The Smarting Dervish

A dervish was sitting peacefully by a river when a passerby saw the bare back of his neck and yielded to the temptation to give it a resounding whack. He was full of wonder at the sound his hand had made on the fleshy neck, but the dervish, smarting with pain, got up to hit him back.

“Wait a minute,” said the aggressor “You can hit me if you wish. But first answer this question: Was the sound of the whack produced by my hand or by the back of your neck?”

Said the dervish, “Answer that yourself. My pain won’t allow me to theorize. You can afford to do so, because you don’t feel what I feel.”

When the divine is experienced, one’s propensity to theorize is considerably reduced. 

(The Song of the Bird by Anthony de Mello)

Foncebadon

Leon to Villar de Mazarife

Bought a sleeping bag and a tent. Going to try this camping thing. Sick of albergues

ATTENTION! If anyone, anywhere comes across any sort of volunteer opportunities at a local wildlife refuge or animal shelter, please get in contact with me with the necessary information as soon as possible! I’ll likely begin picking up trash along the way from here as I’ve become absolutely fed up with seeing pilgrims and locals litter all over this beautiful country! I encourage you all to take the opportunity to help clean up the way as well, after all it was Earth Day only a few days ago! Thank you for all of your help and support!

Hey y’all! We’re in Astorga! We bought a tent and we will be camping for the most part from here-on-out for to challenge ourselves and welcome new experiences! We took the day today so I could recover from cramps (no more information necessary) but decided that we could do something more valuable with our time here so I’ve begun searching for local animal shelters and wildlife refuges to volunteer at along the way! I’ve been contacting whoever possible so that I may offer my help in whatever they may need.

chilly morning, but now it’s a beautiful sunny day!

Rabanal del Camino… Not sleeping in Disneyland. With Tracie.

Sarria–12:42

Surrounded by the smell of tiger balm, the warmth of a cozy second hand wool sweater from a free box, the sound of sporadic giggles, music coming from someone’s earbuds, and the early onset of tonight’s snoring ballad.

Been having some difficulty connecting my phone to wifi and have had to result to using my data….will have to fix it to blog more tomorrow.

Grateful for all that I have and all that I have left behind.

xoxoxo

In Astorga, I’m actually getting pretty close to the end…