On the road, “fellowship” is a core value

Walking the Camino de Santiago

Journal Entry April 16, 2007 The road is a curious place to stay open to people. It is more natural to keep a protective distance. After all, people walk separated from each other by their pace, their thoughts, their destinations and more. And yet, on the journey, people come up and talk with you. They join in the conversation, the commonality of being “on the way” together.

Slowly, and even in passing, again and again, connection, understanding and points of view are shared. And sometimes you make friends, across the language and cultural barriers. We discovered that even more possibilities open when we share a meal with others, to reveal ourselves, to serve and care for each other.

Perhaps in unsuspecting ways Christ is still being revealed around the table where bread is broken and hearts are opened. A meal together is often a sign of friendship if not simply an acknowledgement that yes, we too walk the road together and that begins to unite us.

Luke 24:28-32a

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. ³²They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road… (NRSV)

Preparing for the Journey

Journal entry Date: March 23, 2007

I walked today, with Jenny, in the woods and in preparation for walking for weeks along the Camino (Spanish for “the way”). When we began today, the rain came as an intrusion and disruption, an annoyance and a problem to protect against. The showers meant pulling out the rain gear and keeping out the wet, how will the rain and the trail make muddy the problems ahead?

Not long later I noticed Jenny, seemed to care little of the discomfort. She was more focused on the trail and the way and the next discovery. I wondered about Spain and the rain on the plains, and how I would travel there when it was wet. What gifts and awareness, learning’s or hardships will come?

As the afternoon walked along, I noticed another change… in me. Instead of a posture of protecting myself from the rain, as we do when we run inside when the sprinkles begin. Now, the rain was more part of the pleasure of going. It too was becoming part of the adventure and fun of walking. Even the rain is part of the experience, part of accepting the world around me with great patience and joy. Walking with the rain is learning to let go of how I’m affected and receive the company that comes, even company I might not otherwise have chosen. There is much of life to experience which is good that would otherwise fall outside of my petty, self-centered desire for how things should be. I seldom realize how I shut myself off when I run inside from of the rain.

Perhaps of this journey, which begins from Easter, I can prepare to meet the unchosen fun (the moments I would run from), like the rain; to receive them, to accept them and relish each moment with the invitation it offers.

For now, the droplets come and go in their natural cycle, as the rain clouds pass over, and I walk along too, at my own pace, more accompanied by the clouds and rain rather than running from them. I dance among the droplets as they splash, while I walk and enjoy their falling on and around me… much more like the dog and the joy of the trail.