Camino de Santiago (part 6); My Five Favorite Photographs.

This photograph captures the vibrancy and resilience of the human spirit. This colorful collection of buildings  is located along a stretch of road that passes through an old and abandoned village. On both sides of the way a profusion of stone buildings once held the sounds of families but today sit forlornly in piles of rubble, utterly abandoned to the wind and sun. And then suddenly one sees these cheerful flags fluttering and this expression of human resilience in these reclaimed structures. 

This church and attached monastery seemed mysteriously timeless. Just inside was a Franciscan monk who stamped the "credentiale" of pilgrims. He was straight out of a Cervantes novel.  

This picture captures the feeling of distance. In the beginning of the journey we felt impossibly far away from the destination. The mile markers painfully ticked off our progress kilometer by kilometer. Sometimes the distance was overwhelming. Seeing the road stretch out in front of you like this when you are already tired was at times depressing. No place to shelter. No place to escape the blistering sun. And yet by staying present with each step we did make progress. 

Walking in the Galician mountains reminded me of home! The lushness of the fields seemed soft and welcoming. Often one could hear the gentle babble of a creek singing its way down the valley. The air was fresh and unpolluted. The cows were the most beautiful I have ever seen and they really did have a contented look about them. Everything had a human scale about it as if hand made with love. 

Many of the roads in Spain are small. There is an intimacy with what appears on either side of the road. Because one moves slower toward one's destination, one has time to appreciate the beauty, the moment, the setting. Here in the US we are very goal driven. We often focus on the destination and miss the journey.