May 2nd. The Home Stretch.

Posted on by Pete Schloss

We are on the eve of our arrival in Santiago, 12 km away in the village of Teo. Our host is the Casa Parada Franco, a 400 year old farmstead and restaurant.

As in the last few nights, our “Camino” family has materialized. Tonight it includes our Canadian doppelgängers, Tom and Nancy, our Swiss friends Irene and Manuela, and a trio of men from Germany.

This Camino will end on day 14. Our past walk on the Way was 35 days long. Like flowers on the tundra, this Camino has managed to complete its life-cycle within the compressed time that the season has allowed. Nothing is missing.

I have found in Tom a kindred spirit who processes life in metaphors. I have been especially struck by one that he expressed yesterday. Tom reflected that each morning on the Camino he puts on the same backpack. Somedays it fits perfectly, yet on others it feels slightly unbalanced, a bit less than comfortable. Isn’t it the same with our jobs, relationships, life in general? Same backpack, job, family, life. Perhaps there is a lesson in learning that it is for us to adapt to the “backpacks of our lives”, and not expect them to adapt to us.

Tom is fond of looking at life each day in six words, not 5 not 7, but 6. As an example he shared, “Walking the Camino. I seek Tom”. Brilliant!

Pilgrimage is not the challenge of enduring discomfort and adversity. Rather, it is the challenge of learning to find release from the discomfort and adversity that has been confining one’s spirit.

My struggle is to let go. (6 words)

Peace Everyone. Pete

12 thoughts on “May 2nd. The Home Stretch.”

  1. Liz says:

    Excellent…. a bittersweet day ahead of you tomorrow. I can’t wait to begin walking – my six words for tonight. Ultreia

  2. Steve says:

    Happy that you took a break in writing yesterday. I am not sure how many of your readers appreciate the energy it takes to do what you are doing. Seems it would be more a time of rest upon arrival after a long wet slog to the next unfamiliar bed. Then instead to greet friends and strangers alike before you download the photos from your camera, upload them to your Internet host and take the care you do to write a little something worth reading in your blog.
    Good soldier, Pete.
    And that is my 2 cents in way more than 6 words.

  6. Pauline Schloss says:

    Now you can take a deep breath and relax as you contemplate more of your journey. My six words—-“Have faith in what will be.”

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