CATHEDRAL CONCERT

Sept 24 evening. Camino de Santiago.

We met up with the other group of travelers that we started out with. It was wonderful to see each other.  We truly miss traveling together every day but we have had to separate in order to accommodate our different traveling abilities, which includes length of legs and youthful vitality and speed.

We went to the Medieval Fair in Leon near the Cathedral in the old quarter.  Dinner was wonderful with lots of different dishes.  We were celebrating one of the women's birthday that is December 22?  I don't understand it either.

We learned that there is the first concert in a series of concerts on the Cathedral organ which was installed on Sept 2013. We are standing in the line that is extremely long around the Cathedral waiting to enter. The artist, Jean-Baptiste Monnot is rated as a genius and the program is strenuous.  So we are excited to be in this crowd that is gathering. The admission is free.  Hopefully we won't fall asleep from too much food.

When we went in we noticed that the Cathedral organ is in the rear of the building and folding chairs were set up to accommodate those who came to listen.  The entire center section was roped off as for special guests.  It was time to start and most of those center chairs were still vacant. Where we were, a pillar blocked our view so I went to the attendant and asked to be let through to the center seating.  She let me right through.  I signaled for Dennis to join me and under the rope he came.

The seats were perfect. We could see and hear the performance that was exquisitely done.  There were two encores and much applause.  Monnot really made the organ sing.

What a find.  What a blessing. Hearing this gorgeous concert in Cathedral of Leon...for free.  A Camino gift for sure!

PC

#pilgrim

IN ARCAHUEJA, JUST OUTSIDE OF LEON

(09/23/15)

Last night we stayed on Mansilla de las Mulas. We lodged at the Municipal Albergue which housed 76 of us in 8 rooms.  There were at least 24 in our room in bunk beds, which is the norm.  I always ask for lower bunk so I won't fall on anyone during the night when making my way to the "banyo" in the dark.

This Albergue was a lot of fun. A wonderful mix of people.  Stephano from Italy played guitar and sang with a beautiful girl on each side singing along with him.  After each song all of us in the courtyard surrounded by our hanging laundry cheered them on to yet another song.  The kitchen was quite busy with lots of folks preparing dinner from scratch.  The aromas were incredible .  Stephano waited till nearly 21:00 ----can you figure out the 24 hr clock that is commonly used here ----to cook his chicken with fresh mushrooms and sauce.  His friend from France was starving but the kitchen was maxed out with cooks.  I was glad that we had eaten earlier,  however, several of the youngsters offered me food.  I think I will go down in history as the only pilgrim who gains weight.   We are fed a lot and all along the Way there are three course Peregrino meals offered.  These are quite substantial!

Today we walked about 12 km to Arcahueja.

Tomorrow we will explore Leon.

I walked with Ron from North Carolina and Dennis walked with Ron's wife, Cindy.  I learned that Cindy is a "disciple" of Joan Chittister and Matthew Fox....so we had a lot to talk about.

Today I received a reminder message from Sisters Ann and Di who direct the Oblate program at Mount Saint Benedict in Erie, PA.  I feel so blessed to be making my Oblate commitment in absentia while walking the Camino.   This relationship with the Monastery is one of the most precious at this time of my life. I have been pondering my commitment which is threefold: to be present for prayer and ministry a minimum of 10 times during 2016.   I have also asked to help support Sister Joan's ministries in some way....to be discussed.  The third is to continue teaching and leading contemplative prayer opportunities.

I know that this Camino time is a time of discernment for me as I step into a new decade of life in my wisdom years.   I want very much to make these years fruitful, meaningful and productive.   I have a huge amount of experience that could be beneficial to MSB if they feel inspired to create space for what I have to share.  Yes, this Camino is very much about what is to come and so far I am filled with joy at the prospects.  So there are times of deep soul searching and there are times of recalling and re-membering, times to feel sorrow and loss, even lost, and times to be elated, joyful and on top of the world.

