You had an enquiring, open mind to everything and were always willing to engage with people and things you could not readily identify with – going into what you called your ‘visiting anthropologist’ mode. So, although you knew nothing of it yourself, you would have had time for the Camino. You were an atheist, but […]
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A letter to… a pilgrim
Dear Peregrino, I cannot convey to you the myriad of shifting thoughts and feelings that I have experienced while walking so many hundreds of miles on the Camino. They have invariably reflected my past and my immediate state of being – often good, but sometimes not so good. Suffice to say, they have ranged from […]
A letter to… the lover who left me
You never really left me, did you ? You simply moved me out of your life temporarily. But it felt like yet another blow which I could not take.You told me that I must leave the house or you would kill me. That was the third time you had threatened to kill me and I […]
A letter to… stressed older Americans
Dear Alarmed Americans (50+ years old), I was once where you are. Too plugged into cable news and hyper vigilant of too many political posts from various friends. What the hell is going on with our country? Whether you lean left or right, news from media and friends alike can stir some type of angst […]
A letter to… the priest who signed my Compostela
Dear friend, It was New Year’s Eve, 2010. The close of the Holy Year and the final day of my short first camino. I arrived in Santiago de Compostela at 3:15 p.m. with the door set to shut at 4:30 p.m. in preparation for the Mass and the ceremonies and the dignitaries with speeches. I […]
A letter to… Amy
Dear Amy, I really didn’t want to retire. I loved being a teacher because it kept me feeling young when I was surrounded by teenagers all day. I didn’t have time to think about getting older, and I carried on teaching until I was 69, just after you died. Your funeral was amazing, the chapel […]
A letter to… my father – we’ve forgiven each other at last
Dear Dad, You weren’t with me on my Camino – and you’d been dead for some 20-odd years – but you were along for the walk all the same. Trudging through Galicia in the rain, I felt the long, painful slog that your life was. Laughing with pretty women in cafes, I felt […]
