Walking Day 12 – Astorga to Rabanal Del Camino – 20.6 km – 13 miles

A long slow gentle climb today.  A village every 3 or 4 miles.  Sunny and clear, not too hot. I came upon my friends Nora and Al in the first village and walked with them to the next.

Easy walking.  Easy day. 

I wish I could report something epic, but alas, no, nothing of that sort today.

One must be simply grateful for the ordinary.

And an ordinary day on the Camino is simply extraordinary. Walkers from Finland, Viet Nam, Germany, and Texas.  Old women dressed in black, nearly bent in half from old age, making sandwiches at a bar.  Wild thyme and lavender along the path. Flowers in pots on porches in an otherwise deserted village.  The serenade of crickets all along the way.

I pondered the ideas of faith and devotion today as I walked. 

For so many centuries, people walked from their homes to Santiago seeking forgiveness or a miracle.  They traveled with no detailed maps, no smartphones, no room reservations, no hi-tech walking shoes or backpacks.  They traveled simply with faith that their needs would be provided for along the way, and they journeyed carrying the prayers of their family and friends, asking for a miracle from Saint James.  Along the way, churches and shrines and hostels were built by those devoted to God, motivated by love for their fellow travelers. 

And as millions walked to Santiago from all over Europe, many never went home again.  They fell in love, or broke a leg, or bought a farm, and in that way, Spain was slowly, gently, permanently repopulated with believers.  The art and books and holy shrines they left in their wake are stunning in their beauty.  The love and devotion that went into their creation is visceral.

Tomorrow is my last day walking.  I will start from this village, and go up and over a ridge, and at the end of the day, I will be in the village of Molinaseca - the very place I began this pilgrimage 10 years ago.