MIND OVER MATTER, AND MATTERS MATERNAL

Meeting Tamara reminded me of the power of visualization in healing, so on this day, I concentrated on thinking of my knees as well oiled joints in a machine.  I managed to make the first sixteen kilometres of nineteen with no pain whatsoever, and with only the left knee braced.  The result was that I made it to the day's destination in very good time.

I had a contemplative day.  I was alone for most of it, with the odd "Buen Camino"  thrown in here and there, as I met other pilgrims.  I passed through familiar places, and saw them in a new way.  Last time I'd been this way, I'd been distracted,  laughing and joking with a couple of Australians, and so this time I noticed things I hadn't seen before.  I even saw a legless lizard, a slow worm, something entirely new to me.

I passed a bit of graffiti in a tunnel going under a highway which said, in English:

We all come from the same place, we just have different maps to get home.  


This, and all those magical Virgin statues which abound here, had me thinking about what an honour and privilege it is to be the vehicle which allows a person to venture forth on one stage of that journey.

  I also found myself thinking about Maryanne, and wondering how she was getting on and what, if anything, she was learning in these last days.  I remembered the Danish woman from my last trip,  who had asked me  plaintively "when were the revelations supposed to come?" In the midst of all the logistics and pain management and tourism, when would she have the spiritual experience she'd been seeking?  Then, I had only been able to commiserate.  I didn't realize that I'd be mulling over my trip daily in a low key way, and then after a year in a more concentrated re-telling; and I didn't realize that when I did a second trip, that the process would repeat itself.  I didn't understand that having walked the Camino, there would be plenty of time for those revelations.  In fact, I'd have the rest of my days.  I'll bet she knows that now, too.



 Arthur Paul Boers, in his book, The Way is Made By Walking, has said it the best of anyone:

"The Camino works in me, step by step".  

It stays with you.  That is why, even after the walk is over, former pilgrims can say to one another, in all seriousness.  "Buen Camino!".  It sets you on a new path.   It makes you conscious of your relationship with all humans.  It creates tolerance.  It brings out generosity, both material and personal.  It fosters laughter.  It reminds you of your place in space and time.  It teaches you to go slowly, at the pace a human was meant to go.  It teaches you to value simplicity.  It reminds you of your mortality.  It does these things for everyone who walks it.  As for faith, and religion, and spirituality, each pilgrim will receive something different, depending on which map he is using to get home.