We left our cozy little Hostel at 500 am in darkness accompanied by a stiff, cool breeze, turned off our headlamps snd spent a few moments with the beautiful starry sky. We walked a bit, and thankfully glanced back or we would have missed…
this beautiful sunrise!
We covered 15.3 miles today., The first part was quite easy – it’s always the last few hours when it’s so hot that we suffer the most. We met up with some pilgrims from Philadelphia. – mother and daughter – and chatting with them as we walked really helped the kilometers fly by.
In another little town we came across this fascinating statue.
Of course, the life-sized pilgrims at the foot of the cross, or rather the state of the pilgrims struck us. The opposite side was very powerful:
To me it spoke to humble submission to the Lord. Or perhaps, the pilgrim is overcome with fatigue, or surrender, or overwhelmed with quiet thanksgiving. Who knows? Obviously these are things that I see, perhaps because I’ve experienced all of the above on this pilgrimage.
A pilgrim asked me, I can’t remember where, or when, if I believed there was a Spirit “in” the Camino. Interestingly, one of her companions remarked, while we were chatting about how smoothly things had fallen into place in a particular challenge, “The Camino provides…the Camino always provides.” OK – don’t worry kids, I wasn’t too preachy, but I did answer her question that I absolutely did not believe this. It is God that provides. It is the Holy Spirit that inspires the pilgrims and our supporters to care with such charity and generosity. Certainly not some “mystical presence” in the Camino itself. Hey…she asked! It made me wonder, however, if others have this same thought as this inquiring pilgrim.
There may be a later addition to this blog – check back! At this moment we’re deep in “siesta mode.” Like Mary said at one point today, “I think right now I like siesta more than fiesta.”