Camino—Day 36

Camino—Day 36

April 30th
RUA to SANTIAGO

Wind and rain greeted me this day.
They seemed to weather the ‘spirit’ stirring in me.  For a few days now I have ‘felt’
that I had finished the Camino.  How could this be when I had not yet arrived in
Santiago? Hauntingly, perhaps, I did not wish to arrive to sense an ‘ending..’  Deep
down I knew it to be a new beginning…

I’m still the same, yet changed…How?  I cannot tell you.  I’ll need ‘space’ upon
returning home to sift through all the grains of wheat I’ve ‘plucked’ along
this journey.

Arriving in Santiago felt ’empty.’  Tears bathed my being as I gently placed my
companion (Stickey) with all the other pilgrim sticks that have made their way.

The woman ‘gifting’ me with my certificate took my hand and said, “Well done.”
She paused with me in the moment—NO RUSHING.  I knew her to be a pilgrim.

I chose to attend the pilgrim Mass.  The cathedral was full…standing room only.  A
gentle woman religious entered the altar proper space and began to sing.  Her
voice, strong and prayerful, as if we were in heaven (and we are) opened every
hollowed place with awe.

Again—a silent rush of tears…a procession of male clergy and the voice of the
woman ‘lifting’ hearts in prayer.  It was the first moment in a long while I felt
sorrow.  I sensed a lack of equality, and as much as I wanted to run out, I looked
all around me.  The cathedral was packed with many faith-filled souls and with those of no faith—there was a shared solemn reverence.  I wept, and wept, and
wept.

I’m so ALIVE—free from so much, so much ‘information,’ system overload be it
religious, political, economic or the simple demands of connecting with friends.
This ‘journey’ ALONE has given me the gift of ‘being’ with self—a self I’ve enjoyed
to walk with…

As the ‘botafumeiro’ in the cathedral was swung—symbolic (originally) to
fumigate the sweaty pilgrims, the temple in me rose…an ‘air’ of cleansing needed.
AS I departed the cathedral, I thought of the thousands of pilgrims who gathered
in this place over the centuries—those coming to be blessed as they completed
the journey.  History has a way of touching those in need, and it is the “simple”
souls who understand the message.  These pilgrims have lived their years and the
years now live in them.  ‘They’ are the incense blessing the valleys, the mountain
tops, the country side, the streams and rivers, the farmlands, the flat terrain, the
soggy marshes.

I began this journal with a question that has reverberated with me as I walked…

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
                                                                                                                   George Berkeley

What do you believe?
I believe some-thing hears the sound…I have been this tree walking each day
falling, rising—dying.  Yes, dying to a self that need not be ANYTHING but the
manifestation of the living presence of God within me.

So many souls I know AND love would prefer to walk around saying, “Mea Culpa
Mea Culpa.”  It’s easy to think we are NOT good enough, not worthy enough
because then we do not have to be the ‘LIGHT‘ each of us IS!

Shine BEAUTIFUL you—shine and reflect off the glow of EVERYONE you
encounter.  If your light is not received, if others envy you or cast aspersions
about your being, walk on gently…BUT never cover who you are.

Your roots are strong, and wherever you are planted, may your ‘garden’ in life be
a return to Eden—all things GOOD.  Don’t be afraid to eat the fruit!  Amen.