We have been batting this topic of hospitality around for a few posts and dear neighbor and general coconspirator Catherine send this comment in yesterday. This was so lovely and well written that I am just stealing it whole cloth:
“So beautifully expressed, Felipe. One of my largest lessons on the Camino was how grateful I felt for the smallest acts of hospitality, from people along the route and fellow pilgrims. I remember one morning, it was early and pouring rain, we had taken a wrong turn and were a mile or so off the way. We found a little cafe where we could dry out and get some hot coffee before heading on. The owner of the cafe insisted on driving us down the road where we could rejoin the path. He roused his wife to mind the cafe and loaded us in his tiny car for the drive. An American woman had recently gone missing and he wanted to reassure us that the way was safe, that the Hospitaleros and cafe owners were concerned about us pilgrims and deeply respected our endeavor. It was nothing and it was everything because of the intention with which he offered. We never know when we will need hospitality and as a result feel honored to offer it when we can. It was and always is a pleasure to have you and Rebecca in our home, and as Dana said let’s do it again soon, before its too late for spring nettle risotto. Camino love Felipe.”
So, if or short term topic is hospitality and our long term topic is about how our Camino really starts in Santiago, let’s put them together maybe. So, if the Way has taught us to love God and our fellow man, to be trusting and open, to risk, to share, to be present to all situations and to be grateful for what we have. So, if we are grateful then we are likely to be relaxed enough to be generous. If we are present to all situations we will notice when someone needs something, food, drink, shelter, acknowledgement, encouragement. So maybe we will feel moved to share what we have in time and treasure. We will make ourselves vulnerable. We will risk because we have learned to see Christ in others.
This isn’t always easy but we are working on it. And we will need help and hospitality ourselves as we go down the trail. It’s all a two way street, the give and the take.
OK, make it happen, always in love, Felipe.x
What a powerful blog, Phil.
You are one amazing Human Being.
So many of us spend our time being Human Doings instead of Human Be-ings.
Blessings as we journey on.
William ~ Yes, we are journeying on. Thanks for being with our merry band here at Caminoheads. Comments really make this blog for me. Alperfect, Felipe.
Phil, Thank you for your post and for sharing Catherine’s comments. They inspired me to page back through my journal and be reminded of the many acts of kindness-large and small-I’ve experienced on the Camino From a family picking me up–hopelessly lost–and driving me to my night’s accommodations, to a truck driver going way out of his way to help me through a construction zone where the way marks had been obliterated, to individuals shouting “Camino, Camino” and pointing (usually in the opposite direction to where I was headed). I’m also reminded of the kindness in giving more than was expected or necessary–fresh croissants in the middle of the Meseta. Gratitude and presence. A chance to consider the opportunities I’ve seen and acted on and those I’m still missing. Best, Dave
Dear Best Dave ~ thanks for those stories as it helps keep it all alive for ourselves. Are you going to be up in the neighborhood this summer? Phil.
This is a beautiful post, no doubts! And the comments from William and Dave too. William is so right with this thing about getting back to the Human “Be-ing” mode. I made the Camino with no phone, no access to internet, no checking emails, no posting on Facebook, no music on an mp3, nothing… just a notebook that remained almost blank, because I started to be moved by the landscapes, the faces, the looks, the conversations… My life back at home after the Camino is so busy, have a work with pressure, is so overcommitted, but I am always longing something else, that “something” that the Camino showed that exists and that makes so much good to the spirits. Yes, admiring the landscapes of the Pyrenees was great, but the conversations on the path were even better… and for that, we need open undistracted hearts to receive the others, whichever is the form the others present to us. The hospitalero from the albergue in Rabanal said it: “the little we think we can do for the other may just be all the other needs”.
Cris
PS: We also had an amazing story from the owner of a bar, who put the bag of my fellow pilgrim Rebecca from Alaska in a taxi, and sent it from Fromista to Carrion de los Condes, when the company transporting the bagpacks refused to do it. We posted a Thank You letter from Santiago, but the lesson of hospitality remains with us to inspire.
Cris ~ love your long inspired comments. Yes, we need to work on our being and tone àdown our doing. That’s hard because we are programmed the other way around. But we are learning. And that is goodall that you walk your Camino without a lot of distracting gadgets. They definitely take away from being present to everything. Did you find that hard to do? And then you were moving by things. I remember being so moved at times that I could barely function. Yea. That’s a nice quote about doing for the other. Maybe I will use that in the near future on the blog. And yes the Camino was full of hospitality. We need to practice on that. Well alls well, Felipe.x