What should have been a day of feasting and celebrations today in Santiago will have been a day of mourning.

I still can’t believe the timing, on the eve of St. James Day, and the location – on the fringe of the pilgrimage city.

For pilgrims arriving in Santiago today, having finished their Camino, it must be a strange place they’ve walked into. A grieving city.

I always think of Santiago as being a place full of light. And laughter. I can’t imagine there’s much light there today. Nor much laughter.

But it will return.

This train crash in Santiago de Compostela has upset Jennifer and myself – and in swapping emails with Sister Clare this evening, I asked her if she could make sense of it for me.

This was her response and I thought, on St. James’ birthday, it was worth posting as a separate blog –

Dear Bill

Trying to find sense in a beautiful world made by God, yet populated with fallable humans can be challenging. There are always things to be learned, though. Perhaps God felt it was time for some of those souls to come home .Certainly some  are now in a place of perfection where there is no more struggle or tears, but only joy and fulfillment.

God doesn’t  cause tragedies like train wrecks or falling towers- these are man made things influenced by man made faults, from inattention to safety, perhaps, all the way to the terrorist’s ego gone horribly wrong.

What God does, though, is stay beside each of us to share the burden of our suffering, grief, despair and mourning.He can ensure that these things run their course and reach healing, and He remains right beside us through all the stages of transition and recovery. Perhaps some of the souls who are in shock and grief now will for the first time realise that He is there, for real,  and will always be.

Perhaps it is the seed of a time of insight and new faith. Perhaps in inspecting the rails and guidance systems, a fault will be discovered that, repaired now, will save the lives of hundreds more who would have perished in the next, worse accident.God reveals Himself and His Love in times of tragedy, and certainly it is always the right time to see God among us.

On the eve of the feast of St James, perhaps He is calling the worlds attention to Santiago and the Camino, and the miracles that have been happening there. There is something He wants us to learn, the gift of Grace and freedom given from His Perfect Heart to be accepted.

What is certain is that God is weeping today with all those who are weeping; He is searching today with all those who are searching for news of their loved ones. He is confused and trying to find meaning today with all those who are seeking some sense of it all; He is wrapping His Arms around the children who have lost mothers or fathers or siblings, taking their fear of being abandoned away.

He is gathering His faithful from all over the world to pray for the souls of the dead,; and certainly He is inviting each of us to think about the meaning, the cost, and the sublime rewards of pilgrimage in a world where most people live too fast, and with blinders on.He will help each of us come to resonance about this tragedy;

He will help us understand the cycles of birth, life and death ; He will help us know in our hearts that in truth, it is His Love that heals all things, and He will wipe all tears from our eyes.

Sister Simon Clare

One of the contributors to this blog, Ingrid, has alerted us to the horrific train crash near Santiago de Compostela.

At this stage it’s unknown how many people have died, but they’re estimating in excess of 50.

No doubt the train would have been full of pilgrims and others coming into Santiago for the celebrations on St. James Day, on July 25th.

Please send your thoughts, your prayers, your energies, your light, to all those who are being affected by this truly shocking tragedy.

Bill

I'm going to do something different for this blog –

I'm going to ask you to post what the Camino means to you.

Whether you've walked it or not.

In your own words.

Be as brief or as verbose as you want. It's your blog.

Feel free to comment on others' posts. Let's get a discussion going here…

For me? What it means is Sacred Transformation. An opportunity to recalibrate my divine DNA.

Let the discussion begin!

Anyone who's lived through the 60s will remember the term The Jet Set.

The Jet Set were these really cool people, mainly young people, who travelled around the world on jets. They were special people. They were with it! They were The In Crowd!

They lived life in the fast lane. Everyone wanted to be a part of the jet set.

It's funny now, but at the time it was the epitome of cool.

Cut to 2013.

Cut to The Camino.

Cut to pilgrims..

They're The Slow Set!

They're the people who want to live life in the slow lane. They don't want to move fast. They don't want to catch jets or speedy trains. They want to walk!

They want to spend time looking around, savouring each moment, talking to other Slow Set people.

There's a movement in gastronomy called The Slow Cooking movement. Where the uniqueness and flavour of a dish comes through the slow and careful cooking process.

I think some of us are getting bored with the quick and superficial lives we're living. I believe that's one of the reasons the Camino is becoming so popular.

Because people are intrinsically wanting to slow down.

A water-skier goes fast to skim over the surface of a river or lake. That skier never sees beneath the surface. Unless he or she slows down.

In writing my book, it’s forcing me to go back and remember detail I’d conveniently forgotten – like my various obsessions.

One of my obsessions was finding the right walking stick, or Pilgrim’s Staff, as I chose to call it. (note the capitals please.)

When I got to St. Jean, after something like forty hours of travel from my home in Australia to the L’Esprit du Chemin albergue, all I wanted to do was three things: Get my passport, buy an Opinel knife, and buy a Pilgrim’s Staff.

