I only slept for a little over four hours that night on the hostel’s kitchen floor, and yet did so surprisingly well, and woke feeling refreshed, energized, and fully ready to head back out onto The Way. I added some jam to the pasta I had pre-cooked the night before and snarfed part of it […]
And then it was that I was once more back out on The Road – back out walking joyfully through the next peaceful pre-dawn morn; a walker journeying in Oneness; a pilgrim walking for Peace … “Travel is a wonderful experience in & of itself, and yet what makes it especially wondrous is the endless […]
The Sun had still not yet fully risen as I entered the city of Carion de los Condes and was greeted warmly by the cleanliness of its streets, the serenity of its architecture, and the gracefulness of its swallows … “This is but one city in one country, on one continent, on one planet, in […]
As I made my way through town, and was steadily joined by other pilgrims who were now also beginning their days, I became aware of the interesting fact that one needn’t always enter churches or sacred spaces to be blessed by the calm they contain … “There was evidence that he might have been privy […]
It wasn’t long after I exited town that I came across the Benedictine Monastery of San Zoilo, a tenth century construction that served for many centuries as the spiritual hub of Palencia (first for the Benedictines, then for the Clunians, then for the Jesuits, and finally as a Minor Seminary). It was declared a national […]
“When walking any significant distance, the pilgrim will regularly reach turnings in the path that disclose a new view that is as majestic as it is unanticipated. And that view appears – and is appreciated, there is always a stark vibration of the landscape; a vibration that shakes the walker awake; a vibration that is […]
One of the truer joys of any pilgrimage is meeting and bonding with fellow travelers along The Way. Truly sincere & heartfelt connections don’t always blossom, of course. In fact, they rarely do. And yet every now and then (“One in every thousand, and two in every ten thousand,” said Jesus astutely in the Gospel […]
And the sign said that I should never quit walking The Way of Selfless Love – the Love that is itself the greatest miracle. Rest assured, I won’t … “A greater portion of the forces that sent him trudging across the dry white prairies was not a mundane ‘love of life’ but rather a love […]
This particular stretch of the Camino – from the city of Carion de los Condes to the village of Calzadilla de la Cueza – was supposedly the longest unbroken stretch along the entire Camino; 17km (over 10 miles) of mostly straight, hot, and dusty path without any town or village or waystation present to provide […]
The village of Calzadilla de la Cueza was finally seen on the horizon, and I at forst thought I might pause there a while to rest. And yet the town was already full of overly reveling pilgrims – most who had started their walk that morning in Carion de los Condes, and many who were […]
“No flower ever thinks of rejecting or ridiculing the one next to it. Flowers simply bloom, offering their beauty & sweetness to all nearby. We too are from dust made and we too to dust will return. In the end we’re just dirt, neither more nor less; just dirt, and maybe some yellow flowers – […]
;
