“This is life – choosing to love through loss. Seeking warm pockets in the bitter cold. Finding the worth of offering a smile on a cloudy day. Carrying the weight of others’ worlds on already weary shoulders … This is life – sorting through layers & layers of words all staring you straight in the […]
And then it was that I ambled up to the same Great Crossroads – the intersection where the pilgrim must choose to either walk to Finisterre or to Muxia; ultimately onward to the other anyway; and then inevitably back towards Home. And so it is, really, with any of Life’s major decisions – all of […]
And then began a string of encounters that was deeply magical – a series of returns to places recently visited; each one providing a fresh opportunity to embrace anew what had been given or denied. And first on the list was the hostel at Logoso, the lovely place that had fed me graciously and allowed […]
Oleveiroa, the place that had been so cruel & cold just a few days prior, was next on this wondrous list, and it was here that I paused to give yet another humble Gratitude. Yes, the town was essentially deserted, and neither those who had betrayed my journey nor the wonderful children who had been […]
I was thereafter smoothly flowing out of town when I heard a loud and enthusiastic “Scaughdt!” coming from the side of the road. And who should I see when looking in that direction but Hannah – the wonderful young pilgrim from Japan; the pilgrim I had first briefly met in the lovely hostel in Pieros […]
“There is always a temptation to get spiritually lost in the contemplative life, bowing to the far tinier statues of ‘wisdom’ or ‘salvation’ or ‘enlightenment.’ Similarly there is always an enormous temptation in all the other facets of life to get similarly lost – focusing on tiny friends and tiny comforts and tiny successes and […]
I then flowed into the hamlet of Ponte Oveira just as the rain began to pour down, and found myself fluidly pausing under a neighboring grape arbor to smilingly wait out the passing storm … “Two of the more difficult tests on any Spiritual Path are 01) the courage required to meld with whatever is […]
The hamlet of Lago and its Mt. Aro hostel was next on the day’s list. This place had seemed inviting on its surface when I had passed by a few days previous – though the stench from the neighboring bovine slaves had dissuaded me from stopping by. Of course, giving the place the benefit of […]
The little village of Santa Marina was next on the list today – the town where I had first thought to stop a few days prior, but where the cow-stench was simply too oppressive to do so. As previously mentioned, the fresh rains had made the area more olfactorily approachable on this day, and so […]
I had heard from several pilgrims along The Way that there was a donativo refuge open to all pilgrims in the town of Vilaserio, and it seemed to be a pretty positive portent when I rounded a bend in the road and saw a glowing rainbow arcing down directly thereto … “Each man has only […]
It wasn’t long thereafter that, with the rainbow having faded and the day’s sunlight beginning to wane and the day’s shadows beginning to lengthen, I finally made my way into Vilaserio proper and pulled up to the town’s Municipal Albergue – a run-down and amenity-free building that still served as a donativo refuge for pilgrims […]
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