Day 51g: How to make a Hero … (06/04/2019)
I exited the townhall in St. Christoph sur Dolaizon and the WIND had fully arrived ( :O ) … No matter, of course, as I simply put a smile ion my face and leaned into the same while sauntering onward under mostly sunny skies, eventually arriving at a tiny path-side chapel on the outskirts of Montbonnet …
And it was here that I experienced one of the greatest Meet-UPs of my entire Walk. For there were literally dozens and dozens of fellow pilgrims who had stopped at this sacred place to sit in the shade and take a break from The Road … :O … I didn’t know any of them, of course (almost every single one of them had started their pilgrimage that very morning in le Puy), and none of them knew anything of my Walk. And so it was that I silently and humbly smiled at them all and walked into the chapel to sign its pilgrims’ guestbook and offer up my usual prayers of Gratitude & Resolve — wondering while I did so that it felt kind of odd to be even more anonymous now amongst so many fellow pilgrims than I had been the 50 days previous when I was one of the only pilgrims on The Road.
And yet no sooner had this thought been internally announced than a woman (Jenne, the woman in the orange shirt seen in the final picture below) tapped me lightly on the shoulder and asked me why I was wearing my smock and what its words meant. I briefly told her that I had started walking in Germany, that I was headed all the way to Chattanooga, and that I was doing the same penniless and for Peace. her mouth dropped open upon hearing the same and she hastily begged me not to go anywhere (Where was I going to go? 🙂 ) … It was easy to smile gently and oblige and she returned in short order with an entire gaggle of 18-year old French high school students ( :O ) … It turns out that she was their teacher and that they were walking a one-week stretch of the Camino as a class field trip, and she asked me if I would speak to them all about my Walk and its mission of promoting Peace & Kindness. I most willingly obliged that quite gracious request, and spent the next 30 minutes or so answering all sorts of questions from my newfound and fully enraptured audience. 😀
Needless to say, the kids were all fully blown away by the entire Adventure, and there is no doubt whatsoever that many lives were changed for the much better that day … 😀 😀 😀
Afterwards, I went outside and sat on a nearby rock wall and laughed heartily as they all — one after the other after the next — brought me handfuls of the foods they were carrying that day; so much food, as it turns out, that I couldn’t even begin to eat it all — so much food (amidst so much fanfare) that all the other pilgrims present got wind that something unusual was afoot, with quite a few of them coming over to speak with me about my Walk thereafter as well … 😀
“Heroes aren’t the ones who leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand, and they don’t really wear masks and capes. No, true heroes bleed and get tired & bruised like the rest of us, and their superpowers are as simple as listening caringly and loving unconditionally. In truth, heroes are simply ordinary people who know that even if their own lives are impossibly knotted, they can still reach out in kindness and untangle someone else’s. And in this small way heroes are the people who remind us all that we are heroes too.” ~ inspired by Jodi Picoult
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