
I met a couple from England today. We were huffing up a rocky hill together, the sun beating down, despite it being mid-October. They were married three weeks ago and this is their honeymoon.
My first thought was "Are you NUTS?"
I mean there's a certain romance about walking together across a country. But who wants to sleep in a dormitory on her honeymoon? They were planning to stay in cheap pilgrim hostels the whole 500 miles.
When I asked about that choice, the newly-minted husband laughed.
"Well, there IS that," he said winking at his bride. "But we thought this would be good practice for a marriage. It's challenging, we'll need a lot of patience with each other to get through it, and we'll have to pull each other up tough hills like this one."
He reached down and gave his wife a hand over a large rock. Gallant.
I planted my walking stick and heaved myself up and over the rock, having race-walked ahead of Joe, my own Sir Galahad, when he started down the "corporations are taking over the world" rabbit hole with two German pilgrims.
The bride smiled at the bridegroom with love and sincere gratitude -- it was a really large boulder. She kept hold of his hand.
Maybe this young man is what I've heard called a "Camino angel." He said something I needed to hear:
Maybe these 40 days should stop being about not trying to move the boulder of my partner's depression off the path, and instead be about helping him over it with acceptance, love and compassion.
Comments