On my way out of town I stopped once more into the powerfully solace-filled San Salvador del Monte Irago Monastery (where I had been blessed to spiritually soak up an amazing Gregorian chanted mass the night before – saying prayers for peace for all who were suffering, and heartfelt offerings of gratitude for the providence […]
“I am no scientist, and yet I can choose to explore my community nonetheless. An infant who has just learned to hold up his head has a frank and forthright way of gazing about him in untainted bewilderment. He hasn’t the faintest clue where he is, and yet he adores it all just the same. […]
I walked thereafter with strong smoothness up and into and through the neighboring town of Foncebadon, knowing with astonishing clarity while I did so that any wall – however “enlightened” or otherwise well-intended – that we erect between our Self and any other is simultaneously a wall erected between our Self and Life itself. We […]
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, […]
I had actually been carrying a steadily growing collection of stones for many days along my pilgrimage – stones I would pick up along The Way whenever they “called out to me” – stones I intended to place at the Cruz de Fero in honor of the many people (enemies as well as soulmates as […]
“A path is another being’s prior interpretation of the best – or in the most fortunate of circumstances, the most meaningful – way of traversing a particular landscape. And yet a path is even more than that. It is also an invitation to journey; a call to courage; a summons to Self. In truth, to […]
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders of the realities of the Universe that surrounds us, the less taste we shall have for its destruction … As such, a primary benefit of traveling is a tempering of one’s imagination with reality; a refilling of one’s attention with wonderment, and thereby a […]
The path then began to steadily rise and became just as steadily more desolate & arid – shrubs & flowers gave way to grasses & lichens, and the path seemed to climb smoothly into the sky; as though The Way was trying to literally become part of the sky. And then the route crested and […]
After walking through to the far edge of town, I noticed the local hostel – a large, modern refuge with a building-long veranda that beckoned me in from the glaring heat. And so it was that I stopped there and sat for awhile – re-taping my shoes and resting my legs and reveling in the […]
It never ceased to amaze me how effortlessly Providence provided along The Way, especially in those moments when I was in no way seeking or longing for the same. And such was the case on this glorious afternoon, where first I was blessed by Patricia & Frederic from Belgium (who offered me a Coca Cola […]
Recharged after my extended rest-stop, I then flowed fluidly onward through the hot & dusty day – first to & through the town of Riego de Ambros (and its peace-invoking Ermita de San Sebastian, that was unfortunately closed at the time of my passing) and then back deep into a trail that had become steep […]
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