Monday, February 2, 2009
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico

Arrived in Santa Fe yesterday and ended up randomly pulling into an organic food coop as a place to start. It’s always interesting to enter into a new place and feel that sense of being lost. It was already pretty late in the afternoon so I went in to get a Kombucha and some nice organic eats for dinner. Once at the cash I asked the cashier for a little info on where I was at. She directed me to the store’s information counter where I promptly got my hands on a phone book and began flipping… but people are always better than phonebooks and in talking to the woman behind the counter I got a basic set of bearings. You know, the usual, a recreation center to shower, an Internet café, and an off leash dog park. She was happy to help and even informed me that the parking lot outside is a welcome place to sleep and access WiFi. Organic food and Wifi, what more can a lonely drifter ask for.

On the way down from Espanola I headed a little west to check out a famous church that Liz had mentioned I should look into. The church is the Santuario de Chimayo and is known throughout the world as a place of sacred healing. The story is that a couple hundred years ago a farmer awoke and went out to tend his field and once out there he found a large cross. He had no idea where the cross had come from so, being a religious man, he decided to transport it to the closest church a few towns away. Upon doing this, the man went to bed satisfied and content. When he awoke the next morning he again found the same cross in the same spot in the same field. He again brought the cross to the church not understanding how its appearance was possible. Again the next day he awoke to find the cross in the same spot in the same field and again brought it to the church… and on and on it went a few more times. Finally he and the priest of the church had a meeting regarding what should be done. The priest had only one answer… that it seemed to him that god wished that the farmer build a church in his field upon the site where the cross repeatedly had appeared. And so the Santuario de Chimayo was built.

From then on the miracle story of the churches creation has spread throughout the world and people have come to pray at the site from far and wide. With this the stories began of miraculous healing. The cross was moved to the main alter in the church and pilgrims in search of healing have since come and taken soil from the hole in the back room of the church in which the cross had originally been found. For a while it was said that no matter how much soil was taken the hole miraculously was found to be full again the next day, in time the priest confessed that he had been refilling the hole. However the stories of healing continue and the back room of the church is filled to the brim with discarded crutches, and adorned with pictures and stories of people who have been healed.

Being a pilgrim myself I couldn’t resist stopping in at the church for some prayers and to dig up a container of blessed dirt to keep me safe on my journey and another to give to Liz when she comes to see me on the road.

peace,
d