Cathleen and I spoke about the possibility that this was another big global energy shift, like there was in 1998-99, when many people left the planet, and others went insane, because the veils were so thin between the physical and energetic/spiritual worlds. There was a huge jump in people's ability to manifest, but without consciousness or discipline, many people accidentally manifested very unpleasant things.
Cat mentioned that she felt she was in this world to hold up mirrors to people, so they could see their "real selves," and realize they had Choice. Her words really resonated with me, because since 1998 that had been a big theme for me too. My spiritual teacher had said: "There are no "have tos," no "shoulds," no "cannots," only choices. If your choices are not conscious, they are unconscious; and if you are not living by your own choices, you are living according to someone else's." She also said, "if you can't see at least six choices in any given situation, you need to clear and ground yourself more."
Her words stuck with me, and had become a cornerstone of my life. Listening to Cat speak of her life's mission, I felt like I too, had been shedding a light, for myself and others, on this idea of Choice for many years now.
I laughed when I looked at the date and said, "I guess we are in week 3: the spiritual week!" ;p It had been said that week 1 of the Camino was about the physical, week 2 about the psychological, and week 3 about the spiritual. While Cathleen agreed; for me, both of the first two weeks were psychological. Lol.
We were disappointed to not get a sello at the Cathedral at mass the previous night, so we went back there before heading out. Our hotelier told us it was in the sacristy, right next to the door. In the end, it was next the "exit," (which was why we missed it when being ushered out the night before), so we had to walk through another mass, which was unfortunate, since we had our packs on and me with bare legs and short skirt. >.< All that effort to pay proper respect the night before, and I felt a little sacrilegious getting our sello. The lady giving out the sello told us they gave 24hrs sacrament, which requires some kind of special permission.
Our path today was 19.5km (our hotelier said 21km), on mostly flattish highway.
The hotelier has given us a map of Lugo, and drawn the correct path out of the walled city centre. It was the Gate called Porta Santiago you do Postigo, right behind the Cathedral.
However, from there, we had some trouble getting out of Lugo. In the mess, I forgot to mail my post cards. The Camino instructions didn't help much in getting out of Lugo, and there were no Camino shell signs. Cathleen said, "let's double check the route: don't trust anything!" I laughed that my lack of trust was wearing off on her. Lol. I spoke of how I had been working on Trust these last two weeks, and each week had brought a new level of insight.
In that moment, her talk of doubt reminded me that most of my graduate education had focused on the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, who said, "the torch of doubt and chaos is what the sage steers by." Naturally, that brought me to a new level understanding... right on schedule! Lol.
For all my efforts to increase trust, I needed to remember that not all doubt was bad. When Zhuangzi said "doubt everything," he meant "don't assume you already know what's what," and "don't live on automatic pilot: pay attention!" Cathleen had immediately understood, and chorused in on my "pay attention!" Just then a car horn went "beep beep," and a man pointed us down the road. We looked at each other and laughed, "Yep! For this issue of getting out of Lugo, let's stop and really pay attention!" We sat on bench with our two phones side by side to compare the static Camino map to my HERE maps, and figured out the route out of Lugo.
In all the online advice and instructions on this topic, why did no one just say: "walk down Rua de Santiago, then cross the Roman bridge"? That's pretty simple!! At the other end of the Roman bridge, the Camino signs reappeared.
Then, we looked back the way we came, and noticed that walking on the shady, tree-lined, other side of the river and then crossing over the pedestrian suspension bridge seemed like an even nicer route!
Passing the swimming pool complex perched on the edge of the river, several pilgrims passed us in the opposite direction, heading back to Lugo. "No Camino for us today," they said in Spanish, "it will hit 33°C by 1 pm." We took heed, and carried extra water. We were already slathered up with sunscreen.
