Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places!

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who walked from town to town until he finally reached Jerusalem.

Buen Camino!

This is the greeting you will hear and quickly learn to say on the Camino.  It literally means ‘good road or path’ but it transcends such a simple definition to mean a wish of wellbeing among pilgrims (peregrinos) and an offer of a helping hand along the journey.

We have walked sixty miles in five days and are only twelve miles away from Santiago which we will reach tomorrow afternoon.

It has been a magical, beautiful experience as we walk this ancient path through fields where cows and sheep graze, dogs sleep or give a friendly bark, and quiet villages seemingly take careful notes of our presence as they have for pilgrims through the centuries.

Like Dorothy and her companions walking the yellow brick road, we all head toward Santiago each with our own hopes for what we might find there.  But it’s really about what we learn along the way and being shown what we have known all along.

Like walking slowly.  I am yet to pass someone on the path, but that’s ok.  Life goes by too quickly anyway.  Slow down.  I will get there eventually and I probably noticed a few more birds than I would have or stopped in an old church to light a candle when I might otherwise have kept going.

People are warm and welcoming when you open yourself to being warm and welcoming too.  A chance word or question has led to hearing stories upon stories of people from everywhere.

It’s a joy to remember names and how delighted people are to hear their own name when you do.

People may claim they aren’t religious (literally to reconnect with God and one another) or spiritual, but I can’t imagine they get to Santiago or wherever they end up without imagining their spirit is not part of the experience.

So we keep walking and noticing and listening and continually being given the gift of ‘Buen Camino.’

Grace and peace of the Camino to you.

Harry