Fascinating watching the steps and stages and kilometers pass by another 20 today makes it 534 done – 236 to go
Tomorrow we will summit to highest point the iron cross marks the spot the Cruz de ferro
The descent after the Iron Cross is steep as bd dangerous so we have arranged a lift down to miss the potential knee breaker
So what happened today?
We had breakfast with Monette and Marie who got up early on their day off to share the time together and bid us on our way.
We walked through Astorga as the city was moving into action – interesting to observe how pilgrims emerge from many different directions and converge into the one path that leads out of the city heading westward toward Santiago.
The song that awoke with me this morning was once again Robert Frost – the road not taken – see post on 19 Sept – the line that keeps talking to me is
“Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.”
In the poem it focuses on choices made on the path and in the third verse it returns to the path not taken being kept for another day then followed by the realization that “way leads on to way” and that the chances of ever coming back to repeat the opportunists might never happen – so we have to take and enjoy the opportunities and choices we make.
And also poem/ song The Pasture
“I’m going out to clean the pasture spring
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away
And wait to watch the water clear, I may
I shan’t be gone long
You come too
I’m going out to fetch the little calf
That’s standing by the mother
It’s so young
It totters when she licks it with her tongue
I shan’t be gone long
You come too”
This poem is an invitation to a loved one to share the simple tasks in life and feel the satisfaction that can arise thereof. It was really nice today to just be sharing the road the two of us – walking and talking together. The depth of conversation varies but can only really go deep with honest reflection and insights and the willingness to unveil vulnerabilities without distractions.
The following are scenes along the way
We attended the Benedictine evening prayer especially done for Pilgrim attendance – it is daily at 7pm and was two monks singing the service in Latin.
Some other pics of Rabanal
What a stunning post – reflective, insightful, revealing, vulnerable and beautiful pics…
Would love to have been a fellow pilgrim (maybe in the form of a sparrow flitting along the way) listening to the conversations and seeing the connections and scenes….
Is this not the wonder of the road… the transitory ever-changing outer views mirrowing our internal worlds….?
Enjoy each of the remaining kms…. ????
My favourite pic is the one of the washing line ?. Remember that from our travels around Asia too.
Love the updates and photos!
Well done guys x