At the 99 km post, i.e. 1 km out of Lugo, I opened my umbrella. The road workers gave me a smiling thumbs up as they gestured at my umbrella. Fortunately, being from Vancouver ("raincouver") Canada, my "umbrella carrying muscles" were in top notch shape. ;) Although, to be honest, after 20 km I did feel it!
The path went alongside a minor highway. There was little traffic. I saw a row of international flags waving above the street, but no Canada!
I walked thinking about the dead baby fox and the St Bastille day killings in Nice France, wondering if I needed to cry. Just then, I passed a dead baby kitten on the path. :( I think that was a pretty clear answer. I sent Reiki to myself and the planet, but still did not cry.
Just as I passed San Xoán Alto, the church bell rang once. I turned at the sound, and noticed the church just of the road and went to investigate. An elderly couple were walking their cows up the road. The church was Igrexa Parroquial de San Xoán Alto. The sign said pilgrims have walked past this church since the 10th century. I noted the sacred geometry of the seed of life featured prominently on it.
Leaving town, I laughed at the sign telling cars to slow to 70kmh, due to pilgrims on the highway.
About 1km out of O Burgo, I ignored some strange (official) Camino signs pointing to no path I could see. So I stuck to the highway, because HERE maps showed it going directly into town. Soon, the Camino signs reappeared on the highway.
At O Burgo, there were two separate fountains just before town. I filled up my water bottle and could see the church in the distance.
I decided to do the little detour to the church. It was basically a cow path, and I got nettle sting on my calf. The church was gorgeous though, and the house beside it sported #13. :)
I was about to head back to the highway on the paved road, when I saw a sign "BAR" on a house. Confused, because I had pinned the bar on the highway on my map, I approached and saw pilgrims gathered in front. I ordered a tortilla sandwich, a KAS Limon, and surprise! A nectarine. A Spanish TV show was playing inside on the Paramount Channel, which looked amazingly like BJ and the Bear. Lol. A raptor circled the church as I ate.
At 2pm, I was back on the road, just as the church bell rang twice. A basset hound led me back to the main highway, looking back every so often to make sure I followed. At the junction, I did see a sign pointing back to the bar.
Leaving town, a black and white heron took flight from a field to my left and did a lazy circle right over me!
I trudged along the highway until San Antonio, when the path finally went into a light forest. The path led to Bacurín. Somehow I missed the church there, but there were some other interesting buildings a traditional horreo (granary). In the wake of all the recent deaths, both human and otherwise, I decided to do some clearings, and found a beautiful quartz on the centre of the path.
Next to the path, the pine forest also appeared dead. I wondered whether they had pine beetle problems in Spain too.
I passed the sign for the 7 km detour to the 4th century paintings and Roman baths at Santa Eulalia de Boveda, and decided against it.
In San Romao da Ratorta, I expected to see a bar on the main road. Instead, I saw a church, and someone had spray painted "via Romana" on the sidewalk with an arrow pointing behind the church.
I was confused, because I thought the via Romana route option came after the town. I decided to follow the arrows to see where they would lead. There was a bar right behind the church. I went in and asked about the albergue, and the owner pointed me down the road "a few hundred metres." Since my notes said the albergue was "800 m past the bar," I figured this was the bar. I headed down the road, and sure enough, about 800 m later, the forest opened to a clearing with two buildings and a load of happy-looking pilgrims lounging around outside.
Ours was the largest albergue, O Candido. It included hotel-like private rooms in different configurations. The other albergue was small and set up in bunks, with a small communal kitchen in the centre. It had neat traditional wooden beam ceilings.
I recognized an English-speaking couple from our hotel in Lugo, and said hello. They were having supper at 5 pm: large tuna Nicoise salads. They invited me to sit with them and bought me a beer.
The man, Peter, had made an intention to only meet similar spirits on their journey. They had in fact, just begun their Camino in Lugo, and I was the first person they met! We talked, and discovered we were going through similar issues: taking a sabbatical to reevaluate our paths. Besides that, we actually had a lot in common. :)
As Cathleen was aiming to arrive sometime after 6 pm, we all eventually wandered back to the bar near the church to watch for her. We were joined by an Englishman who was eager to chat with other English-speaking people. Compared to the rest of us, he sure did enjoy chatting! ;)
Peter bought a round of drinks, ice creams, and chocolate for everyone. I shared my cheese.
