Fumbling
Kerry Egan, a student at Harvard Divinity School, became a pilgrim at the age of twenty-five, a year after the death of her father. Watching her father die had shattered the image of God that Egan grew up with and undermined the theology she studied in school; she embarked on her pilgrimage full of hope and dread at the same time. FUMBLING is the moving journal of Egan`S experiences as she and her fiance traveled from the Pyrenees in southern France through the valleys of Navarra and westward through Spain to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostelas, said to contain the remains of Saint James. The idea of pilgrimage rests on the belief that in some places the Divine is especially available to human beings and that the journey itselfï¿*the time spent as a pilgrimï¿*is transformative, cleansing, and purifying. Egan was well-versed in theories about grieving and the purpose of a pilgrimage, but it was through walking eight or ten hours a day that she first began to understand what grief really is and to recognize Godï¿*S presence in everyday people and places. With humor and unabashed honesty, Egan records her struggles to deal with muddy roads, blistering heat, and grouchy moods. She describes fellow pilgrims of many nationalities, the humble abodes that provide them shelter, and the beautiful, often challenging, landscape. Each incident, encounter, and hard-won mile shapes her internal journey. The repetitiveness of walking frees her to meditate for long periods; the rhythm of her breathing awakens an awareness of the connections between breath, life, and Godï¿*so central to the teachings of Hebrew and Christian scriptures; and the most unlikely eventsï¿*from discovering chickens in church to the pleasure of having a pizza at a train stationï¿*remind her that prayer is at once as simple and as profound as seeing

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