This morning we stopped at a small Cafe for something warm to drink along the cold way.  Each one who entered, no matter our language or our country of origin, smiled to hear the beautiful waltz music that greeted us.  The waiter was cleaning off tables so that we could each have a few moments rest while we sipped warm chocolate or "cafe con leche".  As he cleared our table and we stood to reclaim our backpacks, I motioned to him to put the dirty dishes down.  When we communicated beyond our language barriers with the music of our hearts he held me in his arms and we waltzed!  Oh my, Camino, I am breathless in your arms.

Pilgrim Carol

RE-MEMBERING

(09/22/15)

Reflections on Sept 20.

Some important thoughts, sharing as we walked that I want to ponder and re-member.

As we walked to Carrion or perhaps the village before Carrion, I wandered into places and feelings that I had left abandoned years ago.  I have no idea what brought it all to awareness.

I recalled and then re-membered vividly the years that I was blessed to live, love and learn during the years of my life enriched by my experience of convent life.  Recalling is just that: bringing the experience(s) to mind.  Re-membering is taking the recall into a place of healing, organizing the dismembered fragments into the bigger picture that encourages a deeper clarity.  So as we walked I shared some poignant moments of my lived experience.  I was so young and so very vulnerable.  Trusting and believing that all around me was saturated with goodness that I was shocked when my life which I so dearly loved at the Villa was turned upside down and inside out by circumstances that were beyond my ability and naïveté of youth to manage.

These events tore me away from the farm work to which I had been assigned and loved.  I was sent to Cleveland and the damaging, diminishing, destructive rumors/untruths followed me.  When I realized the destructive nature of the circumstances I feared that my dream and cherished reality of convent life had been destroyed beyond re-membering, beyond reconstructing - at least for this time on my life.

I was sadly right about that and chose to leave this expression of my Call.  I know that Mother Superior was distraught at my decision and attempted on three occasions to influence my decision.  She went so far as to invite my mom and dad to a meeting where she expressed to them her sadness and disapproval of my choice to leave.

The Universe is good.  That loving force of the Universe that some call God, the Holy Spirit, was preparing me for a lifetime that I could never have imagined.   I have been blessed with hard lessons that I could not understand at the time and sometimes even waved my fist at God. What I know now is that these lessons have been my most profound teachers and the expression of God's deep abiding love and presence in my life.

Now, this is a Camino moment.

#pilgrim

BAD CONNECTION

Buen Camino!

Today I walked a little over 15km.

We started out this morning just before 7:00 am. It was very dark out and very hazy.  We walked a couple of hours and the fog didn't lift.  All morning the fog accompanied us.  At first I was concerned because my flashlight wouldn't work.  We couldn't go anywhere without light.  I replaced the batteries with new ones and still it wouldn't work.  I looked at it more closely following the arrow indication as to how the battery pack was to slide in.  Still no success.   Then I found that the flashlight also twisted apart at the other end which means that the battery pack would slide in a different direction.  So much to learn about Light, direction, when to seek with a different/deeper question.

I decided to save all of the batteries.  There was nothing wrong with the Source of power only with the way I was attempting to connect with it.

Now there is a lesson.  There is nothing wrong with the Universal Source of Light, Life, and Power, only with the way I attempted to connect.  So what does that mean for each of us?

God is ALWAYS there for each and every one of us.  Check your connections.  Sometimes I need to think new thoughts and sometimes I need to brace myself for the powerful jolt of new Light into my ordinary and dimly lit reality.  God/the Universe has so much more for me.....and for you than we are willing to accept.   What is wrong with us?  Bad connection?  Got things twisted up and backwards?

Is it time to check?

Obviously it is for me.

Much love and Light....from your highest Power.

Pilgrim Carol

BUEN CAMINO!

(09/19/15)

One important lesson I have learned is that there is more than one way to make this journey.  The Camino is unique to each of us.

