Walking the Camino's Way

Here, our resting place for the night, a pilgrim hostel in Navarette …
―All truly contemplative Souls have this in common: not that they gather in the
desert or that they shut themselves up in reclusion, but that wherever the Divine is,
there they Are … and vice versa!‖ ~ inspired by Thomas Merton
―Thinking today about how Time and Space somehow ‗stretch‘ while on a
pilgrimage of this magnitude/length … In the beginning of each day, before my
personal walking-cadence is found (and before any fatigue sets in), there is the normal
stream of thoughts and ponderings. There are also more pilgrims around, and
therefore more friendly conversation … As each day progresses, however, space
seems to ‗bend‘ and I often look up and realize that I am completely alone on the
Path … And even in places of Beauty so magnificent that my breath is literally taken
aWay (which is regularly the case), there is a sense of timelessness -- a dream-like
quality to the whole experience … Many days I ‗wake up‘ and am already at the
conclusion of the current phase of that day‘s Walk. Other days I walk ‗briskly‘ and
seem to get nowhere … And yet all the while, there are less and less thoughts that I
haven´t thought a hundred times before, and I am left more and more alone with my
True Self, all while marveling at this body that walks the road without thinking about
where it is going; at this mind that chatters its way ever into the fog of the future; at
my emotions that swing seemingly without reason between joy and terror … And in
the end I am left only with the Soul that resides within, waiting patiently and happily
for me to let all of it go -- and simply BE in gratitude for this beautiful Life.‖
~ Scaughdt
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