lands - you cannot hear. And they are coming in the winter They fall silent on your ear. The peace of a land forsaken Because nobody can hold it. Do you hear the land a coming, In the empty, longing, open. It is coming, It's a coming, Though it pass through all you fear. It's the open sacred spaces That nobody can hear. But I hear the open places Fa...

Lessons from Raymond, the homeless man Who I met in Missouri, and who helped me  When I was preparing to make my journey by foot. Lesson 1: Don’t do it. This actually wasn’t the first thing he told me, But I am putting it first so that well-meaning friends won’t worry. It’s a hard life, he said. And when you fall to the road, It can be hard to get back up again. And even then,  You can take the ma...

This is the beginning of a series called What I learned from Raymond, A homeless man I met In Missouri. When I met Raymond, I had decided  That I would continue my journey on foot And was pondering how I would survive out in the open. Raymond was lying under the awning of the thrift shop And I almost went over to talk to him But decided against it.  But then to my surprise, he sat up and saw me  A...

This weariness takes me back to other days When I pressed into the load Deeper, longer, than was necessary And deprived myself of rest, of peace, Because I believed that it was righteous. And now I pay the price of such ignorance. I have decided that I will no longer do that. I will choose to rest myself into a heaven on earth, And trust that an unseen heart cares  For this frail body and beats  I...

The world moves fast. The world tries to do much. And so the world must do most things for itself. Heaven, and the heirs thereof, move slower. They do not try to do too much. They wait upon God. And so, most things are done for them, before they even ask.

You find my books here  Written upon the whisper  Of an electrical thread, Nay less, A whisper on a wave  That passes through your head On its way to your device. But I tell you that what I write  Is written in heavy volumes Upon indestructible paper Bound with adorned leather And illustrated with vibrant colors, And that those books are guarded  In the unseen library above Where they will not per...

Often, when I have said, “I don’t know where to go from here,” I was lying to myself. I knew where to go. I knew what to do. But I was hesitating, Halting between two opinions. And so, I renounce hesitation. I will act. I will move unhaltingly Into the thing I know Trusting that the thing that’s right Will lead to the knowing  Of the next right thing.

I kicked a quarter on my way into the Walmart. I stopped and picked it up and said, “Thank you, God, for this  Unsought sign of your abundance. Thank you for providing for me in just this way.”

Simplicity is coming for us all. But most will see it as ruin Until they realize  That it has freed them From the twin tyrants  Of complexity and control.

He puts around on his little bike, Little wheels, a tiny trike  For a great big man. And he sports some shorts and baseball cap. From his shoulder hangs a fanny pack. And from his mouth a cigarette Hangs down from the straight line Of a mouth set in the sternest of faces. Round and round the parking lot, he rides. And I laugh, but he doesn’t see me.

“I choose not to believe that.” It’s something that I say to thoughts That arise with accompanying anxiety, ingratitude, or distrust, No matter the familiarity, plausibility, or apparent wisdom they seek to convey. And then I turn my mind toward the loving peaceful void of not knowing what is good, And wait for new and better thoughts to arise,  Revelations out of the unseen place. For how else wi...

There was a man with a tat-tat-tat-t-te-tat in his heart, That made him weak and frailer  Than the next bloke. And he was plagued by a grief that was stuck in his lungs That now and then made him cough. But he traveled on, Traveled on, Believing that to spite all that, he’d carry on. And he did carry on, carry on, carry on, While the host of men gave up the… Well, I hate to say it out loud, But yo...

Disclaimer: If the anxiety that you experience is not your own, This is for you. In other words,  If it visits but does not reside. In other words, If you don’t believe  That there is a reason to be anxious And find that it presses in but does not arise Or generate from deeply held beliefs  That you nurture inside your mind. So, if it’s not your own, here’s some advice, Or rather, something that I...

Take what time it takes. This is the work of the soul.

Trust that what you have is what you need And that the needs of tomorrow  Will come tomorrow.