“Drop your masks, show your true face” (Huib Wijtenburg, pilgrim 999)

With beautiful music and songs we were escorted out on our pilgrimage on Saturday, December 17, 2016.

When I left the Stevenskerk, I said the following poem:

Labyrinth

Do you have the desire to wander

in your own labyrinth

From the outside in

Are you curious

What you’ll find there?

Or do you prefer to stay outside,

Are you afraid of the pain,

there is the denial

Don’t want to be there?

Surrender

to the SILENCE

Surrender to the LIGHT.

Drop your masks.

Show your true face.

Feel how you’re being carried

Like a wave in the sea

Feel how you are connected to everything

and flow, flow with it.

Annemarie van Krugten

I had the honour of being allowed to leave as Pilgrim 999, where I was surprised several times along the way by attentions from restaurants and hotel establishments, of which the delicious stay at hotel De Keurvorst in Ravenstein was the absolute highlight.

As a resident of Nijmegen, I had already walked parts of the route here and there, but I was certainly surprised by very beautiful places where I had never been before. We had wonderful encounters with a fellow pilgrim, with a bus driver, with someone who gave us a lift when there was no bus, a passer-by who wanted to help us and much more.

The hospitable and cordial welcome at Adelheid and Huub Kortekaas did justice to the above poem. In this precious encounter, we all dropped our masks and showed our true colors. When we stopped at the Labyrinth on the Waalkade just before arriving at the Stevenskerk, we felt satisfied, grateful, connected and still full of energy. We will definitely walk the pilgrimage again, but this time consecutively.

Huib Wijtenburg (pilgrim 999)

He walked together with Lucy van Norel (pilgrim 1011)

Photo: The labyrinth on the Waalkade