For all my fellow pilgrims: Ultreia & Suseia – walking to the horizon, and then to Heaven beyond … “Among all the most typical phrases that we can find within the Jacobean pilgrimage routes, the expression Ultreia et Suseia is one of the oldest (and possibly the most popular) of all. Indeed, this greeting has […]
This is the St. Francis refugio located in the small town of Tosantos. I ended up soaking in the Power of the Camino here for three days – helping hostel manager Jose Luis’ as a temporary replacement hospitalero (one of the refuge’s primary volunteers had come down with the flu just the day before I […]
The small “sanctuary chamber” (the lower image pictured below) was located on the top floor of the Tosantos refuge, and was used by head hospitalero Jose Luis (pictured above the same) to perform a lovely nightly ceremony for all the pilgrims who arrived each day – a ceremony consisting of pilgrims present reading aloud the […]
After serving fellow pilgrims for three days at Tosantos, I headed back out myself onto the Camino’s dusty trail, soon arriving that afternoon in the town of Ages and entering a tiny, uber-rustic refuge that Jose Luis had recommended called Casa Caracol (fittingly, “the house of the snail”). This was one of the few remaining […]
Here we see my favorite stopover of the entire Camino: San Bol – a beautifully rustic, out-of-the-way donativo refugio. In truth, at this point on my walk I had been saving my very last Euro for several days prior to arriving, intending to donate it here (I had heard wonderful things about the place from […]
This picture shows two of my favorite facets of San Bol – the San Bol “bathtub” (lower image) and the San Bol Labyrinth (upper image). The former was fed by a surprisingly voluminous (and stunningly cold) fresh water spring, and its particular set-up was actually quite ingenious, where pilgrims could drink from the pre-tub head […]
And then I was once again flowing along my Way, smoothly sauntering through the crisp autumn air of the Camino in October … “But even if I’m left high and dry at the end of this wild journey, just taking it is a great feeling.” ~ Olivia Wilde
Soon thereafter I entered the small village of Moratinos (after a very long day of walking) and was blessedly directed to the Peaceable Kingdom; a donativo refuge run by Rebekah Scott and her husband Paddy – a solace-laden space where I was blessed to remain and rest and wonder (and work in the place’s gardens) […]
Every day we were all metaphorically – and far more often than not literally – alone. Indeed, no matter how many of us set out together at each day’s beginning, we each soon thereafter at some point found ourselves in complete solitude along The Way … “Solitude is the audience-chamber of God – an active […]
I eventually thereafter made it to the great city of Leon, where I was blessed to visit its phenomenal cathedral at precisely the right moment – the perfect time of day at the perfect time of year; the time when the light from the steadily setting sun streamed through the church’s majestic stained glass windows […]
This was another one of my favorite stopovers on the Camino – the stone church found at the entrance to the oft-mist-enshrouded mountain village of Ocebreiro. It was here that I entered one foggy morning, and it was here that I came to rest in the church’s small side antechamber; a room that happened to […]
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