Dave's Camino Blog: Finding my Way forward...

Sometimes to move forward, you have to go back to a place you knew and start again. I lost my way after the accident a year ago. My livelihood and seridipity had gone missing, life had become more serious. Being worse for the wear with a longer than I liked recovery which limited how I felt and what I could do. I am happy to report besides being sore in expected and few unexpected places; missing home, family and friends, this is just what I needed. I feel so much healthier, energetic and have build up some resilience to overcome adversity.

I am in Castrojeriz today, a town of 600 people. My journey to this place 3 years ago was a day of pain and hardship, so with good weather and trail conditions, it was nice to have a "do over". Three years ago it had rained all day and my bike was caked in mud almost to the point of unrideability. I was wet and cold, by myself and took took refuge in a church doorway outside of town for a few minutes. I was so grateful to arrive to a room here. Today weather was clear and reasonably cool. Trail was great and I got to visit with a few Pilgrims. Just as I got to town, an ominous black cloud came out of nowhere and let loose for 5 minutes and then went away. Just a little reminder....

Place that I took refuge 3 years ago

Meet Pam and Amy. Pam is a child therapist at a school and Amy works with children with cancer in a hospital. I talked with them for about 10 minutes or so. Both talked about how hard it was to not get so emotionally involved with the kids they work with. I suspect this was of their reasons for being here.

There is a place in town that says it's a spiritual hospital. I saw this place when I did it before and met the woman who set it up. Apparently she had done the Camino and had a deeply moving experience. She wanted to give back to Pilgrims, so she set up this place of quiet refuge in town that you can just come and sit in. It has pictures and moving statements below. It's quiet and several people came in while I was there doing a short meditation.