[Gocamino] Stone Story

[blaroli@aol.com]

 Hi Sue,
In the Camino the convention of leaving a stone at the foot of the Cruz de Ferro is many centuries old.  Ancient pilgrims were encouraged, indeed requested, to bring stones, rocks, etc. to Santiago to be used in the building of the Cathedral.  Many pilgrims started out from places as distant as France and other similar far away points, carrying the stones for the purpose.  A few died from the effort, or simply were unable to continue, and their companions would carry on their "burden" to a prominent and quite  visible Cross that had been erected on the heights of the Ebro.... which is the present site of the Cruz de Ferro. Most of the stones had the name of the original pilgrim inscribed on them. 
That ancient custom metamorphosed into the present practice of leaving "one's burden", whatever that might be, in the form of a stone at the foot of the Cruz de Ferro.
I myself had been plagued for many years by horrible nightmares and, consequently, was  sleep-deprived much of the time since I had become afraid of going to sleep because of the nightmares; during my first Camino, in 1999, I mentioned my utter exhaustion, and the nightmares, to Tomas Majarin (who has a refugio nearby and who thinks of himself as a modern Templar), and he suggested that I leave the burden of my nightmares in the form of a large stone at the foot of the Cross; I found a suitable rock, wrote my name and "nightmares" took it to the Cross and knelt down and prayed for relief.
Believe it or not, I haven't had any nightmares since then...... unpleasant dreams, yes.... sometimes; but out-of-control scary nightmares no more. 
Perhaps if someone told me this story I wouldn't believe it, or I would chalk it up to auto suggestion or what have you; but it did happen and I couldn't be happier about it. 
 
Some years ago a few hooligans stole away with the tall skinny Cross in the middle of the night. Of course it was promptly replaced.  Last year  a series of e-messages were picked up disclosing the plan of some miscreants to take away the cross for private purposes.  A group of Brasilian pilgrims took it upon themselves to mount daily and nightly guard over the Cross.  It was during one of those nights that a female Brasilian poet took a fantastic picture of the Cross at dawn being illuminated from behind by lightening.   As mentioned here, the picture won the Galician Newspapers' contest for the best Camino photograph and received a substantial money prize, which, by the way,  the winner promptly turned over to the Pilgrims' office to be used for the new albergue being built in Santiago. 
Regards,
Rosina
  

-----Original Message-----
From: Sue Kenney <sue.kenney at sympatico.ca>
To: Jethess777 at aol.com; gocamino at oakapple.net
Sent: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:10:17 -0500
Subject: [Gocamino] Stone Story


JH and others,

I am enjoying reading the stories from the list serve again. Thanks to all of 
you for sharing.
There is a story I learned from a fellow pilgrim on the Camino that I love to 
share. It goes like this...

It is said
If you pick up a stone and put your sorrow into the stone
When you place the stone down
You leave some of your sorrow behind. 

I picked up sorrow stones everyday on the Camino for myself, my children, my 
family, friends and other pilgrims. When I got to the end of my journey, I felt 
like I had no sorrow left at all. It was mafic. This ritual helped me to open my 
heart to more love and changed the way I live my life. I am not suggesting you 
have to put sorrow into the stones, actually any intention will work. 

I wrote a story about the sorrow stones and I have it translated into Spanish, 
German and Brazilian Portuguese. If anyone is interested feel free to email me 
off line. 

Buen Camino,

Sue
sue.kenney at sympatico.ca


_______________________________________________
Gocamino mailing list
Gocamino at oakapple.net
http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino