Fear is a funny thing – fully debilitating when we are focusing on ourselves; fully empowering when faced boldly for others. It was this latter choice that I made on this soon-to-be-calamitous afternoon; a choice that had me harnessing the winds of fear instead of succumbing to the same; a choice that had me easily […]
And so it was that I arrived at tomorrow’s goal today – the lovely town of Ages (pronounced ‘ah-hess’) – just as the rains began to fall and the winds began to pummel … “Like a bold explorer of the heart, mind, and soul I have hurled myself off the shores of my own fears […]
Ages was one of the Camino’s known safe-havens from my past – specifically the small & rustic-yet-warmhearted donativo hostel called Casa Caracol (“House of the Snail”) in which I had stayed back in 2008. And yet search as I might, Casa Caracol was nowhere to be found, and I soon learned from some local folks […]
Once more I was offered a warm, soft bed upon which to lay my head, and once more I quietly & anonymously turned down the same – in favor of saving my fellow pilgrims from my sonorous rumblings by taking refuge on the colder, harder dining hall floor … “These are the many ways we […]
Setting off once more in yet another pre-dawn darkness, I realized with great clarity that – in times of uncertainty, doubt, or confusion – it is only wise to follow the lights that lead one forward along The Way, never the ones that tempt one to remain safely behind … “Often when we have convinced […]
Sometimes the Way will be smooth & clear and sometimes the Way will prove foggy & jagged. And yet no matter the weather or circumstance, always the Way must be walked – one foot in front of the other – one single step at a time – fully immersed in the Path – on the […]
Crosses regularly graced the sides of (and often adorned the stopovers along) The Way, and sometimes these Christ-referenced shrines were large enough to inspire decades of pilgrims to leave their tributes there. And while it is easy to think that these marked memorials evidence an almost overbearing popularity of the Christian religion, I think we […]
I proceeded along The Path and came across this odd wayside sight – a pile of uprooted (and apparently discarded) Camino waymarkers. And how fitting the same was, especially here along a section of The Way that was so large & wide & clear & obvious that no signposts were needed at all. Metaphors abounded […]
I then suddenly found myself walking next to Terri from Texas (pictured in white on the right) and talking amicably about our mutual disconcert related to over the current over-arching state of humanity – the crystallized fixation with material comforts being gathered and personal needs being met, the increase in individual security purchased at the […]
This roadside mural (which I remember being present here as well back in 2008) makes a common challenge all too clear – how are we to ensconce ourselves in the wonders of life’s more difficult (and more common) moments, when ever tempted to long for times past that were more cozy (and therefore innately less […]
I then arrived on the outskirts of the larger city of Burgos, and entered the first wayside church I came to there – a church being humbly cleaned by a cast of humble women; a church shimmering in a glow of warmth & wonderment; a church apparently dedicated to – and also gently emanating – […]
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