The Sauntering Pilgrim

July 25, 2021

The call of the cicadas

Waiting, I noticed the midsummer sound of cicadas, their dry rasp foretelling summer’s finale and autumn’s approach, and soon after that, winter. Some find it a sad sound, herald of the season’s ending. I find it mellow comfort: an invitation to rest; to return to the earth, my source; to reground in what is more… Continue reading

Uncategorized

autumn, cicadas, midsummer, regrounding, rest, return, return to the earth, returning and rest, summer's end
July 18, 2021

Old canoes and old sermons

Some years ago, a fellow from the Adirondacks called Willem Lange, one of Vermont’s treasured storytellers, wanting to know if he had the time to restore an old canoe. Lange didn’t have the time, but since it was the kind of thing he could do in the evenings, and since he loved old canoes, he… Continue reading

Ruminations

canoe restoration, discovery, inexperience, learning a trade, mistakes of youth, old canoes, Proust, purging the past, regrets, seeing with new eyes, starting over, the real voyage of discovery, Willem Lange, William Faulkner
July 4, 2021

The ruckus of the birds

It’s the season for sleeping with open windows – even as the dog days begin – and waking to the sound not of an alarm clock but of birdsong. When I carried the burden of more outer commitments, I’d turn to the television for an early news and weather report. Had another act of terrorism… Continue reading

Ruminations

being, birdsong, call to prayer, darkness and light, distractions, essence of prayer, full attention, gratefulness, Kim Stafford, minaret, morning prayer, night and day, Oregon Dawn in Spite of the News, Rami Shapiro, Singer Come from Afar, sleeping and waking, stillness, wakefulness, waking
June 16, 2021

God’s dark side, and mine

I take it to be a sign of growth into wholeness, and not of laziness, self-absorption, or degeneration, that I’m more accepting of the less desirable aspects of my nature. “I must have a dark side also,” Jung believed, “if I am to be whole.” The dark aspects of my nature – parts I don’t… Continue reading

Ruminations

Carl Jung, daemons, dark side, divine mystery, dragons, God is light, greatest commandment, H. Richard Niebuhr, ineffable, integrity, light and dark, maturing in faith, maturing in life, perfection, projection, Rilke, shadow, Shema, transformation, true self, wholeness, yin and yang
September 12, 2012

Meanwhile Orion

Today I stepped out of the house to retrieve the morning newspaper and got a dose of eternity in the bargain. In the eastern sky, the moon was well into its last quarter, with bright Venus riding close by, while to the south Orion kept vigil. In my hands was more news of life’s messy… Continue reading

Seeds

current-events, eternity, news, Orion, perspective
September 1, 2012

The spiders remain

Sheryl and I have made a pilgrimage to Chautauqua Institution almost every summer since we’ve been married, staying a week or two on the grounds to soak in the arts and thoughts and imagination of the place and its people. We talk of going elsewhere some summer, but when the time comes to make reservations… Continue reading

Seeds

autumn, death, existence, hope, late autumn, legacy, nature, outdoors, seasonal residents, seasons, vacation
June 14, 2012

A word about sauntering

Today I begin to saunter, or, more precisely, to record some random ruminations that are the product of my sauntering. The word “sauntering” I take from Thoreau, a word, full of the spirit of what my life seems to be. “I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life… Continue reading

Ruminations

holy land, travel, vagabond, wandering

About Me

Rich Neal is, in no particular order, a wordsmith and graphic designer; lover of typography, books, and publishing; photographer; contemplative; saunterer; and a retired and still-active pastor. He claims neither special wisdom nor particularly deep insight into life, only occasional glimpses of what lies behind the veil along the way. He shares them here in the hope of connecting the pieces of life’s puzzle that come to him in the journey and would consider it a gift if sharing them also connected him with others who travel an unmarked path toward the same unknown end.