Day 100b: Walking early with fellow Friends … (July 23, 2019)
There were few things finer on my pilgrimage* than walking The Road immersed in the thrumming peace of the pre-dawn darkness, though one of the things that made this particular morning even more contentment-laden was munching on the small bag of nuts & dried fruit that Shaun had left out for me to take along my way. And so it was that I flowed easily past the pathside hostel in Ribadiso (where I had spent a restful night along The Way some 10+ years prior) and then into & through the town of Arzua (where I paused just long enough to take yet another 400mg Ibuprofen for my pain-riddled back – the first time I had “double-dosed” on the same the entire Walk) … It almost always brought a smile to my face to walk in steady silence with my fellow early-morning pilgrim friends, and this morning was no different. To make matters more wondrous, I soon noticed an exceptionally acrobatic bat swooping through the twilight skies overhead; a vision that inspired me to stop in my tracks and drink deeply from the sight that was the heavens’ cotton-ball clouds softly surrounding a lone sparkling star that was still shimmering in a sky of perfect pre-dawn blue …And then I flowed on as the Sun began to steadily rise and the day began to ever more fully break, and Joy was refreshed anew when I met Patrica (and her companions, Elsy, Fernando, & Orlando) once more – the same lovely woman who ad laughingly taught me how to say “Have a nice day!” in Spanish all the way back in the outskirts of Burgos … :O
“You do not have to be great or walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting misdeeds and regretting wrongs committed. No, you only have to allow the softer essence of your Soul to love what it ever loves. So tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile, our world goes on; meanwhile the Sun and the clear pebbles of rain are both still dancing across our landscapes – over the prairies and through the deep trees, up the mountains and along the undulating rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, somewhere in the world – high in the clean blue air, are heading homeward once more. So remember, whoever you are, and no matter how lonely you might be, the world is ever offering itself to you; calling to you like the wild geese – harsh and exciting and exuberant – over & over announcing your perfect place in the greater family of things.” ~ inspired by Mary Oliver
*With one of those “finer things” being effectively inspiring others to join Team Kindness with heartfelt words, and another being lessening the burdens of others via heartfelt deeds.
;