Reflections on Camino 2014

I received an email from American Pilgrims on the Camino the other day ( American Pilgrams ). They are soliciting submissions for the next issue of the 'El Concho', which is their quarterly publication.

I thought it over, and since I am in major prep mode for my next phase in October, I decided that I had something to offer. Here is the submission along with the pictures. Again these experiences are from 2014 and my first phase, hiking from Sevilla to Fuente de Cantos.

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My camino is along the Via De La Plata which starts in Sevilla in the south of Spain and heads north. With a full-time job, I am one of those peregrinos doing the Camino de Santiago in phases. My first phase happened in April of 2014. I’d like to share some special moments.

The first moment occurred as I left the industrialized portion of the Via leading out of Sevilla. I came to the point where the Via heads out along a miles-long graded, dirt path. The marking was more than the traditional yellow arrow “Flecha Amarillo”. It also included a yellow “X” for which way to NOT walk. With the Camino already under foot, I realized how appropriate it was for my life. Sometimes I had gone left, and sometimes I had gone right, but the decisions were made, and it was only left for me to continue ahead.

The next day I and fellow pilgrims passed alongside fruit pickers in an orange grove. Riding high in their trucks, as they slowly passed, I requested permission to take a picture. They acceded to my request, and then left us with more than a dozen oranges. Being hot and thirsty, we immediately opened an orange apiece and felt the cool juices of the fruit run over our fingers as we sipped the sweet contents. To this day, I remember no finer tasting oranges in my life.

On my last day and alone at this point, I was in the town of Fuente de Cantos (Fountain of Songs) on
Palm Sunday. In Sevilla there are hundreds of thousands of people lined up for the religious processions commemorating the Passion of the Christ. Yet here was I in a town of hundreds. In the town church as the Nazareno’s (religious clubs) dressed in their ceremonial garb, I walked up to the float, touched its cool wood exterior and gazed into the eyes of Mary and Jesus, something just not possible in Seville. Surrounded by the town’s marching brass band, by the Nazareno’s and local parade watchers, I was moved to elation for my Camino and how it brought me to this small pueblo on such a great day. 

As I write this, I am preparing for my third leg thru Castile y Leon and into Galicia. I thank God, the
fortunes, the fates and all deities out there for such a marvelous experience.