Day 087i: Far beyond the physical … (July 10, 2019)
It wasn’t long after leaving town that I came across a beautiful, shade-tree ensconced rest-stop alongside the suroundingly dusty The Path. And who should be sitting therein alone but Ferdinand (from France) – a well-worn veteran pilgrim who was walking the Camino for the umpteenth time. I pause for a bit to chat warmly with him about his history and his current walk, as well as about the overall magic & majesty of pilgrimage routes like the Camino – that they teach us that alone “we have no unique merit”; that our true worth only blossoms during our interactions with the others we meet along the way …
“The love that I believe in is something that goes far beyond the physical aspects of this life. The love that I believe is one that extends its energy and its power into & through all the beautiful souls I encounter along the way. It is a love that can be seen in the joyful eyes of a small dog or in the confusion of a lost chicken who herself also desires (and equally deserves) to be treated with gentle kindness. This kind of love goes through a divine crafting of a person’s deepest self, through personal experience and thousands of tears and moments of great strength, that can only be seen in the familiar eyes of older Souls, the eyes that recognize each other even after long times of separation, the eyes that find themselves familiar with places they have probably been to before, but that nevertheless bring forth greater memories with every fresh arrival. This kind of love sees a greater knowing in the eyes of new-born children who know way much more than they are capable of putting into words, and who bring with their innocence a smile to each person’s face who had until that moment forgotten that they too can start again. This is the love that I see when I meet a fellow pilgrim on the Path; a love which has permanent roots deep inside each of us, and yet a love that needs care and light to grow and unfold its branches so that it can reach outside of ourselves and out into the world.” ~ inspired by Virgil K. M. Iordache
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