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Published: September 25th 2012
Helllll O ,
Well after a long wait I finally had lift off. That would be great news had it not been for the fact that I am on a mountain. At the time an open range mountain at that. I'm sure you can get the idea and visual. I survived, but I am traumatized. Sorry BJ I hope you have better success, without the mountain experience.
The last 2 days have been somewhat un-eventful.Today we hiked up a very big mountain. Very big, very windy, very cold, and Did I mention Rain..... Yup rain. Throw that all together and it makes for a tough day. About 23 miles total. Now I guess I could bitch and whine, so i will.... No I think I will just be glad that I walked in the clouds today. Rain, cold and all. It was pretty cool. Actually really cool. Cold cool. Very frost cold cool. Enough. It was a great day!
This afternoon through the smoke of the mountains we came upon Cruz de Ferro. You will know this place if you watch the movie "The Way". Its the stone place. I wasn't expecting to be here yet and we kind of walked into it. What that is for you who don't know, it's a pole with an iron cross upon it. Its very high on top of a huge pile of rocks. When you begin your pilgrimage you are supposed to carry a rock or stone with you. The rock symbolizing the weight of something in your life that you want to lighten. In a very good way of course. You place the rock on the pile at thetip by the pole and say a prayer and the read a note or letter releasing something from your life and relieving the weight an burden of what troubles or hurts you. It's a release. Taking the weight off your back so to speak. It's a spiritual thing and very sacred on the Camino. Everyone who does the Camino does this. It a right to passage.
I have carried one of Debbie's rocks with me since I left home and I wrote her a letter very close to my heart and to her. I placed the stone on the pile and read the letter out loud. It started to rain. I said a prayer and then it stopped. I placed the letter on the pile under her rock. A friend I met on the Camino did the same. He lost his wife about 10 months ago. I then went and sat down and took a breather. As I was doing so, a couple went to the top of the pile and did their thing as I watched on. They then picked up my letter and read it to each other as they held each other. They talked for a couple of seconds and turned around and I saw they were both crying. They looked at me, waved and placed the letter back under Debbie's stone and stared at me while they walked away.
I pretty much walked the rest of the day through the mountains alone thinking. Boy do I really love and miss Debbie. I just wanted to say that and let you all know how my day went. I came 5000 miles to do that. I am not sure if any weight has been lifted off my back, but I do know how much people mean to me. I am blessed to have a great family that I love and I know love me. I miss them also. And then it rained again. So I walked about 10 kilometers in the rain, through the mountains thinking great things about my family and it was good. Funny thing? You can't see tears in the rain.
I love you all
Bien Camino
Big Richey H
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UB
non-member comment
Nice
Richey, glad all is well with u. The Blog was a great idea. I read 2 of them when I was in Florida n my buddy said that him n I should do this??? yeah right.... That was really nice, what u did at the Hill of rocks. I really look forward to ur Blogs. Not much longer, miss u man, take care. UB