Day 24 - Walking the Via Francigena - Chaussée-sur-Marne to Vitry-le-François, France - A Short But Hot Day Of Walking by the River Marne
Day 24 - Walking the Via Francigena - Chaussée-sur-Marne to Vitry-le-François, France - A Short But Hot Day Of Walking by the River Marne
Today was a sunny, hot day without any clouds.
For half of the day, we walked in the sun with no shade.
It was another scenic walk by the river and the canal, but because we were overheated we felt exhausted.
Fishermen fished in the canal with their long fishing poles, while hunters with dogs and big guns looked for pheasants and ducks.
Later in the day the sun filtered between the old trees, and it made the walk a bit less tiring.
It wasn’t a long day of walking and I enjoyed being away from the busy roads.
Only once did we cross over a small bridge to walk by the road, because my map showed a small cafe serving lunch and drinks.
But the place looked closed with chairs on the tables, and the lady owner who lives in the same house, told us that it was her day off.
We sat in the shade of a chestnut tree by the road in front of her house.
Her big brown dog came over to sniff and lick us.
He was an old and good natured dog.
We fed him two cookies we had brought with us.
A woman was working in her garden.
The two tiny ponies she kept in a small corral started whinnying when they saw her approach.
She brought them peaches from her tree and a handful of fresh parsley.
Jules was walking a bit slower today.
When I asked, he mentioned a foot and leg pain.
Nothing major, just the stage of still adjusting to being on our feet for hours per day and walking with a heavy backpack.
I thought a lot today about how we imagine ourselves as individuals and how we create and shape our experience of our bodies, moment by moment, day by day.
Our eternal Oversoul is experiencing all of its incarnations, or lifetimes, simultaneously.
Yet because our attention and identification is with this identity, this lifetime and with this body, we tend to imagine that we are finite and that our bodies are finite too.
But we were never separated from our source / God, nor can we ever be separated from the immensity of LIFE eternal.
Thus a separated identity is not really possible.
You are ALL eternity itself, you only imagine that you are housed within a small finite body.
You are One with God, and your body, which is your attempt to separate yourself from the immensity of God and from others, simply does not exist.
It is a mental body, created by your perceptions, beliefs, and by your ideas.
You concentrate eternal energy into a personal experience that you believe to be yourself.
But you are so much grander than you can ever imagine....
And the small body simply cannot contain you.
You are not inside your body.
You hold your body in your Mind and by your attention you shape your reality.
You are an integral, inseparable part of the Supreme Intelligence called God.
You heal by removing the blocks and aggregates you have placed upon your loving energies.
You remove fears, beliefs in limitations, affirmations of death and sickness, all by learning to clear your emotions.
So much energy is wasted on frustrations, anger, fear, envy, yearning, misunderstandings, hopes, etc.
As I walked, I affirmed:
“I am NOT a body, I am free for I am still as God created me!
I am NOT sustained by food or drink (I was both hungry and thirsty at the time), nor by air, nor by money, nor by a shelter nor by relationships....
I am sustained by the LOVE of God.
God is the Love which created me and in which I live.
Divine Love is my source, I cannot be apart from it.
I am an eternal divine energy,
Energy that is perfectly balanced,
Needing nothing,
like ancient rocks and mountains,
Serene....
I am part of All There Is....”
Anyway, when we got into town, it was still pretty early.
We arrived at the locked hotel and Jules, who has been practicing his French for months now, called for the receptionists to come and let us in.
The owner did, and we relaxed in our room, took showers, washed our dirty clothes, and then headed out to dinner.
The town has quite a lot of dining options.
We looked at menus and settled on a Nepalese restaurant.
The food was good and we enjoyed it.
The waitress told us that she has lived here for three years, but she preferred living in Paris, where she has friends and family.
Vitry is a small town and she has no one here.
Vitry-le-François is a relatively new town for this region, formed in the 1500’s.
It once had huge fortifying walls, some remains of which we saw on our walk into town.
It was nearly completely destroyed in World War Two.
But along the canal as we neared town, still remains a row of ancient trees, that are hundreds of years old.
We were dwarfed by these ancient giants, as they spread their tall branches into the sky.
They have long sheltered pilgrims and soldiers, clergymen and herdsmen.
Today, they sheltered Jules and I, two hungry and tired pilgrims, on our way back to God....
Wishing you a million blessings,
Tali
Today’s Stats:
4.5 hours of walking
Active walking time - 5.5 hours
Daily Steps - 26,690
Daily Kilometers - 20 Km
Total Kilometers walked from Canterbury UK - 508 km
Accommodation:
Hôtel Tambourin in Vitry-le-François
