PUENTE LA REINA
Keynote: Clarity

Lightening your energetic load and being clear about whom you travel forward with. Learning discernment about who sees your worth and can actually support your growth. 

Puente la Reina is the city where I spent my third night on the trail. Previously I had walked with a man from Denmark who had been part of the original group that I started with on the first day.  During this day, I walked ahead when he needed to slow down due to his knees. This departure happened on the outskirts of Pamplona, a city famous for the running of the bulls. This moment of moving ahead was one of clarity. It was a moment when I knew that I needed to keep moving forward and that there were other souls further ahead who could better support me in my journey. Because this man reminded me of a person with whom I had recently parted, this was a big moment for me.

That night in the albergue I met a charming German boy with whom I had much in common. Like myself, he had been a teacher. Like myself he was trying to figure out his life. I was encouraged by my first taste of being with young people.  Before this moment, the trail had felt full of older people either on their own or in couples. That evening, before everyone disappeared off to bed, I asked the young man if he would like to walk with me the next day. He told me that would be ok if we woke up around the same time, our pace was the same, and it just happened. “Yea sure, whatever,” he said. This was not the enthusiastic response I was hoping for. If he did not want to make the effort in the smallest way, then I needed to go on and seek people who would.  The trail was teaching me discernment about my choices of traveling companions and my worthiness to travel with kindred spirits. 

In Puente la Reina, I also lightened my pack by leaving behind my heavy, but brand new sleeping mat. I left it with a gulp in the albergue, but did not miss its weight and bulk on my back for one minute. On the trail everything in one’s pack must be essential.  Flushing out all the things that were not needed was a favorite pastime. I found the practice could be almost completely translated to all the things we carry internally as well.  Hence, I set off before sunrise in the company of two Italians who spoke not a lick of English, in an effort to lighten all types of loads.

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