As I’m learning, this journey is about surrender and trust.
Yesterday I got slightly squirrelly because I got really lost. I wasn’t paying attention to my app or the markers, and I wound up quite a bit off trail which normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but when you’re trying to get miles behind you, it’s a big deal.
So I took a deep breath, and asked the Universe for guidance to get me back on my path. And just like that, my feet started walking, but in a very specific direction.
It seemed odd to me that my feet were moving without me giving the orders, because normally when you’re walking the Camino you are constantly checking your app, or looking for a yellow shell marker to confirm the direction and then you move on.
After just a few minutes of walking, I turned a corner and heard Bob Marley‘s “Don’t Worry About a Thing” that was playing on someone’s radio. No joke. So I did what anybody else would do, I started singing along!
Just as I was passing by the house with the music an old man came out of his modest home smiling widely. His skin was weathered with age and sun, and his eyes were such a bright blue! I can still see them dancing in my mind’s eye.
This man started speaking to me in full on fast Spanish (and I took French in high school) so I couldn’t understand what he was saying. With more hand gestures than a game of charades, I finally understood that he was asking me if I was a pilgrim. I said, Si, and turned around so he could see the seashell hanging off my backpack. He then asked me to wait as he disappeared into his home. A few minutes later, he came back with an orange and presented it to me. And I started crying.
I was crying not because of the orange, or because I was lost. I was crying because of this profound random act of kindness from a complete stranger. In a foreign country no less! I cried, he laughed, and then I started laughing too.
As I said goodbye to this beautiful soul and set off on my path, I couldn’t help but wonder if these simple acts of kindness have always been around me, yet in the always busy way of life back in the States I haven’t allowed myself to notice them.
Maybe it was the Divine’s way of showing me that kindness really is out there. And it is being reflected back to me because of the kindness that I put out to the world.
Or perhaps I’m becoming more aware of the Greater Awareness that lives within me and surrounds me and all of us. Maybe I’m finally allowing myself to become one with it, and no longer separate from it.
The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me on the Camino. Countless times there have been locals and pilgrims alike to offer a hand, advice, a knowing smile, or a gentle nod in the right direction. It’s truly remarkable.
But maybe kindness isn’t just on the Camino. Maybe kindness is everywhere and I’m at a place and space in my life that I’m allowing myself to be aware of it.
It’s kind of hard to put into words, but it’s like things are becoming clearer, more in focus with each day that I walk.
At a minimum my interaction with the old man and the orange was a direct sign from the Divine designed to lift my spirits and keep me moving forward.
By the way, that was the best damn orange I have ever had!
Thanks for reading.
And now, I WALK.
~Candace ❤️
