Day 45: Negreira - Santa Marina (5/15/14)

All those conversations and deep thoughts from yesterday?

Yes, they continued...

while set against beautiful backdrops.

Don't you love how the morning light lit up the doorway to the church -

I am the Way and the Light -

as if I needed a reminder!

They might be faint - but do you see those wind mills in the background?

Wind farms are all over Spain - practically on every ridge -
and we should know because we crossed every one of them!

We laughingly called this the Don Quixote Camino - 

because we were forever tilting at or chasing windmills!

Anne and I had been passed by a handful of pilgrims -

walking in the opposite direction of us.

Pilgrims who had walked to Santiago, walked to Finisterre and were now walking back
 to either Santiago or back to their homes in another part of Europe.

These were the uber pilgrims!

And, without exception, 

every one looked haggard, joyless and spent.

Anne and I would engage them in brief conversation, 

sharing some chocolate or an orange with them -

and ask them to share why they were doing this?

What were they getting out of it?

All of them said some variation of:

 "this is what they were called to do; 

this was their vision of themselves, 

this is what they had to do;

this is what they needed to do to stay true to who they are.

Okaaayyy.

Far be it from me to discredit someones calling, 

to disturb their sense of self 

(since my own felt newly minted)

but there something about all of these pilgrims
that niggled at Anne and I as being not right.

They weren't getting any joy or pleasure 

out of their chosen - or ordained - path;

outwardly, it even looked to be self destructive and hazardous to their health.

In a word, it seemed insane.

And we couldn't clarify our uneasiness with this type of pilgrim more articulately than that - 

so we let it go after talking to each one of them.

Paying attention to our own journeys 

was a sufficient challenge without taking on anyone else's.