Call of the Camino

by Suzanne Redfearn

tortilla—the delicious egg-and-potato pie I’d been researching for the magazine.

“The Camino has absorbed many tears,” he said at one point. “And it is a keeper of secrets.”

There’s something magical about a village plaza in Spain. It’s a place where everyone gathers—young, old, couples, friends, musicians, peddlers. There are a surprising number of older people. Some are hobbled and many are crooked, but none of them are alone.

here in Spain, old people are still part of things.

jarrete de jabalí, wild boar shank,

“To beginning, and to getting it done!”

In an instant, that’s how quickly things can change. One minute you’re happily traipsing along, heading to a monastery and daydreaming about a Michelin-star meal, and the next, one of the most important people in your world is nearly drowning in a river.

The monotony and sameness of the days combined with the dry, featureless landscape creates the illusion of time standing still, as if nothing exists or matters beyond the moment you are in.

“Everything you see belongs to God,” the man says, “but I am his humble servant.”

Carl Jung says, “Man cannot stand a meaningless life.”

The tradition is to toss the stone over your shoulder with your back to the cross to symbolize leaving your burdens behind and the start of a renewed life.

“It’s when you stop trying to fight or conquer them yourself that you find peace. You grip a stone tight and let it absorb the sorrow and grief you want to unload, then leave it at his feet. Stones can take it. It’s why they’re so hard.”

our

place in the world secure enough to offer kindness to others.

Molinaseca,

The village is one of the prettiest of the journey. You walk across a great medieval bridge known as Bridge of the Pilgrims to reach it, and beyond the town, far in the distance, a stunning majestic church nestles into a backdrop of lush green rolling hills. Many of the houses and buildings are adorned with coats of arms,

the Andorran phrase, “És millor mig pa que no pas pa.” Half a loaf is better than no bread at all.

“Non nobis Domine non nobis sed Nomini Tuo da gloriam.” Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name from glory.

Every morning we are born again, and it’s what we do today that matters most.’

Time alone with yourself is a powerful thing, and some need more time than others to get acquainted with the person they’ve uncovered.

The purpose of a pilgrimage is to allow time and space away from the familiar, so old ideas and beliefs can fall away and new higher perspectives can arise, and the profoundness of the effect varies.

“The Camino is only the beginning,”

“Have a good life,”

‘How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.’”

There’s something uniquely moving about walking the Camino, humbling and illuminating. Hours of walking in nature does something to a person. Your mind turns off, and your feet march on, and in the vast emptiness, the essence of what it is to be human is revealed.

Each Camino is its own, and while others may walk with you, no one can walk it for you. It begins with a single 296step toward a goal that at first feels insurmountable until you learn the only impossible journey is the one you never begin. Buen Camino!

Uncle David is based on the real-life proprietor, David Vidal (Instagram @peregrinodelavida33).

I learned how little I need and how much I have. How frail I am and how strong.