by Rev. Mary Beene
Rev. Kate Clayton, pastor of San Geronimo Presbyterian Church in San Geronimo, CA, “wanted to share this rainbow as kind of EARTH blessing. The weather was unusually cold and rainy at the beginning of our Camino Frances. many folks we met commented on loving this double rainbow.” She was taking the route over the mountain at St. Jean Pied-de-Port in France. Many pilgrims start their Camino in France.
She also noted some commonalities between places as she compared this amazing picture in Spain to our beloved San Francisco region. Even as ecosystems are different, there are commonalities that connect us all.
Kate also wanted to celebrate the community aspect of walking such distances together. “A quote I really loved, or rather an image, was from a young Polish newlywed person whom we met early on, and met several times until we stopped seeing him and his bride. He had mentioned to another person in our cohort that ‘the Camino was like a village moving along together between stops.’
“It’s not uncommon to keep seeing the people you began with, but eventually they start moving faster or slower than you. If you are a person who likes to stay at the end stage cities, you are more likely to see others you’ve seen before.”
She also noted that “when it wasn’t feeling like a village, it felt like a genuine world community, although Africa was under-represented, except for South Africa.” And of course, the community is over time, as well as we walk with pilgrims through the ages.
Another friend, Rev. John Chase from First Petaluma Presbyterian Church in Petaluma, CA noticed the toll that thousands of pilgrims take on the route each year. “I was quite disappointed to see so much trash along the Portuguese Camino. Much of this was along roads, and were undoubtedly thrown out of car windows, or by other non-pilgrim pedestrians. Portugal in general was not the cleanest country I've been to in terms of roadside trash.”
“However, I also observed a lot of trash along sections of the pilgrim route that were away from roads--trash that was clearly left by pilgrims. For example, during one stage, a man came running out from his shop to give us a plastic bag that included two apples and a cold bottle of water. He had walked the Camino many years ago and he had these bags made up and stored in his shop's refrigerator to give to weary pilgrims as they pass by. Very thoughtful. This sort of thing is common on the Camino. What was a bit surprising and disappointing to me though was for the next mile, I spotted dozens of those exact plastic bags and empty water bottles on the side of the trail, clearly from pilgrims who ate their apples or put them in their packs for later, drank the water and simply tossed the bag and bottle into the bushes. As I walked, I actually thought about the idea of doing a trash pickup Camino. Ask pilgrims to pick one stretch of Camino and do some trash pickup.”
He continues: “It's common for people on the Camino to carry a stone as they walk as a symbol of a burden they are carrying. Then, at some point along the way, they lay that stone down as a way to symbolically lay down that burden and continue on. Some stones are carried briefly, maybe an hour or a day. I knew someone going through a divorce who carried her stone for the entire Camino and set it down when she got to Santiago de Compostela.
Carrying stones didn't work for me, so I started picking up strips of ribbon, hair bands, bits of fabric. I would carry each one and pray for a particular person while I carried it. After an hour or two or more, I would tie it onto my walking stick. I even found two discarded bandanas that I washed, sometimes used to block the sun around my neck, and also tied them onto my walking stick. I repurposed the trash to use as a spiritual practice. I even found a rubber tip that had fallen off someone's trekking pole. It fit perfectly on the tip of my bamboo walking stick and significantly cut down on the sound my walking stick made when it hit the ground.”
"The Camino provides" is a common saying you hear when you are a pilgrim. It is a way of acknowledging one's dependence on nature and others (pilgrims and non-pilgrims) when on the Camino...no one is ever truly alone when walking the Camino.”
“I remember times when my water was low, and I came to a public fountain just when I needed it, or to a cafe, or some stranger invited me to pick an orange or two off their tree, or simply met me at the roadside and handed me a snack for the road.”
“This was also the case when, for example, I shared bandaids with another pilgrim who had run out, or shared a granola bar with a fellow pilgrim during a rest. I also discovered fruit trees along the way, in public spaces (not on privately owned property), mostly loquat (or Nêspera in Portuguese) and orange trees (but also mulberry trees and wild strawberries) that I would pick and either eat on the spot or put in my pack for later. For me, this was another example of the Camino providing. I would only harvest what I needed, what I could carry in the small front pocket of my backpack, leaving the rest for other pilgrims.”
The Camino is both an opportunity to care for God’s wondrous creation and to damage it by overuse and lack of concern. As we learn profound spiritual lessons on our pilgrimages – wherever they may take us, we must also take care that our footprint is as light as possible.
Rev. Mary Beene is the pastor at Windsor Presbyterian Church in
Windsor, CA and a contributor to EARTH NEWS.
She is excited to walk her Camino from July 17-24, 2024 along the
Portugues/Coastal route.
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