[Gocamino] Angels in disguise

[c.c.rushassociates]

Dear All--there's an old tradition on hiking trails in the US, especially the Appalachian Trail, involving trail magic (who left that bag of GORP? why was there a stream just when I couldn't go without water any longer?) and trail angels (helpful persons or personages who appear, help one out, and then seem to disappear).

On the Camino, both in France and in Spain, I met many trail angels, some of whom seemed to disappear after they helped, and some who stayed with me much of the way.  Struggling up a big mountain in France, a hand appeared over my shoulder with a bag of nuts, and the angel whispered "manger". When I turned to thank her, no one was there.  When we couldn't find a room in crowded Conques, another angel called ahead to a place she knew and found us space for one night.  I met Italian angels in Spain, a mother and daughter from Milan, who walked with me after my husband came home and I was alone.  These angels introduced to me to another, a woman from Paris, and suddenly I was no longer alone, but part of an international hiking group!

I cannot explain the trail magic, but I do know that there are many many opportunities on the Camino, and in our own lives, to be angels in disguise.  People have been very kind to me, in very basic acts of kindness.  I keep that kindness in front of me all the time now.

Patricia, upstate New York