I really don’t know how this works but I can remember so many instances of climbing some grade on the dear Camino and just feeling exhausted, like I can’t go on, and then spying a heart rock in the soil. It happened so often that I grew to expect it or I suspected people of planting them there. Were those hills piled high with heart rocks and dusted over with a little soil, maybe? Somehow this happened and the result was a tremendous help to me. Someone or some force was taking a step back to help me. After a while one might think that they are blessed.

But most of the time we people helped we people. It just seemed like the natural thing to do. After a while of walking the fresh edges of the new pilgrim have worn off and we are left humbled and knowing that we will occasionally need help ourselves. We learn that this thing is not a competition and we have no need of “beating” our neighbor. And we learn that we are not always going to be the helper. Sometimes we need the help. We are continually humbled.

I guess at some point we have to realize that we are on the same team and that team relies a lot on teamwork. Maybe the sooner we realize this the better. Yup, it wasn’t pretty maybe but we finished together.

team loves, Felipé.