Day 20e: an Iberian inspiration … (05/04/2019)
Well, it took me quite a while to sloooooowly navigate the shockingly steep descent mentioned previously, and no sooner had I done so than I discovered that said trail was not meant for pilgrims at all — that I had actually taken the wrong route off the mountain; a route that took MUCH longer to traverse, and yet a route that somehow had allowed me to completely pass by the day’s original goal (the town of Grandval) and arrive in the town of Moutier instead … :O
It might have been due to my own highly fatigued demeanor at the time, but this latter village was somewhat unsympathetic at first (with yours truly being rejected the first time he asked for water and then just as soundly dismissed by the local Catholic preacher when I approached him at the local parsonage). And yet the town soon warmed to me as I allowed myself to warm to the town — with a sandwich shop owner giving me a huge bottle of mineral water and a local bookstore owner letting me rest in her warm shop while she brought out some maps and helped me figure out which route to take onward … 🙂
That having been said, even though I then knew in which direction I was to continue along my Walk, it was already getting somewhat late in the day (early in the evening, actually), so I hunkered down in the lobby of a nearby bank as massive snowflakes began to fall. And yet it became readily apparent that there was still too much bank-activity to remain there at the time, so I resolved instead to head into the Catholic church across the street and hang out there until it closed (whereafter I intended return to the bank lobby again to weather the night’s steadily building storm).
The church itself was peaceful and lovely, and I found a relatively secluded corner where I thought I might hide and spend the night, and yet that plan imploded when a jovially boisterous group of worshipers came in and sat in those same side-wing pews. It turns out they were members of the local Portuguese congregation who met once a month there to celebrate mass, and I immensely enjoyed watching them do so (while I huddled next to the church’s prayer candles for warmth) via a service that was very different from its previously witnessed Swiss cousin — a service filled with celebratory music instead of reverent hymns, joyous laughter instead of dour glances, and openhearted hugs instead of chilly handshakes.
After they were finished a few of them came over to tell me that they were locking up the church and that I would have to leave. I told them that this was no problem, as my bank-lobby bed across the street was dry and warm and waiting. They were shocked to hear the latter, of course, and yet instead of merely shrugging their shoulders and letting me wobble off into the night, they huddled around me en masse and essentially tried to outdo one another in trying to help me and my cause — eventually chipping in to not only pay for a hotel room for me for that night, but treating me to dinner that evening, bringing me a bag of vegan vittles for breakfast the next morning, and giving me a whole sack full of winter clothes for my upcoming journey … 😀 😀 😀 😀
“There are four questions of importance in life: What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for? What is worth dying for? And yet even there are four of these all-critical questions, there is but a single correct answer to each of them: LOVE — the noble choice to Care for others more than ourselves.” ~ inspired by Don Juan Demarco
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