I’ve been in London the past few days which is a giant playground of tourist attractions. I enjoyed my stay but after realizing I am a very good pilgrim London has let me know just how bad of a tourist I am. I saw many sights and walked many miles in London’s streets but I only visited the Naitonal Gallery. It was just so much after walking everday. I find myself starved for conversations that ignite my imagination and I have buckets and buckets of love to give away and now no companions with which to give it. This is the pull of  “the real world”, where it is easy to be lonely when visiting a city like London. I am often times happy to be alone, but I wish like heck I had a traveling companion this time around. I believe my transformation stuck, I learned my lessons about love and the need for others, but I’m having trouble applying that already. I was warned this would happen! Hilariously enough there are what equates to pilgrim support groups, pilgrims that meet post pilgrimage to simply share in the spirit of the walk again. I do believe I am reverting to suffering from an acute case of distraction from the important stuff . Here is a blurb by Marianne Gronemeyer who uses the writings of Thomas Aquinas that sums up my slippery slope back into “the real world”, where everything excepting austerity is available by the heap.

Thomas Aquinas defines “austerity” as a virtue which does not exclude all enjoyments, but only those which are distracting from or destructive of personal relatedness. For Thomas, “austerity” is a complementary part of a more embracing virtue, which he calls friendship or joyfulness. It is the fruit of an apprehension that things or tools could destroy rather than enhance eutrapelia (or graceful playfulness) in personal relations. (Hugo v. Rahner, Man at Play, New York, 1972.)

graceful playfulness…. ahhhhh I love that phrase in describing a good friendship.

I’m currently in Nottingham, at maybe the coolest hostel I’ve been to yet. It’s a slow night here and there are only 13 other people in the hostel but the only other person in my room is an American. I haven’t met them yet but hopefully they’re interseting and I can make a friend, as I’m here for two nights. On a bummer note, I’m in freaking Nottingham, home of the legendary Robin Hood, and I missed the European Archery Championships by 1 day which were being held here. Dang! Tomorrow I’ll go walk in Sherwood Forest and put more work into solving the problem of bringing my Camino lessons home with me in a real and solid way.