Thursday, September 23, 2010

The halfway point

Believe it or not folks, we have made it to the halfway point of our journey. 

We arrived in Terradillos de los Templarios just a few minutes ago after a pretty long day.  Today´s stretch was the one about which we were warned not to forget to fill up our water bottles and have lunch prepared since the first 17 of the total 27km was pretty desolate.  We are very glad that we followed the warning, because there were no signs of civilization aside from a highway that was miles away. 


We were a little slow out of the gates this morning--I only use racing terms here since you basically have to be the first ones out in order to be sure you will get a bed in your final destination.  That is one of the problems that come with walking such a popular route...during a holy year :-)
We made it to Terradillos a little while ago and went first to the albergue about which we had heard some pretty nice things.  After sitting down at reception and seeing our Spanish friends from yesterday, the lady told us there was only one more bed left and, unlike some of the other albergues we stayed in, didn´t offer a mat on the ground or spot in the hallway.  It´s all good, though.  We went back up the road to the Albergue del Templarios which is carrying out the tradition started by the Knights Templar to house pilgrims on their journey.  It is a nice place and has a working computer, so I can contact you all without losing an entire blog entry. . .not that that has happened. . .


The desolation part of today´s walk was actually kind of nice.  I mentioned in an earlier entry that there are a lot of parallels between the Camino and the spiritual life and today provided another great insight.  The plainness of the scenery struck me, especially in the comparison to the other beautiful areas where the mountains rise high and the crops of sunflowers stop one in one´s tracks, insisting that passers-by stop and take in the beauty.  Such beauty can almost give pilgrims a high which drives them onward, ignoring the pains and aches brought to life by the hike.  These beautiful sights are very much like the consolations that one receives in the spiritual life, driving one onward, towards the goal of union with God.  The desolate areas along the camino, especially like the ones from yesterday and today, are very much like the times where one must depend solely on God to get them through the day.  The times of desolation in the spiritual life, which although may seem to be the times when God is farthest from us, and we can´t look to the beauties around us to keep us going, are the times when God is calling us closer to Him while being right there to hold us up.

I have been going through a little bit of spiritual desolation out here, but found myself experiencing a weird kind of joy today during the 17km stretch of nothing, knowing that God is allowing me to go through the dry times in order to grow closer to Him and trust Him even more in my life--especially when the road seems long and unending :-)

Alrighty, well y´all are still in my prayers and will continue to be.  Please pray for me.

much love.

Paul

Here are some pics from the past few days.

The Poor-Clare´s Monastery 


Their chapel.

Getting dry :-)





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