Shortly thereafter I arrived at the Cruz de Fero – the Iron Cross; a famed Camino highlight where pilgrims were encouraged to leave a stone (or other symbol of remembrance) to either honor loved ones or release past traumas or current tribulations. Two of the stones I had been carrying with me were for Daniel, a pilgrim who had recently passed on and who happened to have been a dear friend of Francoise & Gerard – the lovely French couple I had met back in Espalais some four weeks earlier. I had offered then to carry a stone for each of them to the Cruz de Fero for Daniel, and it was both an honor & a joy to be able to deliver the same to that sacred destination.

“Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must first travel to where the Indian in a dusty poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how he could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive … And once you meet him there, you awaken. At that point it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say ‘It is I you have been looking for’ – only kindness that then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a dearest friend.” ~ via Naomi Shihab Nye

Filed under: Peace Pilgrimage #02: Walking HOME (2019) by Scaughdt