(photo R Angert)
Camino Angels
Much is written in books and on social media concerning Camino Angels, those people that enter our lives along the Camino at exactly the time we have a felt need and they remove it from our ‘worry list.’ Or they leave us with a few words that blossom into just what we need later in our journey. Sometimes these angels disappear once their task is complete, but they may become friends for life.
Many see the Camino we walked as a metaphor for life, in a way we were walking the Camino before we even decided what shoes to wear. You were on it before you even heard of the Camino. And as most agree, it sure doesn’t end in Santiago. So where were the Camino Angels before and after? Well, I’d like to suggest that they were there all along and that we were so occupied by Doing Something that we missed them and their gifts. We weren’t, as they say, “In The Moment.”
If you think back upon your time walking towards Santiago de Compostela and a smile comes to your face I bet you have an Angel story yourself. If so, please pause reading this now and spend a few moments remembering how you felt before and after one of those encounters.
Are you warmed up now? Or didn’t you have such an encounter to recall?
If you are nodding your head “Yes, I know” or are shaking your head “No Way” you both can try this absolutely free treat with no small print attached. The “Yes, I know” people can be on the lookout for someone to be an Angel to, the opportunity is coming your way. Many people find themselves in dire straights due to the changes brought upon us by the events of the last year and are just ripe for an Angel to do something amazing.
Those saying “No Way” can just be a tad more open to the meaning of that “coincidence” or opportunity that comes out of no-where. Embrace it and then tell the story to someone.
And both groups can practice gratitude – being thankful – for being able to give or receive these special gifts.
With Angelic love,
Ronaldo in Astorga
Hola! Ronaldo!
An excellent post today, Gracias! I’m always pleased to have an excuse to reminisce about my Camino Angel experience. I was Blessed to BE a Camino Angel for another, and then, to enjoy the experience of being supplemented by yet another Angel. It truly is a soul-fulfilling, life-enriching event when it happens. One of those Angels has since passed on to where Angels are the only beings. Those memories have taken on the status of “Sacred”.
Thanks,
PFJ
Thank you for your comments. I am thinking that giving and receiving are not really separate actions but don’t really have words to describe it. Just as sunrise doesn’t end the night so much as begins the day which again gives us another night.
Querido Ronaldo,
Thank you for this exercise to “practice” today! To me it is interesting that even when I went to the Camino twice, I did not read about the “Camino angels” or about that idea that “the Camino provides”, which maybe it was great so as not to create expectations. Yet, I experienced both things.
With regards to “Camino angels”, in both opportunities, I met people who told me what I didn’t even know I needed to hear. In 2011, when I first went to Santiago, this Camino angel I met started a conversation with me that made me take a decision I had struggled to take for more than one year, but it is incredible that I couldn’t and still cannot remember what he said (and he does not either), although I remember exactly where we were walking by, and how the day was, etc. In 2014, this other Camino angel came as the most unexpected gift towards the second half of the Camino, and after he “cleared my worries”, several other Camino angels showed up. I would like to say I acted as a Camino angel myself, even if it was only acting as a “trained caregiver for blisters”! 🙂
“Lavoisier law” loves,
Cris
PS: this music explains this all very nicely… pay special attention by minute 2:28… (Jorge Drexler, is a musician from Uruguay who has lived in Spain for a number of years now, and he is also an ENT MD!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7pvTjbns4
“…not remember what he said” is being in the moment. You don’t so much need to know the words as the results that the words encouraged.
Thank you for the music!
Thank YOU Ronaldo for this Heart wrenching post.
One of the key items I bring up when discussing the Camino with anyone is the topic of my multiple “Camino Angel” experiences that I feel blessed to have been part off.
The students of the Calgary Waldorf School presented me with an Angel prior to my departure.
Upon my return I met with some of these same students and the first thing I told them was “When you presented me with this Angel I had no idea that this Angel would be the first of many Angels I was to meet on this Pilgrimage”.
Blessings.
Yes, keep recognizing those angels along the way!