Sacred Ground

On my very first day of walking, on the plateau above Le-Puy-en-Velay

before reaching Saint Christophe sur Dolaison

"Standing on Holy Ground 

– all is Sacred and all is gift"

I was nervous on that very first climb out of Le Puy
as I had heard it was steep, and wasn't sure if my fitness would be found wanting.

I was so pleased to find all my pre-Chemin walks meant it proved to be not too daunting.

I soon found myself relaxing into the landscape of the plateau above Le Puy

filled with an immense happiness to be there

and hoping that weeks of walking in the outdoors lay ahead.

I was filled with reverence and joy.

Life just seemed like pure gift in those moments.

How can you explain?

 On the plateau above Le-Puy-en-Velay - on the first day of walking

"How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, 

and the hills and the sky?  

Anyone knows they are.  

How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm, 

the rhythm of the day and the season 

instead of the hour and the minute?  

No, you cannot explain.  So you walk."

~Author unknown, from New York Times editorial, "The Walk," 25 October 1967

It was something very special, the frisson of joy that I knew as I walked into the countryside at the top of the climb out of Le Puy. All going well, I was embarking on something that would let me be a walker in the outdoors for weeks and weeks to come. 
I have just returned home from a Camino gathering in Hamilton: how good it was to be with a group of people who had also walked, and who understood, who didn't need an explanation about 'why' you would do such a thing...

Looking

trees with spring leaves, seen when approaching Figeac

"I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.

Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around

     as though with your arms open.

And thinking: maybe something will come, some

    shining coil of wind,

    or a few leaves from any old tree-

        they are all in this too."

~Mary Oliver

in the poem 'Where Does the Temple Begin, Where Does It End?'

One of the lasting legacies of the Camino for me has been this looking:-

 looking and noticing details in the world outdoors around me.

Rain on a spiderweb

seen soon after leaving Domaine des Mathieux, the day after heavy rain had fallen

 

"I am sure it is a great mistake always to know

enough to go in when it rains.  

One may keep snug and dry by such knowledge, 

but one misses a world of loveliness."

~Adeline Knapp 

Changing Seasons

Leaving Montbonnet on Day 2 of the Chemin, with mid-April snow on the ground

"Each moment of the year has its own beauty

....a picture which was never before

and shall never be seen again."

~Emerson

Another h/t to George for the quote.

One of the greatest joys I found in the whole walk from Le Puy to Santiago

was the way I passed through the changing seasons as I walked. 

These first few days out of Le-Puy-en-Velay, mid-April

were bitterly cold at times

and twice, there was even snow- a novelty for a Kiwi lowland North Islander!

Rainbow at Orisson

part way up the pass over the Pyrenees

a magnificent rainbow draped the evening skies

“What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination

will affect everything. 

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, 

what you will do with your evenings, 

how you spend your weekends, 

what you read, who you know, 

what breaks your heart, 

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. 

Fall in love, stay in love, 

and it will decide everything.”

~Pedro Arrupe S.J. 

 

The evening spent at Orisson, part-way up the Napoleon Route over the Pyrenees,
was one of the most precious times on the whole Chemin for me.
The view was magnificent, out across the 'layers' of hills and mountains.
Then a rainbow came, and was draped right across the sky and the mountains.
(This photo of just a portion of it gives merely a hint of the glory.)

These outdoor glories, the small ones and the large ones,
are treasures in my heart
and noticing them
has seeped within
as a reason for my being.

What makes you come alive?

On top of O'Cebreiro

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive,
and then go do that.
Because what the world needs
is people who have come alive."

~Howard Thurman

Miracles every day.....

Leaving Montbonnet on Day 2, with snow lying all around.

"There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is."

~Albert Einstein

It would be true to say I was 'afraid' when I stepped out alone into the snowy landscape
on just my second morning of walking.
But along with the anxiety, I knew such excitement, such gladness.
How could it be that I was so lucky to be here,
in the morning silence,
immersed in the secrets of the outdoors,
with just a slither of morning sun creeping out across the snowy fields.
It was an Hallelujah moment!

A sudden moment of Grace

On top of the first hill on the Meseta
 

"I was truly alive and all was grace.
That Amazing Grace
where a single moment of blindness
turns to sight once again. "

~From 'Googling God' blog.

I climbed onto the Meseta with my two friends from Quebec.
We weren't sure what to expect.
So much is written about this place, that I think I truly feared it.

And maybe in the searing heat of summer it truly is deservedly feared.

But our first experience was of a green magic.
We climbed a hill onto the Meseta proper,
and suddenly this landscape stretched out before us,
as far as the eye could see, just green crops and sky.
Nothing else.
Almost in unison, for the three of us,
you could hear an audible sound,
as it took our breath quite away.

Sacred Space Within

Stained glass window in the chapel of Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe, Le Puy

"Many of us are not aware of the sacred space within us,
the place where we can reflect and contemplate,
the space from which wonderment can flow
as we look at the mountains, the sky......

....This place, which is the deepest in us all,
is the place of our very personhood,
the place of inner peace where God dwells
and where we receive the light of life
and the murmurings of the Spirit of God.
It is the place in which we make life choices
and from which flows our love for others."

~Jean Vanier
- quoted in "Essential Writings" (Carolyn Whitney-Brown) pg 157-8

Who I was born to be

Bridge over a stream near Espeyrac in France

"Though I may not
Know the answers
I can finally say I am free
And if the questions
Led me here, then
I am who I was born to be"

~sung by Susan Boyle
from "I dreamed a dream"

That small voice....

First morning- on the plateau above Le-Puy-en-Velay

"Trust that still, small voice that says
'This might work and I'll try it."

~Diane Mariechild

That first morning when I left Le Puy, I was so tentative.
It seemed almost an impossibility that I should walk all the way to Santiago.
But after I had reached the top of the old crater basin that held the town,
and walked out into the calm of the countryside
I had an incredible feeling of calm and joy.
I knew I was doing 'the right thing'.
I wasn't sure whether I would make it 'all the way'
but I already knew a deep peace.