PONDERINGS

Lit candles for loved ones I remember, hold in my heart, and miss.

(September 25-27, 2015)

We have been walking each day between 15 & 21 km.  The weather has been beautiful with cool, fall-ish mornings to very warm starting around 11:00 am.

I find that I dress very warm and protect my neck and throat from the cold.  As we walk, I remove layers one by one until I am in shirt sleeves, enjoying the warmth of the sun drying out my sweated clothing.  We have been keeping a good pace even with a stop for breakfast after a couple of hours walking.  Breakfast is usually an American "cafe con leche" and a Spanish tortilla which is like a potato and egg pie.  Then we are off for the long stretch of our walk.

The past couple of days I have been recalling so many events/experiences that are part of who I am.  What I am realizing is that it seems to be time to bring all of these  pieces together as I move into the next decade of my life.  Never before have I thought about the "what's next" piece as I have during this walking/talking/pondering/reflecting time.

It has been a rich time having no other distractions other than where to sleep and what to eat.

I have accepted the role of navigator and do the ahead bookings for places to stay.  Dennis and I are very compatible travel partners with similar needs and expectations.  He has his personal agenda as every one of us has. Along with my processing, which often involves bouncing thoughts off of Dennis, I listen to his sharing also.  We are well matched for this journey.  Similar in many ways and very different in others.  Part of his journey is taking his wife's ashes to the sea at the end of this journey and moving into a new meaningful relationship.

Here is what I have been pondering and sharing with him as I listen to myself putting together so many pieces of my reality, as my awareness that all of this is coming together in a new way, as I recall and reflect.

When I was first ordained I accepted a ten week interim before the interim call to the First Christian Church in Kent, Ohio.

My first Sunday there one of the Elders asked if I would accompany her to the nursing home where one of the members was dying.  When we arrived we were informed that the dying woman's daughter had been notified and was on her way. They were concerned that she would not arrive before her mother died.  The Elder and I were shown to the woman's room to find her breathing loud, raspy and very labored.  Without thinking about it I placed my right hand on the woman and she immediately stopped breathing. I was shaken but kept my hand there for what seemed like a very long time...thinking that she had died. Then ever so gently she resumed her breathing on a steady quiet rhythmic pattern.  My face was soaked with tears, and when I glanced at the Elder so was hers.  I closed the moment with a prayer of thanksgiving. We didn't say a word to each other as we left the room and walked down the hall.  Then, breaking our silence, I asked her what she felt.  She shared that she felt a PRESENCE in the room, and I concurred.  Our tears and the overwhelming feeling of what happened in that room was something that I will never forget. This is 30 years later and I recall it as if it were yesterday.  This was the first in several of these kinds of experiences that I have experienced now.

The next that I recall vividly is my getting to know Reverend Don Bartow's story and the impact of his personal story and journey on my life experience.

More to come.....

Lights out at the Hostal in Arstoga

#pilgrim