One foot in front of the other on the Camino

Dear John,

 It seems difficult to believe that it was almost 9 years ago that we landed in Paris to begin our walk on the Camino in Spain. Pilgrims. A word you treasure. 

Some notes from my journal:

-"High up in the Pyrenees was a stone cross. It said 'Je suis de Chemin'. 'I am the Way'. Tears when I see John kneel in the dirt for all to see praying for : safety, heath and to keep going."

-"John carries my sleeping bag, Mike carries my pack. A metaphor for life: You can't do it alone."

-"There is something on the wall of this auberge that speaks of shadow chasing.-that we rush through the Camino as we do our lives....

.."John is good, worthy, a vibrant man women are attracted to, the 70 year old, the kneeling pilgrim. The man who helps the peasant lady push her wheelbarrow filled with cabbage up a hill. Who buys cokes for the weary."

-"The Camino is not heaven, it is a path trod by people like us. I have seen simple acts of kindness from "trail angels" like the earplugs from Earl the EMT, then the inn owner riding around looking for the pilgrim's shoes mistakenly taken from his porch, John carrying Almut's pack for awhile. On the Path some listen for the whispers of Spirit, some not....John felt heaven in the Carrion Church when the sun shone down through the window warming his face."

-Mass at the Cathedral in Leon: I heard this in my mind: "Profound, profound, we are all profoundly significant."

Day 30 10-04-13 Santiago Cathedral-

-"The Feast of St. Francis. St. Clare's words stay with me: "Let nothing distract you from the course you have set before you, of perfection in Christ Jesus." 

Now I am on a different Path without you by my side. How can that be? My feet aren't throbbing with pain but my heart is. I know this: I will put one foot in front of the other on this new camino until the end.