We decided to take the bus to Leon from Astorga, so early yesterday morning we hopped on the bus which took an hour to drive what would have taken us two days to walk! Gives a different perspective on things doesn't it?
Anothper choice offered by La Camina and received by Sharon and me.
I have been experiencing a major transition since leaving Galicia and entering the Camino that I had not walked before. From where I sit right now, I realize that Galicia represents the known and familiar. This is the area of the Camino I had walked last year; its Celtic culture, history and landscape felt so familiar and magical to me; I resonated with it with every cell of my being. I have also been realizing that last year's Camino was a very romantic experience for me. I loved the landscape; the people, the food. I loved the pilgrim group that I walked with. I had no problems with my feet or legs. I just got to walk, and marvel, and love my experience.
This Camino is a different experience. While I am still loving the experience and feel so grateful and blessed to be back here walking as a pilgrim, it is more than a romantic experience. Last year I got to fall in love with the Camino. This year I get to develop my relationship with it. I get to get to know it in a more real way. I get to have blisters and painfully sore legs. I get to walk on asphalt paths next to roads for many kilometers. I get to keep walking and choosing to walk every day.
Every day the Camino offers choices and opportunities. Every day the Camino guides and provides. Every day.
Part of what this transition offers is the opportunity to clarify what this journey is really all about for us. When we pass the many pilgrims on their way to Santiago, some of them will ask us what we're doing. Most often, our short and simple response is "Camino al contrairio." This means we are walking back to Ste. Jean from Santiago - going back. This is not true, but it suffices people's curiosity without us having to go into a full explanation. It was also a more satisfactory explanation at the beginning of our journey when I was still stepping into the full expression of this pilgrimage. Now, as I sit and write this blog in the same hotel I stayed in last year to begin the journey, and recognize that this is the last taste of familiarity, I know and honor that I am fully stepping into the unknown when I leave Leon on Sunday.
As I continue to travel this Celtic Camino, and walk the first leg to Toulouse, I am aware of something shifting and changing within me, and with the Camino itself. I can feel the feminine emerging from the path more and more. It is becoming less about the destination and more about the process of getting there, who I choose to be on the path,and how I choose to be awake and listen to the choices and the opportunities that the Camino offers.
I had written in the blog that got lost about the many wonderful conversations that we have had with other pilgrims at the perfect times. There has been this quality of simultaneous giving and receiving that has been an experience of grace. As we offer them something of value to their journey, so these pilgrims and people along the way, from albergue owners, to taxi drivers, to shop owners, have offered us gifts of such value that they have changed the course of our journey and given us choices that have profoundly contributed to our pilgrimage. Lorraine, from California, mentions to us about having her "mochila" or backpack transported from albergue to albergue; we then choose to do the same thing, only to find out that the service doesn't operate al contrairio. So the albergue owner in Molinaseca offers to take our bag over to Rabanal and visit with their friends there so that we can walk the mountain pass with less weight. The Camino guides and provides.
Every day in every way, we get to experience this beauty and magic.
I am so grateful.
Will finish up now to shower and take that extra stuff to the post office! And to enjoy Leon. More later.
Suseya!
Sarah
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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