This morning I received a message that my cousin's husband, Frank Artino has died.  My cousin, Jessie, and I were born just months apart.  We shared more contact as children but as families came our interests grew apart. Now we see each other at funerals.  Isn't it interesting that moments of great loss bring us together?  Here on the Camino I face the beauty of life along with its fragility.  I have offered to carry prayer intentions during this pilgrimage and have added my cousin's loss and moments of fragility at the loss of her life partner.

Yesterday during our 20km walk a bright blue butterfly led the entire way.  I wondered what beloved spirit was accompanying me on this portion of the Camino.  I felt my mother's presence and also my husband and father.

I walked into the church and heard one of the pilgrims singing so beautifully.  I was in the nave and he was on the ancient balcony.  When he paused I began to sing the Ave Maria. He smiled and joined in harmony.  We sang a bit of spontaneous polyphony.  On the Camino, strangers heart to heart in one song.   Nameless to each other.  Language separating our minds but powerfully one in that moment..... So I thought. This morning a woman, Bobbi from Canada asked me if I was the woman singing in the church....an eternal moment perhaps.

Buen Camino!  Is our greeting to one another.  We hear it many, many times a day.  So now knowing that our lives and our deaths are all part of our personal Camino, a wish you, Buen Camino!

Pilgrim Carol

WHILE IN BURGOS - Comfort of Strangers

(09/16/15)

I have learned that the reason I am having trouble carrying my backpack is that it simply doesn´t fit my body. I tried on one of the other pilgrim´s pack and discovered that men and women´s packs are actually shaped differently and the one I am using creates too much weight for me because of the way it fits me. 

I spent yesterday walking all over Burgos from store to store in the attempt to find a different back pack and then send this one home. I was crossing a street in an area that I did not know yet and was searching for yet another store. An older womam - probably my age, caught my eye as I came across the street. If we could have communicated I would have made friendly conversation - but I know that is impossible so I kept moving on with my backpack on my back. I stopped a young woman storekeeper who was sweeping the street walk in front of her store to ask for directions. She began to speak quickly and I was having trouble getting the gist of the directions. By this time the older woman caught up and the two of them had a bit of a conversation. I was feeling a bit overlooked and then humbled when I realized that I was the subject of their conversation. The older woman reached for my hand, the younger woman said to me, ¨She will take you.¨ I wept. She frequently reached for my hand or arm and guided me like a child across streets and down unknown paths until she stood me directly in front of the door and nudged me inside. My heart was overflowing with gratitude. It didn´t even matter that there was nothing at this store either. What matter was the love that was literally taking me by the hand and guiding me through a maze of unknowns. 

Something else that has truly been running through my mind. I have become aware of how comfortable I can become with a situation as I come to know and trust it. It doesn´t even matter if I am in a poor place, a difficult surrounding. Because I know it and it is familiar I find that I am less wanting to separate myself from it. This has given me a new sensitivity to those who find comfort in what they have come to know as their faith and then find it so frightening to think of anything in a way that is not comfortable even if it is freeing and redeeming. I met a pilgrim yesterday and we spent a lot of time together and I realized that we were supposed to meet. I helped her with some spiritual concepts that she hadn´t considered before. What I noticed was that she was hungry, maybe even starved for what we talked about. She would be making some serious shifts and tears filled her eyes on several occasions. Tears are good. They clense and while blurring our vision, open the paths of new understanding - new ways of seeing. 

I think my time on this computer at the Library is up. So long for now. Continue to pray for all of us in the Wind of the Spirit as we continue the journey wherever it leads. 

Pilgrim Carol

BLOWING INTO BURGOS

(09/16/15)

I am working on a Spanish computer and can´t even find the @ sign. I continue to stay today in Burgos. The winds are at a dangerous speed with huge gusts. Pilgrims are flooding into the City to get out of the high wind and gusty rain. I have come to the Biblioteche to use the computer and to see what the Library here looks like. Only difference that I can determine is that I can´t read anything here in the Library - even the computer keyboard is different. What remains quite consistent is the patience and the care from the people. 

