[Gocamino] pondering...and walking

[Wendy MORRIS]

Thank you Kathy for the beautiful poem.

I hope I'm not too late to reply....after promising to!

I think I mentioned before about being a collapsed Catholic. A convert,
I'd been very involved in the church for years. I had also had a
wonderful life changing spiritual experience within the church. However,
it was a gradual disillusionment after a major crisis (marriage breakup)
that caused me to start to question it all and eventually leave.

I ventured forth on my Camino with great joy, a sense of privilege and a
sort of calm happiness. How fortunate I felt, to have 6 weeks to walk
amongst nature and history!

I did wonder (only briefly) as I set out, if I would find any answers
some of the doubts and questions I had regarding the church and
Christianity in general.

I had planned with and started the pilgrimage with 2 other friends.
However, as the time to leave approached, my intuition seemed to
indicate that if I stayed with them throughout the journey I wouldn't
have a personal Camino experience and would somehow miss out on an
extraordinary experience.

So we went our separate ways and I walked alone, however I never felt
worried, afraid or alone, despite several occasions that would warrant a
few trembles! I remember thinking that this lack of fear must be a
spiritual blessing or grace of some sort.

When I ponder over my Camino adventure, there was one extraordinary and
beautiful experience I shared with a pilgrim one late afternoon as we
walked, talked and laughed together for several hours.  He seemed like
an angel dropped straight from heaven! Saying farewell was very
emotional.

This was but one of many wonderful experiences, all involving pilgrims,
the beauty of nature, and the mysterious history of the pilgrimage. A
theme for my pilgrimage seemed to develop as I walked along. "How I look
at things ...ie attitude and approach to every situation is everything".
This, as it unfolded seemed to be a sort "grace in progress" and was
present constantly throughout the journey.
This attitude thing sounds so, sort of, ordinary and obvious, however
when I met up with my friends and heard how they had fared along the
path, it confirmed how wise it was to walk by myself. They had many
complaints about the weather, other pilgrims accommodation, food...the
list went on!! I couldn't wait to "hit the track" by myself again and
revive my joy and gratefulness.

After spending some time writing this it's occurred to me that maybe it
is "grace given" to recognise a spiritual experience anyway. How does
one define one after all? 

My whole Camino was a gift and, I've realised, a metaphor for life.
Every experience is surely tied up with how you receive it, how you look
at it and ponder over it. Which is what I've tried to do here!!!



 




W
 
-----Original Message-----
From: gocamino-bounces at oakapple.net
[mailto:gocamino-bounces at oakapple.net] On Behalf Of Kathy Gower
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 3:35 AM
To: goCamino at oakapple.net
Subject: [Gocamino] pondering...and walking

Thank you all sincerely for your many comments to my questions of
spiritual 
preparation for the Camino...I received over 24 responses, most
privately, 
and I am doing my best to honor each one and to collate them in such a
way 
to show what I have gleaned from such blessings...

in the mean time, my dissertation student (now Dr. Hahn) defended her
work 
on women and pilgrimage last night and she ended her presentation with
this 
poem that I thought would be of interest.  It referes to a place in the
US, 
but it's sentiments are universal:

Delicate Arch, Utah (Chris Hoffman)

Hiking to see for ourselves, we learn
once again why pilgrims journey by walking.
The steady rhythm of left and right
reassures us.  And the gravel of the trail
becomes those places in our minds
we keep climbing over
and over again.

The work of the walking
is our offering,
and our purification
as, step by step,
we lift the questing in our hearts
closer to the source of wonder.
Irrelevancies slide away like sweat.
The walking reminds us of balance,
and the sheer drop-ff by the edge of the trail
is our own death walking beside us.

We lift our expectancy like an empty plate;
and abundance of beauty
fills it again and again.
This world is so huge,
and our place in it so precise.

Eventually there is nothing but
walking and pondering.
Climbing higher with the other pilgrims
and with a sense of all tribes returning
to the place of creation,
we round a bend, and there--
an impossible leap of stone,
a petrified gasp of wonder,
orange-red, arching through the bluest desert sky,
a stone mudra, gathering light,
parabolic angel bones
framing distant snowy peaks.

All the living beings of this earth
pass under the pubic arch
of our common mother.
And she is right here.
True to her nature,
she lets no one depart empty--
Through the great opening
comes a whisper of blessing
or a glimpse that opens
the eyes of the eyes.

We know that when we turn
the trail will lead us back
into our daily lives, walking,
striving for balance,
practicing the rhythm of left and right,
but touching a thread
that leads through the eye of the needle.


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