David Hlavsa > Quotes

“I have two sons, one living. I would not now trade the road Lisa and I took for an easier one. Losing James was hard, but I’m thankful that I got to see him, and I am thankful that I got to grieve him as well. As most any pilgrim will tell you, the difficulty of the undertaking is what gives it meaning. All the petty competition for authenticity among the pilgrims on the Camino has its roots in something by no means trivial: pilgrimage is meant to be done the hard way. A real pilgrimage, a real life, contains, and is defined by, difficulty – hardship, and how we respond to it, makes us who we are, certainly more than anything that comes easy.”
― David Hlavsa, Walking Distance: Pilgrimage, Parenthood, Grief, and Home Repairs

“Actions are prayers too, and as I am trying, not always successfully, to be a good parent, a good husband, a good teacher, I sometimes think: this is my conversation with God. It seems to me now that the action of walking to Santiago was, in itself, a prayer – a prayer repeatedly and resoundingly answered. Benjamin is an answered prayer, of course, but so was James. He just wasn’t the answer we expected.”
― David Hlavsa, Walking Distance: Pilgrimage, Parenthood, Grief, and Home Repairs