Overcoming obstacles in the Reichswald (by pilgrim Annelies Hoefsloot)

As a pilgrim, I have the desire to meet myself. Where better to do that than in the tranquility of nature? Can I handle myself when things get tough or when I get overwhelmed by emotions?

Quite exciting to go out on my own, on my own. No escapes to quickly run to someone else just in case……

‘Many fallen trees in the Reichswald’, according to the current route news.

I’ve been on the road for a few hours this day. I haven’t met anyone in this big forest yet.
And then they come: on one path I come across those fallen trees. What to do?: ‘This is easy, I can get over it’. The next one I can go under. Well, and then a few in quick succession.
There is no path around this, I can’t go over it and I can’t go under it. I look at the situation calmly, there is no panic at all! I step into the undergrowth and find my way through it. After a while I’m back on the trail.

What do I bring? When I encounter obstacles, in whatever way, I always have a choice as to what to do with them: I can go around them, I can step over them, or I can go underneath them.

Annelies Hoefsloot