Sunday 28th May 2023
Distance 11.2km / 6.9 miles
Portomarin – Hospital de la Cruz
Today I continued the theme of very short walks. I left the Albergue and stopped in the main square to say Morning Prayer. I had taken my time this morning so dawn had already come. The sun however remained behind the cloud and thick mist. There wasn’t much of a view as it was misty or foggy however you want to describe it. I walked down though the town into the valley. I was surrounded by quite quite a lot of people and was conscious what a collective endeavour this pilgrimage was, there is something special about having a very personal journey as part of a community.
It was a stiff walk up from the valley floor through the woods. The landscape opened out and the mist was lifting. I stopped for breakfast at a very busy cafe – it was almost industrial in scale. I started noticing more British pilgrims today too
I continued on and arrived at my chosen Municipal Albergue at 10:10. This was certainly a weird kind of walk with more sitting than walking.
What all this down time did give me was plenty of time to think. I was ‘much exercised’ about what my future life might be like. This isn’t some ‘New Year Resolution’ moment. I wasn’t unhappy about my life, indeed I am happy to tell anyone that Retirement is great and I am having the best time of my life. I was conscious though that this pilgrimage was an opportunity to consider what might be next on my faith journey.
I was looking forward to getting home and resuming my retirement projects, my garden, my family history and more walking of course. On top of this though something had changed over the past year. That fateful day just over a year ago when God was suddenly there in my life again had opened up a whole new way of life and looking at the world. This was the start, (or the resumption) of a journey of faith, a pilgrimage. Last year I discovered a connection to Saint Cuthbert, the beginnings of daily prayer and attending my local Parish Church. This wasn’t about picking up where I had left off either the faith of my childhood and teens, or the faith of my later life, I was conscious of this being something completely fresh even if it did incorporate some things of my past.
I wanted to make the most of the time I had left. What would be the next steps of my life, what direction would my journey of faith take me on my return to normal life. There were no firm answers just the beginnings of some ideas. I began researching a bit more about the Franciscan Third Order, feeling that there was something there which could help me.