a pilgrim's journey

A Pilgrim’s Journey

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,

In every journey one takes, the struggle comes not in the act of opening the door but in making that first step. It holds true for all the crossroads of one’s life. The challenging part in the act of making choices is not on making the choice per se but on seeing that choice to fruition. When I made the decision to go on pilgrimage to the shrine of Manaoag on foot from Bocaue, Bulacan to Pangasinan the road was paved and frequently traveled but it was a trudge that almost crippled me from pursuing and reaching the very goal that I had set.

Rai and I dropped off from the bus along McArthur Highway in Bocaue, Bulacan. There we started our long, long, long, very long journey. It took us almost six days to cover the pilgrimage. We walked from six in the morning till six in the evening. And, it was no walk in the park. We trudged under the heat of the deadening sun. The paddies that pedicured the sides of the road seemed more like a dessert than a rice plantation. The heat was just too much.

The money we had in our pockets was just enough to buy bus tickets for our way back. For our food and shelter, we begged for it. It was not easy to beg for food. With our filthy and squalid aura, there were people who tended to veer away from us. We were stinking. We were awful. We were sordid. And, it was far more difficult to look for shelter in the evening. With our faces, there were people who tended to suspect us. The rejections we experienced was just too much.

The exhaustion of the very journey itself pronounced to a great detail the very limits of my physical strength. A time came, which was more often than not, that I needed to literally push my body to make a step or two. It was very debilitating. It was very difficult. But it was a struggle that I needed to make even though the exhaustion was too much.

Indeed the journey proved to be a very challenging one. Beset by the onslaught of nature, the suspicions of other people and burdened by my own vulnerability, the goal became blurred and clouded. Yet the very desire to see and reach the Shrine fueled my soul to persevere and see that the choice that I made find its fruition.

Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

– The Lord of the Rings