It was a big day...

What a great day..32.5km and as Nina Simone/Michael Buble would sing .'I'm feeling good'. I started late..after 9am from Luarca and it took ages to do the first 11km to the first town.

However, the benefit here was spending time with Enrique from Italy. Across about 7km it  was interesting to share camino experiences. Many similar ones...with many shared perspectives. It was very encouraging indeed. This had also helped me to carry on with the rest of this post.

I have mentioned in previous posts about enjoying my time alone. Except that I am very much not alone.

It feels very strange to say that the time alone is filled with laughter, conversation and learning.

I have often heard of people having real conversations with god...and it has been an interesting process working out what is going on.

Not enough water..not enough food...walking too fast...many possible reasons for hearing a voice in your head...until you are told to be quiet..to be still. Then this very quiet presence saying 'finally'.

The presence is very real and as long as I am listening... very challenging.  When I shy away from the subject matter. .we return to it..until I get it. How do I know it is god...the voice is so loud and so quiet at the same time. A birdsong will drown it out yet a milktanker can run me off the road and I don't miss a word. How do I know. I know...I can't believe I have said it.

I remember my Dad telling me about an experience he had at Glastonbury Abbey and it changed him. I now under stand that a little more.

I often joke to people that god had a great sense of humour. This has been meant in good faith..many things in this world are very funny. 

But today I read in my guidebook that I had another stretch on the road. I don't enjoy the road work. I won't complain about it(seeing what Vincent and Akio have done) but you certainly feel every footfall. I said to myself...'no worries, I can cope with anything today'... At the moment in a gap in the trees in front of me a large hawk spirals down to almost tree top level and then lazily circles..lower than I have ever seen a hawk. The voice in my head says 'really..you sure about that?'  The other day i wad asking about where there jokes came from..god wasn't meant to be funny...and was promptly asked if I 'had looked in a mirror lately'

This probably isn't funny reading it at all...but you really had to be there.

Another example from earlier today...I had just walked thru a motor way construction zone and looked at the new viaduct. I wondered how they manage to tie all the ends together.  (Cue photo 3). About 5 mins later I am told 'it's time for a break'. Literally .. in my head. I stop and start to take off my pack and the voice says 'not yet..you'll know when'. Great...back on with the pack and I continue up the hill. 2 mins later I round a corner and there is the most beautiful picnic area. It is in the garden of a house whose property spans the camino. It has a shrine to St James..so I dump my pack..turn around to sit down and there it is. I am looking straight at the section of the new bridge fron this seat. The voice just said 'told you'.

I have been told on numerous occasions to be ready...for what I ask...'you'll know' is the standard answer...and within minutes there is someone apearing on the track. Someone was stoping because of the knee-bandage from pack...a couple were lost and fed up-showed them where we were on my map and then theirs.

At one level it is deeply disturbing. .at another it is wonderful.

To take this all one step further...I have been arguing about writing  this post for days, but I am told I have to. Yes...I have been told to write about it as best I could but I don't want to... it is too personal. .what will people think? I feel that i am risking alot by writing it.  but I have been told very clearly that I have to do it because someone needs to read it..and I had a deadline of today...which ends in 11 minutes. So I write this knowing I have listened and am doing it. But it is SO weird.

And believe me..I know how this will read..but there it is.

Before coming on the camino I had talked about being able to listen for God and to be able to follow the directions set for me. I was NOT prepared for the extent of this at all.

Some of you may be thinking oh my ...in the middle of spain he has finally lost it.

I would prefer the other line of thought ...oh my...in the middle of spain I have finally found it.

Adios amigos.
I can't wait for tomorrow's journey.
(See..I got it posted in time!)
(Be quiet Tim).