On my way here I heard the Church Bells of San Lesmes the Patron of Burgos and I stopped in for noon Mass. I should say I was BLOWN in. The wind is so strong that I think it is Pêntecost again! Or, maybe STILL. When it was time to receive Holy Communion the huge ancient pillars seems to quietly breathe soft mysterious chimes and it evolved into soft electronic harpsichord music. It was delightful and peaceful - lifting of spirits. 

So far along with the walking, getting lost, wandering in wilderness, love of companions, patience of natives, impossibilities of language barriers, ancient presence of ancestral spirits, meeting people from all over the world, walking as best friends with those I have just met, caring for those much younger and in much worse physical shape than myself, having to send my dearest friend home, realizing that I need to claim my Camino and do it a new way starting now. All of this has been my Camino till now. With the realization that I need to slow down my pace and do what I can in a good way. It is interesting that with every step that I match with others I still continue to fall behind. Next life - longer legs. Now instead of feeling pressured to keep up I will slow and allow myself some breathing room. I feel that I have stayed too long here in Burgos. I want to move on and hopefully the winds will let up tomorrow and I can move on. I have set a goal now of 10-15km a day and if I feel like doing more I will. 

The biggest problem has been that one must get to the next destination around noon if you want a bed for the night. So if I go less km I will get somewhere in time for a bed. I wonder about this conundrum. If I have no bed what would happen? I have seen pilgrims turned away. I have seen pilgrims given a space on the floor with no mattress. I don´t know. This is such a unique experience for me. When money and reputation, can not buy a space. I have come to a deeper understanding of the Christmas story. What it is truly like to have NO PLACE, NO SPACE to go. I would be happy with a stable and that could very well be a place for me one night on the Camino. So where will the winds blow me? When I am walking I think of so many things that I want to remember to write down. And when I finally find a place to sit I think of very little of the day´s ponderings. Today it is about the power of the Wind. One of my Native teachers is Grandfather BearHeart who wrote his life story: The Wind Is My Mother. He communicated with the Wind and she protected him and us during a time when I was with him on Vision Quest and a Tornado force wind came right through our camp. When Grandfather drummed and sang to the WIND she lifted off the ground and there where newspaper reports of the devastation of homes in the path before our camp and then after our camp. We received a huge deluge of rain, but no one was injured by the high winds. Often I think of the Wind of the Holy Spirit. I was first ordained on Pentecost which is deeply meaningful for me - the day that the tongues of fire and the wind came to the Apostles. After my Mother died and I was in very deep grief I begged the Universe for healing from the overwhelming grief and I was given a message that my mother would come to me in the Wind. And she did. So now I know that the Wind is also my Mother. And the Fire of Pentecost is another story for another time. 

LOST

We left before 5:00a.m.  I was hoping for starry sky but the clouds had come in. During the night I looked out the window of our Albergue in Azofra and the sky was clear and filled with stars. I continue to long for our early morning walk to be blessed with millions of stars.

This morning the Camino had something much different in store for us.  We set out following the familiar yellow shells and bright yellow arrows.   As we walked on we noticed that we weren't seeing the familiar markings. All three of us had our headlamps lit looking for some direction.  Joel got his phone out and opened the Camino app with the map on it and we began to follow it although we were doubtful.  This experience was very scary and I was extremely grateful that I wasn't wandering alone out here.  I was placing a lot of trust in my two companions until after wandering in the wilderness for about 90 minutes we found our way blocked by an electronic fence that was securely locked.  All we could do was turn around with the hope of retracing our steps and finding another way out of this maze of farm roads.

We came to a T in the road and made a guess to turn left.  It is still quite dark out.  Around 7:45 we saw other pilgrims' headlamps behind us.  WHEW!  That was really scary and now we are getting tired after all of the climbing and descending.

