LOCALadk Magazine

50 Spring 2019 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk While on the train between Madrid and Oviedo, I set some personal intentions for my journey. They were simple but sig- nificant: to trust my intuition, to know when to ask for help, to appreciate the time I'd have of inner reflection, and to be open to the teachers that I would encounter, and the mes- sages they would bring. I had one small book in my pack— Pema Chodron's Comfortable with Uncertainty —as my guide. A quote from Chodron's book was written in my first journal entr y, "A warrior accepts that we can never know what will happen next." Within 24 hours of stepping on the trail, I encountered four people who would change my life forever. I met Tim from Ger- many first. He was sitting peacefully next to a sacred spring, and expressed his Buddhist-like nature and belief in one love in our first conversation. Farther down the trail, Tom, also from Germany, and Konstantina, from Bulgaria, were casu- ally sitting at the edge of a meandering river, dr ying their hand-washed clothes in the warm afternoon sunshine. I had ventured off the forest path to the riverbank because it was so reminiscent of home, and I wanted to soak my bare feet in the cool water. We talked briefly at the time, but I had no way of knowing the impact these travelers would have on the rest of my journey. Later that night, in the tiny village of Escamplero, we shared a communal meal in an albergue (pilgrim hostel) that we had to ourselves. We talked and laughed into the night, while watching a spectacular sunset. The next morning, we met Francesco from Italy in a small cafe a few kilometers farther along the route. What immedi- ately drew me to these fellow pilgrims (peregrinos) was an unexplainable familiarity. Even though we were all from dif- ferent cultures, and on solo journeys, we shared similarities that made traveling together easy and fun. All four were camping outside and carried tents and sleep- ing bags. I had wanted to camp, but was intimidated by the extra weight on my back, and unsure of what the camping culture was like. However, with my new friends I had the op- portunity to sleep outside when the nights were warm, or the snoring became too much in the bunkrooms of the al- bergues. We also shared a similar pace. While most pilgrims awoke long before sunrise and covered 20 -30+ km a day, we had a more relaxed style of waking with the sun, and casually walk- ing 15-20 km a day, stopping whenever we felt compelled to rest, eat, or relax in a beautiful setting. Although Konstantina and Francesco had to leave the trail "Ever ything that comes into our life has come to teach us what we need to know." -Pema Chodron The People.

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