(Hi.  I found three posts that were in my Notes on my iPad.  One was written on the charter plane on the way from France to LA.  I couldn’t publish it on the plane and when I got home the blog was down.  So it has been sitting and waiting.  But here it is as part of my journal.  This was written May 9th.)

 

OVER ICELAND

Never been on a charter flight before.  I know, I have to get out more often.  An interesting thing has happened onboard.  On the way a week ago we were mostly strangers and it looked like a normal airline flight.  But now we are traveling home after being together at camp and we are joking and hitting each other in the arm like old buddies in the barracks.  

The Padre is on one side of me here watching the Smirfs and snickering.  And Jan is on the other side.  Jan and I have a mutual friend that lives in her neighborhood and who reads Caminoheads.  So, we both came into this being on the watch for each other and guess what the organizers put us exactly next to each other on the plane.   Huh, coincidence?  

Yea, Jan got up last night and spoke as a representative of her team giving everyone a glimpse of her and their experience.  She said something that neatly encapsulated it.  And that is, many seeds were planted in us here and it would take some time for them to sprout and grow.  It is an elegant way of saying that we will need time to process the busy experience that we have had and that will take time.  Everything is not so obvious at the moment.

Yea, I am not ready to say in a definitive way what has happened either.  A lot of moving parts have moved for all of us.  Well, how about a couple of observations then Felipe?

I heard a pilgrim say that they were describing Lourdes to someone back home as a place where a lot of sick people come.  And that someone said, “Oh, it must be a depressing place”?  But far from that, it is quite a joyful place.  A place where we are learning to celebrate our predicaments, our disease, our problems.  

 

APPROACHING GREENLAND  

The common perception is that there are cures here.  And there are some, a few.  And there are miracles here and they happen.  But generally it is a place of healing in a deeper broader sense where pilgrims discover the role of their suffering in the big scheme of things for one.  We go home with a new attitude, a new way of looking at ourselves and our place in the world.  And we see that we are not alone.  We never were alone really but it takes getting together in the same place to get a sense of that.  Again, a time and place to celebrate.  

Yup, time to do something different.  What is Padre watching now, some chick flick?  He so needs me.  As always, Felipe.