El Camino (the road to Santiago de Compostella)

"Life must be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards" said Soren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855 philosopher)". The famous pilgrim's route to Santiago de Compostella, is known amongst pilgrims as "el camino" or the road. The starting place if you follow the true pilgrimage ,should be from your own home, but otherwise there are starting places in France and on the Spanish border, in the Pyrenees. There are many who follow this pilgrimage out of religiouos convictions, others do it for the beauty of the road, others for the companionship. Some do it in stages, a part each year, others take time out of their lives and do it for 5 months, all come out of this experience with a renewed look on life and their role in it.
I read a wonderful, witty, thoughtful book by french author, Alix de Saint André, on her experiences on "the road". She travelled it 3 times; the first two times she took the shorter route starting at the Pyrenees. These two pilgrimages, left her feeling unsatisfied, wanting more. The result was that she took some months off from her busy life as a journalist to start from her home town in the region of Brittany in France.She relates her experiences, in a wry manner, she is a practising catholic but the road fills her with anguish at the physical exhaustion and the companions she meets. Sometimes, she feels close to God, sometimes she is assailed by doubts. Her companions include a man and a donkey, 7 older men described by her as her 7 "husbands", because of the protectiveness they develop towards her!

Some of her fellow pilgrims are patently nonchristians, some devout believers. Her conclusions? She is touched by the words of a prior celebrating mass in Leon:"Jesus said: I am the road, 'el camino' is a moment in time to look for a treasure; God, in silence and solitude. Not tourism." The author notes that she had never thought of it that way, that Jesus is the road.Walking on the road we are within God, by walking we open up our arteries. The big bypass, created by the road to Santiago is circulating the blood between the three; the beauty of paternal creation, the sacrifice of the son shared in daily suffrance, and the pure love of the holy spirit that joins us".

Having read her book, I too feel called to join the road.Perhaps not inmediately, but soon.

What is happiness?

Jacob de Backer the Garden of Eden 2nd half of the 16th C

Watched a television interview with french writer and journalist Gonzague de Saint Bris the other day, he was asked what happiness meant for him. His reply: "Il n'y a pas de bonheur mais des bonnes heures" which is a pun on the word happiness in french, which translated literally means the good hours! Indeed happiness is not a state, rather a series of happy moments in our lives. We need to remember that as we face greyer periods. Look around you and savour the good moments, they are nuggets of gold, that can bring back a smile to your face when you most need it! My happy moment this week was watching my daugher and her class dancing to the theme of Pocahontas in the school's fancy fair. I said a Hail Mary to thank God for the joy of my child.