What you do today matters more than what happened yesterday.
Today
This is on my mind as I approach the threshold to Santiago where attention is focused on Saint James. I am not a religious person. The concept of religion on this planet is hard to embrace. The reality and history is this: war, genocide, slavery, grief, sexual abuse, and other unspeakable acts are committed by people, religious or not.
There was no escape from that reality a thousand years ago on the camino. And there is no escaping now. I did not expect to walk as a pilgrim in isolation or ignorance of current events or the news.
My presence on the camino awakened curiosity about me, my experiences in Spain, and my life in my own country. These encounters with fellow pilgrims, locals, and other visitors to the country happened as soon as I stepped on the trail. I enjoyed engaging with each and every one. My own curiosity was awakened by all of this good noise.
And it is not over… yet.
The relic or concept of the Saint even existing in Compostela is explained with a dose of treachery and secrecy. Is it relevant to the modern age, our times, or to me – one black woman – centered in worldly and planetary strife? I do not lean on denials and contradictions but toward clarity and authentic understanding. It is perplexing that any institution, religious or not – or – any society, justly ruled or not, would harm the very people that defend its tenets.
These are the things I think about and discuss with others on this human trek to the Atlantic ocean.
Further south on the African coast of this same ocean my ancestors – millions of women and men – were forcefully placed on a painful projectory. Four hundred years later, the effect is tinged with a sorrow felt on a mitochondrial level to this day. It keeps me on the trail and strengthens me.
After many weeks on my pilgrimage to Santiago, it helps me answer the question: why am I here?
Tomorrow
I am still pondering the answer while continuing on my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
Baadaye and Buen camino
Shirley J ♥️
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Song for the day:
Dweller on the Threshold by Van Morrison
This and several posts this summer are chronicling my pilgrimage in Spain where I am walking the 1400 kilometer-long camino Mozárabe, camino Via De la Plata, and now camino Sanabres to Santiago de Compostela. Read my announcement here.
My YouTube channel – Noire Pilgrim By Shirley J – features mini videos, snippets, and shorts from my pilgrimage on the camino.
