La Portela de Valcarce

My last three days on the Camino: I will climb O’Cebreiro tomorrow crossing into Galicia and when I arrive in Triacastela the next day, I will begin the journey home. Arriving in Santiago is not a goal for me—I have two Compostelas at home—St. James has my back and I’m so grateful I had the chance to walk the Jacobean Way once more!

Today as I walked I contemplated life—how it arrives and how it leaves this earth.

On the path I see a scarab beetle on its back, struggling in agony with its insides oozing out where a pilgrim has carelessly stepped on it. My heart aches for this half-crushed scarab, sacred to ancients, and I decide to send it back to the void to end its agony.

Today, I spied a tiny mouse sitting on the path, its eyes closed, it seemed to be dozing. I stepped closer and the mouse did not scurry away nor even move. Not on top of its game, I thought, but decided not to intervene—its destiny a mystery to me, my heart moved for this creature and I moved on.

The cherry trees along the Way are heavy with fruit and pilgrims pluck the ones they can reach in handfuls, sucking the fruit and spitting out the pits willy-nilly into the wayside brush and dust. Will cherry saplings sprout from any of these? Only the earth herself knows.

Today, I lay upon the altar of my heart, with gratitude, those who help to bring life forth from the heavens and the earth: midwives assisting with the births of babies, visionaries who birth new ideas and bring beauty to us, as well as farmers and gardeners who work and seed the earth, bringing forth new plant life to sustain us.

I pray for those who are transitioning away from this earth plane— especially for those who attend to them and for those who are mourning.

I pray for all of these in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and in the name of Mother, Daughter, and Holy Soul. Amen.Läs mer