Author: waitingatthemakaha

Today we walk into Leon, a world heritage city of 2000 years of history from The Roman Empire through the Middle Ages and land of castles and kings, and one of the most glorious cathedrals in all of Europe.

Stork nest on a humble chapel bell tower in the mid morning light on the way to town with Mapi and Javier from Barcelona.

We reach the outer city walls that enclose the one protected center of the oldest part of town.

And walk through the narrow streets.

Along the stony textures all about

To which I’m drawn

For it all feels like art to me

Everywhere I look

And each sight is unique

The subtle colors captivate

And here we are: Leon, a place where I will rest a day to soak–in history… and in a hotel tub!

A city with nearly every window all adored with flowers

And wonderful places to eat and drink–famous for the tapas.

And now, with the sun going down, after dinner with my friends

And night comes to my hotel on the Plaza Mayor

It’s time for bed.

I did not bring “issues” to the Camino to work out. It was more about just being here and sharing from the heart.

And sharing in the joy of little things–like early light climbing down to earth from the tops of trees.

But there’s something about this middle part of the Camino with a flat earth and big skies

And endless lines of trail walked all alone for hours

That turns the awareness inward toward the heart

And the crunchy roadside sound of step step step turns the walk into a natural waking meditation, and from there…

Things surface from your unseen depths.

So as I walked one morning, four open parts of my life popped up on a platter of awareness right in front my face. For I will return from the Camino to a new chapter of my life.

Four things Like livelihood and purpose, and family in all its many meanings, and self-expression too.

Mentally, as I walked, I turned them into prayer and I “gave” them all to my meditation teacher, a master whose guided my spiritual efforts for over 30 years.

I had the feeling that I had “surrendered” those four uncertain things to her, as an agent of God for me, so now that they were “gone” from my consciousness, well then, come what may…

To my surprise, within a minute later… she gave them back to me!

But now each one was filled to overflow with grace. I knew because I felt the feel of them and knew the nature of them as I gave them away and then saw how they had changed in feel and nature when she gave them back.

After a few miles I realized that each of these four facets of my life were, in some way, about meaningfully and beneficially and satisfyingly connecting my interior with the interior of others, in short… about relationship.

Then, after a few kilometers, this recognition arose out from the pathway and the fields right up through my heart: the qualities I really want in relationships–for both myself and those that I relate with–are love, freedom and duty.

As I walked I knew that those three big and abstract words have a lot of meanings that mean different things to different people at different times, but I was pretty clear on what they meant to me.

But more important than that was the way in which those three qualities had come packaged together with each other from the Way–rounding to a whole a sense of what was important to me and carrying the deeper knowledge that this insight held for me.

And I sang these words for many alone miles–the second time that my gifts came in threes, mixing them into all kinds of rhythmic combinations and fresh melodies.

Stone alter in an old stone church, upon which I mentally put my ancient human wish.

And I learned from this too another fresh take on something that I thought I “knew”. That spiritual “surrender” is not about giving interior things away, or giving them up ’cause you don’t want them anymore, so much as about holding them more gracefully, once you know they’re filled with grace. And if I hold them with love and freedom and a sense of duty too… well then come what may.

And then it’s time for fun.

I leave town while the cool night has not yet ended and the Spanish world sleeps.

My camera won’t do justice to the quiet fullness of this time…

And I love to walk that first hour in the dark.

This scene brought to mind a Spanish version of an Andrew Wyeth painting…

This week a shrinking half-ish moon (and a very strong Venus) have given enough light to brighten the gravel below my feet into an easy-follow glow, but not much more–so the stars and constellations are in full glory as I walk east to west just below the Milky Way.

And the pre-dawn is so big [and there is Venus, if you look, (what my dad used to call the morning star)] makes me feel like I’m looking at the planet from a capsule out in space.

And I’m off for the day…

And the sun is sure to rise behind my back.

And light the Way…

And the religion of the Camino–step/step/step step/step…–continues for another day.

I can now sense when I am in the presence of the legacy of the Knights who ruled the protection game on the Camino from the 12th through 14th centuries.

They were the Jedi of their day. Surely Joseph Campbell and George Lucas modeled their saber- and force-wielding heroes after them.

The Knights let me through the portal to the next part of the Way.

These old walls just speak to me.

And call to me to come inside…

And I go further in.

The Knights are all about Mary.

And there’s a quality to the feel of these spaces I have not felt quite like that anywhere else before…

And I slip into the different kind of light that makes its home in here.

And get quiet

And

Somehow in that silence and that timeless time and this kind of spirit-feeling light…

I come out somehow…

Not quite the same person

As I was

When I went in…

We are in the middle part of the Way now–in Castillo y Leon–in between the mountains that we climbed in the first third of the Camino and the mountains we will meet again when enter Galicia for the last two weeks of this long walk.

