I flowed into Santiago proper and my first stop was Sybille’s home (where she had told me to return should I ever make it back to town). She wasn’t home at the time, so I simply headed to the Cathedral plaza to rest a bit and soak up the joy of that day’s arriving pilgrims. And yet no sooner did I set foot into the plaza proper when Dan approached me and boldly asked about my smock – and thereby my Walk. It turned out that Dan was a sincere Seeker – both looking for the greater meaning available in greater acts of kindness, and also who had been in the process of planning a Great Walk of his own. Almost needless to say, we bonded right away quite deeply, and vowed to meet up again before I left town. He then loaned me his phone to call Sybille, and with the very last ounce of power in its battery I was able to take to her and discover that she happened to be sitting with friends near the plaza at that very moment. Dan was then hugged hugely and I made my way to Sybille & Co. – Father Alasdair (a true blue Franciscan friar!) and Tom (an actual ex-employee of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service!), the former of which feeling like a long-lost Soulmate and the latter of which setting about immediately strategizing the best way to get me “back across the pond” … We all four chatted for awhile there (about the Camino and life and Santiago and my Walk) basking in the late-afternoon glow cast from the neighboring Cathedral, and then it was time to head back to Sybille’s, still awash in the now seemingly-standard stupor that came to all pilgrims who are subjected to such showerings of synchronicity (what many of my fellow walkers call “Camino magic”) … Alasdair arrives shortly thereafter and invites me to a lovely dinner accompanied by Robert from Australia & Hugo from Ireland – a repast replete with the metaphorically obligatory wine & bread, and a repast delightfully accompanied by a long and laughter-laced ladling of meaningful banter … Alasdair then walked with me back to Sybille’s thereafter, and we hung out for a longer while together, talking like true “Brothers from mothers other” (pun intended) well into the early evening about all matters spiritual and sociological and ethical and theological. Here was a rare person indeed; a true Kindred Spirit if there ever was such a thing, and I went to bed thereafter feeling especially grateful & humble and reverent and blessed …

“According to the wisdom of Christ, we aren’t to first find our Soul’s greater gifts through self-examination and introspection and then find ways to express them. Instead, we are called to set firth and love one another, serve one another, help one another, and in so doing rediscover how God has equipped us to do so … And to this particular end we must all be knit together as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. we must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities for the supply of others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body – the one & same family of sentient brothers & sisters & cousins. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, and so shall we become active agents of The Divine, and thereby allow the same to dwell among us.” ~ inspired by Russell Moore & John Winthrop

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