(Please make sure to read the first part of this two part post. It will appear below this. So scroll down and start there.)

One hour is all that I get today to wrap up these thoughts. We can do this. So, one thing was the idea that we were all changed by that experience. And I think that generally it is subtle. Ok, we may come back wearing the Camino T-shirt but what about all that deeper stuff that is going to ooze out in time. You know that it is in there. Yesterday I fried up my French toast with olive oil which I never would have done “before”. That flavor is oozing out to compliment the other ingredients and to make a whole subtlety different, better.

And before I get back to Rick’s thoughts I want to apologize for not getting a pic up of him and his daughter Maryka. On the whole trip I think that I took a handful of shots. Most if not all of the great pix that I have put up so far are from the first part of my walk and taken by Kelly. Some beautiful stuff, thank you Kelly. He put those on my I Pad using a wire. So, good but they only capture up to Leon and then we had our bus trip ahead to Samos. I have very few pix after that although Maryka did email some beauties. But try as I have I can’t figure how to get those to the blog. But I have a new plan as to how to move them so there is hope for a better situation.

Back to Rick’s observation. It looks like to me that he got really into the land and the way that the trail laid on the topography. And he got into learning how to correctly pronounce the names of the towns, rivers and other features. Awesome. He can now describe a particular climb or descent in these vivid terms. Very cool. And yes, now that I give it the thought that it deserves he is right I for one and a lot of those around me tended to not do that. We didn’t sit at the end of the day and really talk about it in those terms. That hill that we climbed to me is remembered by who I was with at the time that was talking me up, sometimes almost step by step. I remember my eyes lighting on heart-shaped rocks that would occur at the most amazing times to be a message that we were loved.

It is said that the Camino is a living thing and a complex living thing with many ways of looking at it and all good. Just a testament to it’s richness. So, yes let’s see just how many ways that we can look at it. And back to the paragraph from yesterday where I confused you with all the names and the comings and goings. It is confusing if you try and keep track of it by what individuals did or didn’t do, yes? But when you consider that each one of those great unique individuals while bonding with their fellow walkers formed a fabric, a flow, a river. Each held it together for a short period of time with those around it. And they moved across the landscape making that line on the map.

Later, in the flow of pilgrims from Sarria on, when I was with Maryka she said that she felt like we were two drops in a great river. Exactly. But really drops only exist when the are out of the of the river, right? And the river by that time in August was in flood stage and overflowing its banks and overwhelming the system. And we weren’t bonding as easily with those around us because it was such a rush. We were all swept along.

So, now that I am musing about this and remembering looking at maps of the Camino, before I got there to experience it, when the trail was a thin line of unvarying width as it went across the topography. But now to see it as a living thing it looks and acts more like a river to me. Some times it is just a trickle and sometimes it is calm and moves peacefully but at other times and places it gets unruly and overflows its banks and cuts new channels. And the towns are along its banks and you can swim in to visit a cafe, church or water closet when you want but but it flows on regardless.

OK, I am just about out of time and I have to work on my taxes as they are due in by Friday. Maybe I will find some heart-shaped rocks to cheer me on as I climb this particular hill. thanks for putting up with me. Love, Phil.