Camino

Wow. I didn’t cry yesterday. But cried twice today and wanted to share.

The first time was going into church and lighting candles for those in my prayers.

The second was when I went to the top of the cathedral to witness the Birds Eye view of pilgrims coming in. I decided to video some pilgrims walking in to share. Warning- little God wink coming.. The first pilgrim I saw limping in is on the left in black with a green rain cover on her backpack. She came in alone and I just needed to capture her walking in. No idea why, but I had to. She looked as tired as I had felt last night, but avoided looking at the cathedral (other than a glance), and instead photographed the back building. I stopped recording out of respect when she turned to the cathedral. After I stopped recording I saw her begin to weep and run to the left alcove and grab her phone, completely bawling. I ran down three flights of deep stairs (ouch) and across the plaza to make sure she was ok. I found her on the phone speaking in tears to someone. I just sat for a moment to catch my breath near her. She later turned to me and said hi and I asked her, “are you ok?” And she replied, “I’m here from Poland and called my husband who couldn’t come to watch me come in. I am very shy and couldn’t ask anyone to take my photo for my family so he and my kids could share the moment.” As you can guess, I told her I had just taken the video below. Hugs and tears and a call home to Poland and her entire family talked to me. Her name was Malwina, and we were meant to meet today. The Camino and fellow Pilgrims provide! We are all here together. Thank you Malwina for being my subject and for not considering me a stalker. God bless and buen camino.

My walk is done.Read more