Day 20, to Southampton, thundering sprinkles

It was another of those days with a wet forecast. Brian dropped me off in Lakelands, and I soon donned the rain pants to go with my rain jacket. I heard thunder in the distance. Yet, after a quick shower, the precipitation stopped. Completely. I packed away my jacket and rain pants! I met up with Brian next at Newville Lake, after he tried a bit a fishing and kindly did an errand for me. 

Not long after that, I heard from Sue and Ed, of Amherst, who were in the area. Ed joined me for 4 kms, along the Westbrook flat. This was his old stomping ground, and he remembers well his summer as the student minister of the local Baptist churches. He pointed out the site of the long gone Westbrook Baptist Church. The old Cumberlannd County road names are coming back to me, such as Thunder Hill Road. 

I saw some interesting wildlife along the way, as always. Geese and eagles were plentiful near the lake. A raccoon fled across an unmowed lawn up into a tree. Tent caterpillars were ambitious near Southampton.

I got to the home in Westbrook where I stay for the night, at 1 pm, and Joe had lunch all ready for me. :) As he went back to work next door, I relaxed on the couch for a couple hours, preparing for the final kms of my day on the road. After some snoozing, I got back into the one book I have been reading this whole time, Kathleen Norris' 'Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith.' 

Once, when I was the only guest one Sunday night at a women's monastery, the sisters invited me to join them in statio, the community's procession into church... Our procession was... a reminder of the procession of life itself; the older sisters with their walkers and canes had set a pace that the younger women had to follow. The prioress was my partner; we brought up the rear. "We bow first to the Christ who is at the altar," she whispered to me, "and then we turn to face our partner, and bow to the Christ in each other." "I See," I said, and I did. (pp.162, 163)

Have I been bowing to the Christ everywhere I have gone, as a pilgrim? Have my memories of people and places of my past rekindled grace from those moments?

After Megan and Graham got home for the weekend, and Joe came back, at about 4, I set out to walk to Southampton. I am approaching my new corner of God's Kingdom.

Yet again, as I started out in drizzle... it stopped. The blackflies were thicker than the raindrops. Around 5, Carissa drove up to fetch me, and I joined the family for a nice BBQ supper. The finale came in the form of excellent donuts from 'Halo' in Moncton. Talk about holy (holey) food! I was hungry after (only) 20.4 kms today.

Tomorrow - I can't believe it! - is the final full day of walking, from Southampton up to Maccan.