[Camino Poem No. 37] The Truelove

This is the 37th of 42 posts about the poems which carried me along the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Aug-Sep 2016. On this, the 37th day, I walked 20km from Perdouzo to Santiago.

"and you want to live and you / want to love and you will / walk across any territory / and any darkness / however fluid and however / dangerous to take the / one hand you know / belongs in yours"

After five hundred miles of walking, arriving in Santiago felt anti-climactic. There were no cheering crowds, I did not know whose hand belonged in mine, and I had an argument with the person I was walking with.

Mid morning, I had stopped in a cafe to read the poem of the day. There was much that I enjoyed in it. In particular: it captured (and captures) the sense in which faith, and love, are active choices: they are a stepping out, a saying yes, a taking of an outstretched hand.

There were also parts of it that I was less sure about. Is anyone 'rightfully yours'? And can a single person provide salvation from years of struggle? Why not start offering a hand, rather than waiting for a hand to be held out?

Over dinner I met a pilgrim from Texas. I recounted the story of the poem What You Loved, and told him a few of the things that my father loved. After listening keenly, he looked at me and added, 'and one of the things that he loved was you.'

The next day I left to start the 90km journey to the ocean. That too was one of the things that he loved.

The Truelove (David Whyte)

There is a faith in loving fiercely

the one who is rightfully yours

especially if you have

waited years and especially

if part of you never believed

you could deserve this

loved and beckoning hand

held out to you this way.

I am thinking of faith now

and the testaments of loneliness

and what we feel we are

worthy of in this world.

Years ago in the Hebrides

I remember an old man

who walked every morning

on the grey stones

to the shore of baying seals

who would press his hat

to his chest in the blustering

salt wind and say his prayer

to the turbulent Jesus

hidden in the water

and I think of the story

of the storm and everyone

waking and seeing

the distant

yet familiar figure

far across the water

calling to them

and how we are all

preparing for that

abrupt waking,

and that calling,

and that moment

we have to say yes,

except it will

not come so grandly

so Biblically

but more subtly

and intimately in the face

of the one you know

you have to love

so that when

we finally step out of the boat

toward them, we find

everything holds

us, and everything confirms

our courage, and if you wanted

to drown you could,

but you don't

because finally

after all this struggle

and all these years

you don't want to any more

you've simply had enough

of drowning

and you want to live and you

want to love and you will

walk across any territory

and any darkness

however fluid and however

dangerous to take the

one hand you know

belongs in yours.

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[Camino Poem No. 36] The Lord's Prayer

This is the 36th of 42 posts about the poems which carried me along the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Aug-Sep 2016. On this, the 36th day, I walked 34km from Melide to Pedrouzo.

The camino was still offering me ample opportunity for reflection. I spent the morning walking with a father who told me how he enjoys connecting with his teenage son. Later, I talked with a man who taught philosophy in a secondary school.

I was also, after days of walking in company, craving the stillness of being alone. Santiago was now only one day away, and I did not feel ready to finish.

Sitting in a cafe by a busy road, with lorries rumbling past at regular intervals, the father chose the poem for the day.

The Lord's Prayer (An Alternative Translation)

Oh heavenly source of all radiance. Soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us where your Presence can abide. Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission. Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire. Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish. Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes. Protect us from being seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose, but illuminate the redemptive opportunities of each passing moment. For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the creative power and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again.