ON THE ROAD WITH ANN – A Family and Friendly Affair

We have now walked for four days, and the sun is shining at last.  The countryside is stunning on an intimate scale. Three times today I had to move to the side of the trail to let a herd of cattle pass. All of us are walking well, at our own pace. Today we walked 23.5km and tomorrow will be the same.

I am responsible for passing a cold I caught en route to Spain to about half the group. But everyone is somehow very relaxed about taking things as they come, without expectations or rancour.

This evening, we discussed the question of who is a TWOO PILGWIM and who decides. I won’t recount the conversation here since it is getting late and we are up and out early.

I will mention several encounters along the path.

We keep running into the wonderful family from New Mexico, the young couple with the 7-year old boy and the 2-year old girl. They were in Samos last night, staying at the monastery and we were at the same resto for dinner after Vespers. They are the happiest family, especially 2-year old Pascale. The mother, Tobie, is writing a blog. I cannot imagine how they traverse slippery rocks and steep inclines and huge puddles with two kids and their gear. I will try to pass on the url tomorrow.

Today I walked for a while with a father and his two adult sons, all from different US states. They were such a compatible trio. At one point, the father stopped and said he wanted to read a poem  he had been saving and had not yet shared with his sons. He then gave me the paper and told me it had been written by his grandfather, F.B. Feighner, a Methodist minister AND a Zen Buddhist priest. Entitled “Our Guiding Spirit,” it is about life as a walk down a winding road.

A bit later, walking alone, an old man with very few teeth and leaning on a stick beckoned me to see his garden. In any big city, I would scurry away. Here, I went with him. He picked a luscious pink dahlia and gave it to me proudly and then fished in his pocket to give me a fresh almond and a walnut, also from his garden.

Here, you trust people. Here, people are kind to one another. Here, judgement seems, for the most part, suspended. Here, it is hard to believe the divisiveness among people that we know is going on at home and throughout the world, even here in Spain. Is this make-believe?

Met a group of six male doctors from Tennessee, all professional colleagues. One is walking for this 9th time, earlier this month with his two sons. He told me about another family of four, with two young children he walked with today.

I could go on, but must get some sleep. Wish you were here. Glad I am.