It turns out that the “hospitalero” (a word for the volunteers who reside at the hostels and help care for pilgrims) here had acquired the flu just that day, and that Jose Luis could use some assistance until Detlef (the hospitalero) recovered.  It was here in this room that I received the epiphany that I was to provide this service. So, after checking with Jose Luis to see if this would be acceptable to him, I asked Mom if it would be OK with her for me to stay behind for three days and help out. She wasn’t too thrilled about the idea (understatement), and yet bravely consented.

And that is how mom’s two weeks of walking truly “alone” commenced, and how my two weeks of walking as a mendicant pilgrim began.

“It was already late enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little, as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice which you slowly
recognized as your own, that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper into the world,
determined to do the only thing you could do–
determined to save the only life you could save.”

~ Mary Oliver

Filed under: Walking The Way (Camino de Santiago - 2008) by Scaughdt