A Day Bathed in Grace
“May your eyes see God in all directions”
Today, we woke up in paradise to the sound of rain showers, which moved our yoga inside into one of our beautiful living rooms. We enjoyed gentle movement and the ability to use the couches to help us relax (do try this at home- back on the floor, legs bent up on couch). Our closing poem started with the above quote, and the yoga teacher may or may not have been brought to tears. You decide.
The rain done, we made our way down the hill and across the street to breakfast, prepared and served once again by the wondrous solo chef. Everything from the coffee to the eggs was in the top percentile; just what we needed for this, allegedly the longest walk of our five.
We gathered again on the bus where the word of the day was “Grace” and the poet Hafiz reminded us of The God Who Knows Only Four Words: “come dance with me.” With the confidence that Grace was among us, we danced off on the road to Arzua.
The morning hike was, as promised, long, but the heavy cooling fog protected us from harsh sun and we all made it, more or less gracefully, to the picnic spot. The beauty of the path was evident and again we shared the company of the pilgrims from around the world. There were fewer with us today as we were starting from a less common spot, so we also enjoyed much of the Camino alone or with members of our group.
Lunch was again fabulous and included a spinach salad, local sheep's milk cheese, and marinated scallops. We were greeted by the small dog who seems to be the proprietor of the grassy picnic area and he was, as last year, an attentive and gracious host.
The afternoon walk was shorter than the morning, and brought us through several Eucalyptus forests, all of which were beautiful, but as the days' final destination was described as being “right after the Eucalyptus forest” there were a few dashed expectations as to how soon the pilgrims could soak their feet while holding a cold cerveca!
Of course, we were all greated by great hospitality by Jose and Tito. As we grabbed our things out of the bus (suitcases all in our rooms already!!) We said farewell to Tito as buses are not allowed in the old city.
Our meeting tonight, we were serenaded by U2 singing the song Grace and spoke of the graces of the day. These included: the bags in the rooms, meeting pilgrims on the path, reflecting on every day basic graces and how little one really needs, singing, a woman handing out free figs from her tree as she picked them, delicious chocolate, ginger lemonade and lemon beer just when it was needed …
Dinner was delightful. A team of 3 running the entire restaurant, which we shared with other patrons (last night and this morning we were the only group in the restaurant). We had a quick, well served and delicious dinner and we await with mixed emotions our day tomorrow where we will finish our walking, likely in the rain!
What grace have you been bathed in today?
Copyright 2019 Nancy and Hugh Murray