The land is pretty flat, with some roll to it. This large stretch of Camino is called Tierra de Campo– Land of fields, and that’s just what it is.

And the land goes on and on all day and the skies are wide open canvases for stunning cloudscapes.

And these skies keep me company as I walk through the endless fields.

For pilgrim traffic has stretched thin. Many pilgrims have left the path after Leon and I walk alone much of the time now.

And the Way is very straight to westward and sometimes will not turn for miles.

I can tell what time it is quite precisely by the length of my shadow. Here it is mid-morning.

This is a stony place. That is why the history is so well preserved–the buildings great and small are built of stone. But so are so many of the fields. didn’t know that food could grow in such soils. It seems that in some places they are growing rocks like potatoes!

And other fields are colored with the very essence of earthy fertility.

And the land goes on and on…

Every pilgrim who walks long distance day after day experiences pain. Some, a lot. And there are many kinds of pain. Each deals in their own way. Most don’t let it get too big in their minds, I think, and though we talk about it some, and check in on each others’ well-being from time to time, at least not so much in the words they share.

On the first night I woke every hour and monitored my legs to see if they were repairing fast enough that I would be able to continue the next day. And each time that I checked… they weren’t. ‘Till the last 45 minutes in the bed, they all of a sudden released most of their pain. And I moved on, and though for the next few days, when the pain moved from my legs into my feet, I sometimes wondered if I’d make it, though I pretty much knew I would, and did not look back.

But I realized that “Maaaaaaaybe swimming wasn’t such a good way to prepare for this walking trip!”

Nonetheless… I have gotten into the rhythm of the Way, have gotten stronger every day, am now into the middle of this path, have energy left for sharing good times with other pilgrims at the end of the day. And have now, for the first time, got caught up with you on posting. Yea!

So, if “weee feee” is good enough to reach you in the towns I sleep in from here on out, I might be able to keep up with you most every day.

For now, I’ve found my patron saint!

See you soon!

After leaving Burgos, we have now traveled three days on the Meseta– the vast wide open high plains of Spain. There is little to distract one here and one gets swallowed up in the great expanse of earth and sky and road, so one is with one’s own true self– a real friend… a great deal of acceptance of the self, and other’s and the world, and that’s at the heart of pilgrimage.

Come with me on these three days as we rise in the cool dark and travel into warm afternoons.

The women in the tiny churches that we come to along the Way are filled with warm welcoming and love.

For Donnie and me!

Intimate look at the texture of Camino in the Meseta

The stones along the Way look like the bones of Mother Earth

Love the Camino! Love you!

Following a river up the path to the city ofBurgos…

The path goes on for miles

To a first glimpse of the church that is the heart of this city.

The pathway leads through town

And we approach the church

And this church is huge and stunning. I spent the afternoon in there. When I came out, after totally shedding any thoughts of this modern world, my soul was still and calm and silent and satisfied.

There are something like 25 different chapels inside this church that was built by masters over many centuries. The work is beyond fathomable.

Let’s go in through the front door. (I’ll let you have your own experience so I won’t narrate here.)

But just to let you know, the thing that once again has captured me is the way the sunlight soaks up the colors in the windows as in passes through, then spills it on the walls and floors.

Enjoy:

My soul can just dive in and swim in there.

It’s way beyond belief–politics and religion. They will still be there when I come back from this many weeks-long walking retreat. For now, this is deep spiritual refreshment for a pilgrim on the way…

We walked past an archeological dig where scientists have found evidence of every human species that ever lived in Europe, going all the way back one and a half million years!

There’s a great museum in Burgos with the findings.

For now, I’ll let these guys and gals speak for themselves. Here they are:

Neanderthal… of which I am surely related!

And finally…

Well, I spent a half a day with these men and women and… I can relate!

I am proud to be a human. Humans can be great. Let’s step it up and be so!

The Camino has some portals were you can travel not just space, but time.

Here is the church which I stayed at.

This doorway wrinkles time back 800 years to the days of the Knights Templar.

I lost track of time for an hour in here.

Fresh light on old stone.

I am drawn into the presence of this place.

The light plays. It is silent here. The walls listen and they whisper.

The Knights have left secret clues and symbols all through this church that they follow both the ancient natural worship and knowledge which they hide and blend with the Catholic way.

I can’t imagine how this kind of place was built so long ago.

Oh

There is nobody here. This place is quite remote.

I wonder…

And

When I step back out through the door into our time, I feel the shock of traveling through time. This time we live in, I had left behind. And with a sudden step… I’m back.

My time machine…