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Although it was for a spiritual purpose, the Guru Puja of Tamal Krishna Goswami, that I left Indiana headed for Texas on May 28, I did not know I was beginning the pilgrimage this journey has become.

After visiting my sister Diane in Colombia, MO, then friends Dan Swanson and Julie Frank in Tulsa, I met my Texas Krishna friends Durasaya & Padma and others in Sri Sri Radha Kalachandji Dhama.

Then to Lubbock, Texas where I met for the first time in person my old friends and IndyInAsia Media contributors, Brandon Gray, Amanda Smith, Spencer Gray, and Erin Sopronyi.

Visited Alien friends in Roswell, New Mexico, Revolution Broadcasting founder Raymond Powell in Moriarity, NM, and then arrived at the remote, beautiful and serenity engendering Santa Maria de La Vid Priory in Albuquerque.

The reconnection to my Roman Catholic roots generally, and particularly to my Norbertine Spirituality of devotion to Mary and the Eucharist, and dedication to Reform, Renewal and Reconciliation, was profound and intense there. In the desert surrounding St. John the Baptist’s Chapel of the Repository, I was inspired to write poetry for the first time since 1999 when I was wooing Tomoko. Canticle 1ç3 is posted here.

The next day I received a boon from St. Norbert. I was helping The Priory housekeeper, Socorro, attempt to catch a stray dog (part coyote I guessed, and I had been calling him “Coyote” with a Spanish inflection) because her sister had offered to take him and care for him. Socorro had brought a slab of steak which we were tearing into pieces for use as bait. The hydraulics were broken on the hatch door on the back of Socorro’s large van, and she was tiring from holding it up by hand as I attempted to entice Coyote with tidbits of steak. We needed a stick or a pole to prop the door up, so I prayed for one. “Dear St. Norbert”, I prayed aloud, as I was out in the desert far enough away from Socorro that she could not her me, “please give me a staff like the one you carried (like that of Friar Tuck) to do this job”.

I saw an iron pipe stuck in the sand, but I could not free it. I found a flimsy stick of about inch in diameter, but, as I expected, it crumbled to powder under the weight of the door. Socorro had to go, so we gave up the pursuit for the time being. As she drove away, seeking to engender more trust in Coyote, I followed him to where he had been hanging out near one of the unoccupied hermitages. And there it was. Six feet long, tapering from 2 inches in diameter at the top to 1 inch in diameter at the bottom, a perfect quarterstaff. The certainty that this was indeed the tool I had prayed for, and confidence that it was sent to me, or me guided to it, by St. Norbert, was immediate and thrilling.

From The Priory I headed north on Interstate 25, stopped at the Billy the Kid Rest Stop on Interstate 25 where I was surprised to find free Internet access on a Windows machine in the Information Center. Googling for a sports bar where I could watch the World Cup Final and root for Spain, I found The Blue Rooster Saloon in Walsenburg, Colorado. When I arrived at the Blue Rooster, it was out of business and covered with a banner, “Property of Trinidad National Bank”.

Providentially, down the street and around a corner I found The Silver Dollar Saloon, where I did watch the game, kibitzing and cheering throughout, and from where I was steered on a marvelous detour.

Taking advantage of Spain’s victory and the jubilation it must have caused there, I telephoned the Prior of The Monastery of Santa Maria de La Vid in Burgos, Spain, and asked permission to visit there. Originally a Norbertine construction dating to 1140, La Vid is currently in the care of the Augustinian Community. The Priory in Albuquerque I had just visited was named after Santa Maria de La Vid of Burgos by Father Ben Makin, who was a member of the team of Novice Masters who were our guides when I was a novice at St. Norbert Abbey in 1967 and 1968.

During the World Cup broadcast I met new friends Pat, a customer, and Pauline, the manager of the Silver Dollar Saloon. Both encouraged me to visit the Stations of the Cross Shrine in Colorado’s oldest town, San Luis.

About midnight I parked the reliable and comfortable car I am renting from my friend in Indianapolis, Oscar Antonio Cortez, in the parking lot of the Shrine Gift Shop, and slept.

When I awoke it was still dark, and cold, so I read some from Norbert and Early Norbertine Spirituality. As dawn broke I took the staff from St. Norbert and a Bikram Yoga Mat as a Zarape and began singing Ave Maria in my best imitation of the Perry Como version. I sang it all day long, on the way up and down through the Stations of the Cross, and in the Chapel above them. In the Chapel I was inspired by La Espirita Santa to consecrate 8 hosts of bee pollen tablets, and to dedicate three books (Los Cristianos Ante la Injusticia, Norbert and Early Norbertine Spirituality, ¡Celebramos!), and the staff from St. Norbert.

I am now at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado, another providential detour recommended by a new friend, John Horner. I spent yesterday afternoon with John and his family, and stayed last night in their home. John’s wife Carol Neel is one of the authors of my current favorite book, Norbert and Early Norbertine Spirituality.