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.