We are now on the way to Ciruena where we lost Maribel who walked on ahead of us.  I was feeling nauceous and had to stop for a rest and a bit of food and water.  After a brief rest we walked through the town and visited the Cistercian Hostel.

We then continued on our way.  I had become very tired with all of the extra walking and climbing and my hips and knees were beginning to ache and my water was running out. The Camino doesn't want to hear about that though and our only option was to continue on.  Finally we saw Granon in the distance and although we still had a couple of large hills to transverse I knew I would get there.

Each day brings different challenges.  I am learning at all levels of my being and I am being tested at every level also.

One of the gifts I bring, and have shared with others, is the gift of healing.  There are many deeply wounded, especially from Earth Mother's demands on us.  I have been teaching hands on healing such as healing touch and other modalities.  The young doctor to be who is one of my traveling mates was amazed that after I shared some healing with her and taught her to do the same she did not need the Ibuprophen or the anti inflammatory cream that she had been using on her knees.  I am grateful to be helping a budding physician to be open to Universal energy that some of call God's Grace.

Buen Camino,

Pilgrim Carol

ALONG the CAMINO

(09/06/15) I walked Friday, Saturday and today, Sunday. It was around 3 miles yesterday and today! Feel good! Sore, but good!  Staying at Albergue of Jesus and Mary in Pamplona.  Tired - resting now.   Nice  city.  Going for dinner later.

(09/07/15) Today my backpack was lost.  Now they found it and I am waiting after walking 15 miles up and down a mountain to Puente La Reina.   I am walking a lot alone and I love it.  Lots of sun and beautiful breezes.

(09/08/15) I am in Estella today and had time to walk around and find the Benedictine Monastery.  I am staying with them tonight. I will celebrate Mass with them at 7:00 pm and share dinner at 8:30 tonight.

(09/09/15) Barty is a service dog helping his Human walk the Camino.  At night he starts out sleeping under the bed.  By the middle of the night he has scooted to the small space between our bunk beds.  In the wee hours of morning he snuggles up near his human stretched out in comfort.....a Small reward for making this long and quite hazardous journey.  Barty is teaching us all about commitment and true love.  We need more Barty teachers.

Doing laundry on the Camino is quite different from what most of us are accustomed to.  Here a couple of Pilgrims are wringing out their dripping wet clothes and will hang them to dry in hopes that the morning brings dry clothes.

It's the little things that matter out here on the Camino where everyone is taking care of each other.  There is so much to learn as we watch people from all over the world loving each other at this incredibly deep level of care. 

There are nervous pilgrims with injuries from steep climbs and descents on miles of slippery rocks.  Some are taking days of rest to heal. Some are having packs transported ahead. When my bag was lost by the transport company many pilgrims were concerned and offered help when I became upset, because everything that I brought with me was lost.  I didn't have a sleeping bag.  NOTHING!  One of the pilgrims asked me, "don't you know that we will all take care of you?"  My goodness this is a lesson in Beloved Community...a confusing mix of relief, exhilaration and humility.

Pilgrim Carol

BEGINNING the TREK

Buen Camino!

We began our trek this morning after breakfast of hot chocolate, yogurt, croissant. At 7:30 I was walking through St Jean's on my way to Roncevalles a 25 km walk that is mostly strenuous and uphill. It was much more challenging than I had imagined.  I arrived at Orisson at 11:30 which was a 700 meter climb.  My heart had been racing with the climb plus the more than 20 pounds that I am carrying.

I decided to be wise and ask for help to travel the remaining 17 km to Roncevalles.  When I arrived before the others, I booked rooms for all 5 of us at the Albergue.  I ate a salmon lunch with red wine sitting in the sunshine to warm up and dry out the sweat-wet clothes.....

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." --Lao Tzu

Much Love,

Pastor Carol

Pelegrino/Pilgrim