The passport was easy. I got that from the Pilgrim’s Office. The Opinel knife was less so. I had to go to a few stores to get exactly the right kind. It had to be Opinel – the classic French farmer’s knife – and it had to be big enough to cut cheese and chorizo, but not so big that it weighed me down.

But finding the right Pilgrim’s Staff proved to be the most difficult of all.

I didn’t want one of those mass produced broom-stick kind of staffs. Nor did I want one of those silly tourist staffs with a gourd hanging off the top. I also didn’t want one with a leather strap. I wanted one that was in keeping with “the romance of the pilgrim.”

The “romance of the pilgrim” was something I’d gleaned off medieval paintings, and statues in churches. You didn’t see pictures of St. James holding a broom stick, or dare I say it, trekking poles. No, he invariably had a gnarled tree branch.

That’s what I went looking for that afternoon I arrived in St. Jean. A gnarled tree branch.

Needless to say, it proved difficult.

But I am nothing if not tenacious.

I did three circuits of the town, going from store to store, checking out every single staff, looking for my gnarled tree branch. Looking for a staff that had The Romance of the Pilgrim. 

I never found it, of course. I ended up with a stick that was slightly deformed, that I pretended was gnarled. But given that I was jetlagged, and I’d worn out my welcome with all the storekeepers, I figured it would have to do.

Humorous and pathetic as it might sound, my obsession was real. I did require just exactly the right stick for me to feel comfortable embarking on my pilgrimage. I was clutching onto this notion of what it was to be a pilgrim.

It wasn’t long after that my knee flared up and I was forced to throw away that deformed stick and buy a pair of trekking poles. Trekking poles to me were the antithesis of The Romance of the Pilgrim. 

But they got me through to Santiago.

I had to let go my obsessions, to discover what it was to be a true pilgrim.

Another drum roll please…

Arlene Mourier has agreed to come on as a Moderator on the PGS The Way Camino forum! 

http://www.pgsthewayforum.com/forum

Arlene has been an active and supportive contributor to this blog, and was an “early adopter” of the forum. She heads up the Old Pueblo (Tucson Arizona) Chapter of the American Pilgrims on the Camino Association –  and so will bring all her experience and commitment to The Way to the forum. 

I now have two very cool moderators – Arlene and Sister Clare. 

Thank you guys!

Bill

I mentioned on the blog that my wife Jennnifer doesn’t believe in the past. She’s been working hard to release the past from her life. 

Some of you wanted further explanation, so today I’m giving the blog over to her, so she can tell you in her own words. 

Letting go the Past…

A while ago I had a problem. So I asked my Higher Self how to solve the problem, and the answer I got was: “Let go of the past.”

I didn’t like that answer so I rephrased the question and I got the same answer: “Let go of the past.”

I didn’t want to let go of my past.  I didn’t want to let go of the wonder of my life,  the joy of my family, the beauty I’ve experienced.  I didn’t understand. So I asked: “How do I let go of the past?”  As I phrased that question the answer rocketed in to me:

“Let go of pain and suffering.”

Oh my goodness, is that my past?  Pain and suffering?

That was about 6 months ago now, and I’m still letting go of that pain and suffering, along with anger, hate, grief, frustration, fear. There’s a long list of things I’m releasing from my life. In letting go of the past I’m slowly taking off a putrid, disgusting shroud.

Yet I’ve discovered that all the good remains! Love, joy and delight are not the past. They cannot leave me. They are me.

Pain and suffering create stress.  Stress creates ageing.  Ageing requires a calendar and a time progression.  Thus I’ve ended up with a past.

(I know that sounds way too simplistic and I sound like a whacko – but I’m very comfortable with everyone having their own opinion.)

I must not look to “the past” to find a solution to a problem.  In the past I’ve used anger and frustration. So to use a past solution is only going to continue the habit of the problem and bring the problem again into my present.

How do I solve a problem?  I asked this question after I became comfortable “letting go the past”.

“Put love to it,” was the answer I received.

So when I “put love to it,” I am literally loving my problem. (I’m still learning to do this.)  When I love the problem I am allowing the solution to present itself without a struggle, without that charged energy that attracts the habit of the problem.

I can rewrite my past.

If at anytime in the day I think back on my life, as we all do, and I have any negative feelings toward anything that has happened to me, I pour as much love into it as I can.  I literally blow kisses at the memory to remind myself to let go of any pain and suffering.

And so I become very comfortable with all that is called the past. As I do this I notice that what I thought was past becomes very present to me. This is quite a recent experience.

This exploration has only just begun.

Jennifer

I have an important announcement to make –

Roll of the drums please…

Sister Clare has agreed to be a moderator on my forum –

I can hear the stunned silence.

Yes, it took a bit of arm twisting, because she didn’t want to diminish her involvement on this blog, but I assured her the forum would provide her a terrific venue from which she can respond to questions and topics directly.

She can also post her own topics too.

She is a moderator on the Spirituality & Religion forum, but she will also be active on The Camino forum too.

The tagline for the forum is – Discussing the spirit of the Camino. Here’s the link:

http://pgsthewayforum.com/forum/

Welcome Sister! I will enjoy working with you on it –

Bill