Finding treasure on the Camino de Santiago

FRIDAY 1st JULY 2016 – VILLAFRANCA DEL BIERZO TO CEBREIRO

Km’s walked – 27,43 ; steps taken – 41433 ; flights – 106

I honestly don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to describe the beauty of today’s walk. It was seriously difficult but it was beautiful. 

Just for information my photos are really amazing, in fact it was so beautiful today I took a video to post as I was worried my photos wont do it the justice it deserves.  How do I get to be so lucky? How do I get up everyday for 30 days of walking and just see beauty everywhere?

I cannot believe that I am seven days away from walking into Santiago. Oh my word. ………..

I found a poem that speaks to me and incapulates all I am experiencing on this journey (cynics stop reading now)…. See below ……

(Left VILLAFRANCA at 6am  – iPhone camera not so hot in the dark)

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“A Second Childhood.”
When all my days are ending

And I have no song to sing,

I think that I shall not be too old

To stare at everything;

As I stared once at a nursery door

Or a tall tree and a swing.
Wherein God’s ponderous mercy hangs

On all my sins and me,

Because He does not take away

The terror from the tree

And stones still shine along the road

That are and cannot be.
Men grow too old for love, my love,

Men grow too old for wine,

But I shall not grow too old to see

Unearthly daylight shine,

Changing my chamber’s dust to snow

Till I doubt if it be mine.
Behold, the crowning mercies melt,

The first surprises stay;

And in my dross is dropped a gift

For which I dare not pray:

That a man grow used to grief and joy

But not to night and day.
Men grow too old for love, my love,

Men grow too old for lies;

But I shall not grow too old to see

Enormous night arise,

A cloud that is larger than the world

And a monster made of eyes.
Nor am I worthy to unloose

The latchet of my shoe;

Or shake the dust from off my feet

Or the staff that bears me through

On ground that is too good to last,

Too solid to be true.
Men grow too old to woo, my love,

Men grow too old to wed;

But I shall not grow too old to see

Hung crazily overhead

Incredible rafters when I wake

And I find that I am not dead.
A thrill of thunder in my hair:

Though blackening clouds be plain,

Still I am stung and startled

By the first drop of the rain:

Romance and pride and passion pass

And these are what remain.
Strange crawling carpets of the grass,

Wide windows of the sky;

So in this perilous grace of God

With all my sins go I:

And things grow new though I grow old,

Though I grow old and die.” 

― G.K. Chesterton, The Collected Poems of G. K. Chesterton

( These horses are available for 30 Euro, to take you up to O’Cebreiro)

CAMINO GIFTS; realising the splendor of the world every day and how much I miss every day, a beautiful moment where I teared up and felt in my soul how grateful I am for my life, my family, and all I have. An overwhelming moment because of the beauty surrounding me.