Beyond a doubt, this
was our most beautiful day yet on the Camino!
The morning opened with
a cold mist permeating everything, but the fog gradually gave way to brilliant
sunshine and it felt like spring again! New hope and vitality filled my heart!
We planned to go from
Sarria to Mercadoiro today, only 18 kms, very close to Matthias’ recommendation,
and
totally manageable compared
with how far we’d walked other days. I left my pack in the albergue foyer for the transport service to pick up and, free from
its burden, we started walking through the city, up100s of stairs!
One thing became
quickly apparent: many more peregrinos were joining us this morning!
They were everywhere: it
was like ‘rush hour’ on the Camino! Sarria was 120 kms from Santiago, about a
week’s journey by foot, and this being Semana
Santa = Holy Week, many Spaniards were starting here to complete a
mini-pilgrimage.
We walked through a
mix of farms and forests. Streams overflowed all around us: spilled over the
walls and onto our pathway. Sometimes we crossed the waters by centuries-old
bridges, stepping-stones or simply waded through. The trees, giant oaks and
chestnuts, exuded character and seemed to speak out of the mist. Susan from
Paraguay called them ‘talking trees’. I likened them to Tolkien’s ents in The Lord of the Rings and fully expected
them to pull up roots and start walking with us.
The mist burned off,
the sun shone clearer, and as we walked, I felt how much Erica would have
enjoyed this natural beauty and suddenly really missed her company, her
presence with us. At times, the Camino’s natural beauty verged on perfection,
but this only seemed to make her absence all the more prevalent in my mind.
Like how can there be such perfection when she is no longer here?!
Again tears flowed as
memories quickened and past and present came alive together.
‘But,’ I heard the wind
in the trees say, ‘This is for healing: the leaves of the trees are for healing
the nations…
and for you and your
family!’
And that’s how and
when Revelation 22:2 became my verse for the day!
As we walked through
this morning, I felt Erica walking with us as I’d not known before, somehow still
here, among the talking and walking trees of life, together with me on this pilgrimage
to heal.
And that’s when the
Spaniard, who’d still been sleeping when we left early, biked past; and the 2
German guys too.
In fact, I awakened to
the fact a lot of other peregrinos were
passing me. Was I slowing down again? The only guy I’d passed was a very
white-haired 75-year old grandpa, probably the only guy older than me on the
whole Camino!
So… time to move a
little faster?!
No… time to inhale a
deeper breath, take it all to heart and enjoy these God-moments of life!
As it turned out, we
had more than enough time! We even stopped for lunch and arrived at our next albergue early. My pack arrived safely.
We settled into our room – had it all to ourselves! No caliente = hot water for showers, and when the sun went down, it got cold and our
stone albergue room grew even colder,
but Michael found a space heater and
warmed ours up. After supper in the dining room, we even scrounged some cardboard
and wood, built a much-needed fire and Michael and I played a game of chess,
something we hadn’t done in a long time.
Like I said: it was the
most beautiful day!
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