I never expected that I’d write a blog post about our Creative Camino pilgrimage entitled “love.” But it was the undeniable choice for today’s post.
Our group—twelve pilgrims and three leaders (who of course are pilgrims in their own right)—has bonded so beautifully. The kindness and compassion with which we are greeting each other is the kind of magic you hope for as a retreat leader, and when it happens, it is always such a gift.
Open-hearted feelings of love and connection almost always arise at the end of a retreat after days of intimate sharing through writing and deep listening, but that kind of intimacy is happening with this group now, when we are only midway through our pilgrimage. We still have a week to go, and the love and caring are palpable.
What I feel for each member of this group and what they feel for each other is tenderness. Kindness. Generosity. Affection. Acceptance. Love—it’s just love. There is been lots of humor between us. And many tears. Things written and spoken that have not been said before.
And every day we walk. There is something about walking for miles across a country, surrounded by beauty, dropping in and out of conversations, companiable and then silent, in combination with shared meals and creative risk-taking that has cracked us open.
I don’t know how else to say it: we are delighted to be together. I’ve heard that expressed so many times. Several times today, people said to me, “This day is perfect.” I know I’m feeling it. The words that come to mind are awe, blessing, beauty, wonder, quiet, connection, sacred.
It’s my second time walking the Way, and each day feels like a blessing.
This morning, we left our hotel, backpacks on, poles in hand, to a glorious sunrise. We kept following the yellow arrows counting down the kilometers to Santiago, passing through farmland, small villages, towns, and miles of countryside, and have landed for the night in the city of Melide, famous for its octopus—we’re heading out to dinner in half an hour.
We stopped for second breakfast at a coffeeshop on the Way that served the best carrot cake I’ve ever eaten and an oat milk chai to die for. Last year, there was no such food available on my walk. There was even a beautiful little jewelry shop next door and many of us indulged in keepsakes to take home.
It was perfect hiking weather, cool and refreshing. The day just kept getting better.
Several times, we passed through verdant tunnels of green. I felt like I was being massaged in a womb of chlorophyll. I fell silent, remembering something I learned at a meditation retreat years ago—to not grasp the world with my eyes as I usually do, but to soften my eyes instead, loosening them in their sockets, as a way to practice receiving the world and letting it come softly to me, rather than trying to grab and hold on to it. That was my practice all afternoon, and I entered a state of peace as gentle as the wind of green blowing through me. It fed me. It fed my soul.
Mid-afternoon we stopped at Iglesia de Santa Maria, the Church of Santa Maria, in Leboreiro, for a painting-sketching-writing session. One of the women in our group had asked me if she could share a poem her mother had written as a tribute to her mother, and this seemed like the right location for her to share it with the group.
After she read it, I invited the group to silently or quietly call out the names of their ancestors, their dead, those they were grieving for now or in the past, anyone in their lives who was ill or suffering. The litany of names rose and fell into silence. Then it rose again until finally the names ceased. Afterwards, we stood in a circle in front of this ancient church, shoulder to shoulder, knowing that we would hold each other’s grief and extend the healing power of our group to those who needed it. Our spontaneous ceremony drew us even closer. There it was again—the power of love.
Most of the group walked on—it was four more miles until our hotel in Melide. A few of us stayed behind to draw the church. You can see my version below.
In my life as a retreat leader and teacher, it was a remarkable day. All the pieces just fit together. I’m physically tired and very happy tonight. Scroll through my pictures to see more of what we saw, the places we walked, and the wonderful diversity of the Camino de Santiago. (Photos by me, Shawn Preuss, Marybeth MacLean, and probably a few others who shared photos on our group thread.)
