Camino Awakenings, a poem
On my first Camino, I met a gorgeous young woman named Liz on the side of the road.
Despite our age difference, we struck up a conversation that lasted for hours. This led to us sharing a night of chatter, laughter, and some very meaningful discussions, mainly about women. We talked about the beginning of time to the moment we were in. I learned a lot from such an insightful and young soul. As we parted the following day I was feeling blessed to have met her.
Recently while browsing through the web I found this poem, written by none other than the lovely Liz. At the end of her Camino, she had sat in the square opposite the cathedral, pen in hand, watching Pilgrims roll in.
Here is what she had to say… ENJOY… I certainly did.
Camino Awakening – A Poem by Liz Jester
A man has come to mourn his wife
Another to mourn his mother
A woman seeking balance
With the other half, her brothers
A heartbroken teen begins walking
With hope in his innocent eyes
Five former sailors once lost at sea
Seeking truth in an ocean of lies
A beautiful woman with peace in her heart
And yet somehow a yearning for more
A young man who knows not quite why he is here
A woman who’s seeking the Lord
A daughter-and-sister-and-partner
Who has always been told how to live
Has a sudden desire to hear her heart tell her
What genuine gifts she can give
A family-less girl, almost woman
With burdens that weigh on her back
She has no idea how to drop them
Or to fill in her spaces of lack
They all come with hearts full of questions
And the hopes they will learn something new
Of this strange inexplicable mystery
That moves through us all, me and you
They wake with the sun every morning
With the roosters and fresh morning dew
They put on their boots, don their jackets
Trodding through fields of green, skies of blue
In rain or in shine they continue
inexplicably following a call
From deep in their beings that tells them
There is more to this life, to it all
The path can’t miraculously tell them
All the answers they desperately seek
But something inside them, it softens
Step by step, day by day, week by week
And as each of their paths crosses others
Songs are sung, tears are shed, stories shared
They begin to discover connections
In togetherness, they aren’t quite so scared
And those answers those pilgrims came seeking
Begin taking less space in their minds
For they slowly discover that answers
Are not the best things they can find
For no one is truly alone
No matter how lonely it seems
And no one will ever have it all figured out
We are all just mere humans with dreams
So all we can do is continue
Rain or shine, hot or cold, right or wrong
And be here in this singular moment
Whether crying or scared or in song
We all came here lost in our own ways
Yet we’ve realized perhaps it’s ok
For nobody has the right answer
It is us, only us, who can say
How our lives will unfold, how we’ll handle
The rain and the shine and the snow
And though sometimes we’ll find yellow arrows
In the end WE must choose where to go
Whether he will accept his deep grieving
Whether she will forgive their mistakes
Whether they will set down all their burdens
Is a choice that each one has to make
As they finish their journeys in earnest
One by one, giving hugs, boarding trains
Saying tearful goodbyes, finding closure
They all know that more journey remains
As each pilgrim returns to her corner
Of this world, so vast and so great
While they all still have hearts full of questions
They each leave, just a bit, more awake.