At 8 pm, the Irish woman, Oonagh, asked if we should be concerned that Cathleen had not yet arrived. Knowing that Cat might stop to rest for a couple hours, like she did in Grandas, I said, "not yet..." and just then, Cat walked up.
I bought her a celebration beer. She looked ebullient.
She had just accidentally attended a wake for a 99-year old grandpa who had just died!! She told us her tale: Tired and thirsty, she had tried to go to one of the bars I had pinned on my HERE map. Not reading Spanish, she didn't realize that sign on the door said "closed." I had seen that myself, walking by earlier. So she got chastised for trying the door, and chagrined at being chased away by a grumpy owner. She tried the next place, and as she approached, realized it was an entire multi-generational family sitting outside their house. They rushed to attend to her needs, even though she insisted she only needed a place sit and a cold drink.
The family would have none of it. They got her food. One man told her that he had paid for her drink. She cried at their generosity. They had some English and they shared their stories: Cat about her husband's health issues, the family about their grandpa. They ate and drank and cried together and they told her she was part their family now. They told her to expect good things, because "everything has changed from this moment." They gave her their Facebook contact info and were eager to hear how her journey unfolded.
After telling us her adventures, we all walked back to the albergues. Cat dropped her pack in our room and we had a hug and a cry at how kind and generous people have been to us, and about how well the two of us have been getting along. We both expressed gratitude that we have been on the same "wavelength" for this trip.
Back downstairs, I exchanged contact info with Irish couple, which if you know me, you would be surprised. They hoped I would come do a big annual walk with them next July in Ireland.
Since the Irish couple had had trouble getting a Camino passport in Lugo, they did not have a stamp from Lugo, meaning they be eligible for a Compostela at the end of their Camino. The hotelier told them he would fix their Compostela problem. I understood that he would go to Lugo, get them pilgrim passports, get them a stamp at Hotel España, where they stayed with us the previous night, and bring it back for them!! Wow, what generosity!!! Then the Irish left for their own albergue for the night.
Cat and I sat downstairs at our own albergue, we asked the hotelier whether it was too late to get food. The hotelier said no, if we could wait 30 minutes, he'd drive to his restaurant in Lugo to get us food!
While he was away, my friend Nihan messaged me that there had been a military coup in Turkey. Her husband was currently there visiting their family, and could not return because all the airports had been closed in the coup. She would normally have been there too, but this year she had stayed home in Canada.
While waiting for our food, Cathleen and I noticed a handful of tarot cards sitting on a table. I realized they were all 8s and 9s! The exact cards that were "missing" from the deck Cathleen had been gifted earlier!! We had noticed the absence of these cards in her deck, but also noted that the deck package said "40 cards" and there were 40 cards. We had spoken of the symbolism: 8, the number of infinity, continuity or timelessness, and 9, the number of the ending of a cycle/era. They were mirror pairs: endlessness and endings. Both seemed significant to our journey. Upon finding these "missing" cards, Cathleen nearly wept, as she recalled what the mourning family had told her only hours before: "everything has changed from this moment."
The food the hotelier brought us was amazing! I ordered a salad that I didn't quite understand when he described it to me. It turned out to be a fresh zesty zingy mix of finely chopped jalapeno peppers, red bell peppers, fake crab, boiled egg, and onion. It was so delicious I ate the entire large plate. Then came calamari, which was also good, but I was pretty full by then. Lol.
After dinner, we went to our room and I had a big cry. It was the cry I knew had been coming since I saw the baby fox.
For some reason the overhead light in our room would not fully turn off. Ah, the symbolism: no matter what difficulties we might face, our light would not go out! XD
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