Book excerpt: Barbara V. Anderson's new book, Letters from the Way takes readers on her solo walk that covered 600 miles on the GR 653, from Arles, France to Puente la Reina, Spain. This was not Barbara's first long distance walk and like she did before, she wrote weekly letters to her family. As these letters were shared, she found herself writing to more than fifty friends who then shared the letters with their friends. Photographs by Barbara and others she met along the trail provide a visual accompaniment to her quirky observations. The letters are her musings about fellow pilgrims, vultures and butterflies, the endless rain, lessons to learn, and spiritual questions to answer. Her often humorous and always honest reflections make a good and relatable resource for anyone wondering what it would be like to set out on their own very long journey. When asked his impression of the letters, San Francisco's renowned artistic director David Ford commented, “Barbara Anderson makes it easy to contemplate the hardest thing.”