“You guys look like you’re doing well!,” he said, as his group merged with ours.
I was grateful it wasn’t obvious. My hips hurt, my back hurt and my toes were killing me.
“I’ve got you fooled,” I said with a smile.
“What’s going on?,” he asked genuinely interested.
It turned out that he was a guide, leading a group from the Netherlands. It was his 10th Camino and he was my first Camino angel.
“My toenails are turning black!” I said, “I don’t understand, my shoes are definitely big enough.”
“Do you have them laced tight enough?,” he asked. “If not, your feet will slide, especially downhill.”
Suddenly it all made sense!
My shoes came with elastic looped laces and a sliding lock instead of old fashioned shoe laces that tie. This new feature made them hard to tighten enough to keep my feet in place. The elastic allowed for movement no matter how tight I cinched them. Convenience has a cost.
“Have you tried sandals?,” my Camino angel asked.
As much thought, research and shopping went into what I would wear on my feet I had never even considered them. I dismissed the idea outright. Sandals sounded like something for a stroll on the beach, not a serious 180 mile hike.
“I wore shoes for my first two Caminos,” he said, “then I switched to sandals and I never looked back.”
He encouraged me to shop for sandals when we got into town and it gave me hope that I might have a solution to my toenail pain. Just understanding the cause of the pain felt like a victory. The thought of my toes being freed from confinement made me almost giddy with relief.
“One of the biggest mistakes people make,” he said with credibility, “is not listening to their body. Not stopping to make adjustments when something is bothering them. If you pay attention at the start of a hotspot, you can do something about it before it becomes a much bigger problem or even stops your Camino.”
Duh.
How often in life do I push through whatever discomfort I have, instead of stopping to make an adjustment. For crying out loud I don’t even like to stop to pee, I wait until I’m practically dancing. As much as I enjoy food I often wait until I’m famished, and then I only have time for convenience food. Oh the cost of that choice! Or rather, “un-choice”. In this fast paced world even sleep can wait. There is stuff to be done. Lots and lots of stuff.
The race seems only to get faster. The more technological advancements are made the less patient I become. Stopping is not an option. More and faster is the mantra. It’s much easier to see the ridiculously fast pace of modern day life while walking along the roadside. Or observing the juxtaposition of a giant tractor trailer zooming past an abandoned medieval church.
The Problem of Pain
No one likes pain. But it serves an important purpose. It encourages us to stop and find the cause. If we don’t, eventually we become stuck, unable to move forward. If I find myself doing this in the physical world, with physical consequences, how much easier it is do in the spiritual life!
“You meet who you’re supposed to meet on the Camino,” I was told more than once by people who had been before, “there are no coincidences.” I don’t believe this only happens on the Camino, I think it’s just easier to notice it there.
We are meant to be “angels” for each other, guides along the way, using our experiences to help the other. It is so much easier on the Camino, when everyone is going in the same direction. There is an implicit understanding that we have the same destination, we are all pilgrims away from home. This commonality bound us together on the Camino, even in our diversity.
In the “real world” it feels much more like bumping into people who are coming at you from different directions. Where are they coming from and what on earth are they doing?!
This is part of the reason why people want to go back to the Camino again and again. This is why it’s tempting to want to stay on the mountaintop.
But we are meant to go back into the valley. Our encounters here are just as divinely ordained. Maybe there is something I have to offer the other. Maybe there is something I need to learn from them. Maybe the other person is in as much, or more pain than I am. Maybe their situation mirrors mine and I am meant to see myself in a reflection that only looks opposite of me. Maybe they are not “other” at all.
I think a lot about the sage advice my Camino angel gave: Be aware of what’s bothering you. Make adjustments.
Don’t just keep going when you notice friction. Pause. Listen. Find the source of the pain and see if you can alleviate it. Sometimes you can’t and you have to go a bit further down the proverbial road, but simply understand the cause will bring relief.
Don’t make choices to avoid pain altogether either, the Holy Spirit prompted as my angel and I walked The Way together, there are hard things you will have to do, ways you don’t want to walk, people and situations that will be challenging…
God will guide you, put people along the path. Do this. Avoid that. Often these messages come through chance encounters and/or relationship themes. Have you ever encountered the “same person” with a different name, again and again and again in your life? Listen to what they might be revealing to you. This is an opportunity to see yourself and your situation more clearly, to understand the source of your pain.
Like rumble strips on the road, it is there to keep us out of a head on collision with others, or alternatively, alone in a ditch. It’s there to help us. Make changes. Slow. Down. Stop. Loosen the straps and break free from the rat race. There are abundant blessings waiting for us everywhere, all the time. I know this to be true.
We are all pilgrims on a journey back home, to the heart of God. We are meant to walk this way together.
Buen Camino and Happy Advent!
Homework: It is a season of stillness and waiting. A time to reorient life around a Perfect Good. God alone belongs at the center of our lives; anything else is imperfect and at best causes imbalance in our lives, at worst will spin us out of control.
It is not only ok to rest, it is good. God commands it, knowing that the world can be an unrelenting taskmaster. Everyone will surrender to something-let it be God. “In vain is your earlier rising, your going later to rest, you who toil for the bread you eat, when he pours gifts on his beloved while they slumber". Psalm 127:2
Here is one of my favorite meditations: Psalm 46:10. Spend as much time as you need with each sentence. You are a human BEing, not a human DOing. He is the Supreme Being. Surrender to His goodness. I pray you are blessed.
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I Am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Then, be spiritually awake as you move through the world. What is chafing you? Who do you encounter along “the way”? What are they saying to you? What are you saying to them? God is there, trying to communicate with you. He loves you more than you can imagine.
He does not want us to suffer, that’s why we have the gift of pain: Take your hand off the hot stove! He will allow it in this life, in hopes that we might choose The Way that guarantees no more pain for all eternity, the Way of Santiago. The Way of the Cross.
