final lessons from my Camino, 15 years later

 

It’s official.

As the month of June comes to an end, it marks 15 years since my dear friend Pat Stankus and I marched into the city of Santiago de Compostela—culminating our pilgrimage across northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago.

In my Camino journal, I made a list titled, "things I have learned this final week."

But really, they are lessons from the Camino:

• ·      a country church bell can be rung softly or loudly. I did both!
• ·      all of creation is an open book (St. Benedict), symbolically expressing—and portraying, the sacred
• ·      There is always shit on the path
• ·      Old or new, shit always stinks

·      at least for this pilgrimage, I was not meant to walk in boots, but in sandals

• ·      people in Spanish churches sing loudly, even at daily Mass
• ·      my grace is sufficient for you
• ·      eucalyptus leaves are a piece of heaven—and nothing like the ones you find at Michael’s
• ·      sheep don’t like to be sheared
• ·      I can still sing the lyrics to songs I learned in my childhood and have not sung since then
• ·      The butterflies and wildflowers play silent music with their colors. Remember!
• ·      I love Spanish food
• ·      I love Spanish wine
• ·      I may never fully understand why I did this
• ·      Bidden or not bidden. God is present
• ·      Every pilgrim will go home describing a different Camino.
• ·      Threading your blisters with a needle & thread and betadine really does work
• ·      You can get blisters on top of blisters
• ·      Creation’s beauty does not cost or weigh anything
• ·      Your heart sees and recognizes joy (as well as sin) simply through presence
• ·      I doubted the guidebook. But, yes, cheese can be shaped to look like a breast with a nipple
• ·      I love Spanish cheese
• ·      Yo soy el Camino