July 18: Astorga to Rabanal

It´s the sabbath, so to celebrate we had an easy day of only 20 k, with only slight hills. (Yesterday´s hike translated to about 17.5 miles; todays comes out, I think, to about 12.5.)

The albergue yesterday was, as I said, lovely. An old building of several floors, and these beautiful wood ceilings. But every time someone on the floor above us walked, they CREAKED. So it was a pretty loud night, and we had a few snorers again, so it wasn´t the most restful. But we allowed ourselves to sleep in until 6:00 a.m., which felt like quite a luxery.

We started with a simple breakfast of coffee, muffins and BiFructa, a blend of fruit juice and milk I swore I would never try, but which turns out to be absolutely delicious. (The label says, "Fruit juice and milk works!" Es verdad.) We got out the door pretty late for us--about 7:30. Emlyn and Niles again headed out a bit before Marty and I, assuming they would walk ahead and meet us at our destination albergue.

Marty and I enjoyed the early morning walk in the cool (quite cool--it felt good to move) and just chatted about all kinds of things for a while. My legs felt better than they had in a while. For once, the neuroma was more painful than the shinsplint, which is a development I never imagined myself actually welcoming, but which is actually pretty nicely managable.

As we were walking we heard some travelers coming up behind us, and as I moved aside to let them pass Marty said, "I thought I recognized those shapes." (They were backlit.) It was Niles and Emlyn; they had gotten lost getting out of Astorga and were just catching us up. So we had a chance to walk together a while.

As we were walking, we passed a young couple by the side of the rode, and shared the traditional Camino greeting. The young woman I recognized from a conversation in the albergue the night before, when I warned her not to leave her camera untended because of the recent thefts. When we said "Buen Camino!" this morning, her companion shouted, "Oh my God, Americans! Wait! I want to walk with you!" She just looked at us and smiled and said, "This is my boyfriend. He´s crazy!" We did general introductions, and chatted for a bit about where everyone was from (him, Spain; her, Austria), and talked about the possibility of meeting up down the Camino for coffee at a cafe.

We stopped in the second village we passed through, at about 9:30, for the morning coffee break, and before long they came along. I had finished my coffee, and we were almost ready to start walking again, but a German friend of theirs also came up looking for a map. I offered them mine (which I then realized they didn´t need because they already had one), and we started chatting. In the course of that conversation it came out that I´m a pastor, and I eventually asked if I could walk with them a while and continue the conversation we were having. So Marty, Niles and Em went on, and I waited a bit with Raphaela and Jorgé. We were soon joined by another friend of theirs from Germany--Sara. They were all very energetic, very happy to chat, very funny, and very willing to talk with me about religion and church and all that stuff.

For a while I walked mainly with Raphaela, and she wanted to know what I do with my day, what I teach, etc. We wandered all over the place, theologically speaking, and she, like just about every young person I met, said that she didn´t go to church very much. Young people don´t, she said, especially with all the big problems in the church--clergy abuse and such. She, too, said the church doesn´t listen to the people, and only worries about its traditions, not about people´s lives.

When I described life in the church at St. Paul, she was surprised and thought it sounded wonderful. She wasn´t in any way against the idea of God, but didn´t find much in the church that helped her understand God.

I´m not sure exactly how it happened--maybe at a fountain to refill with water--but eventually I switched to talking with Sara. Tried out a little German , which they said was excellent, but I had to try to convince them that even if they thought my accent was great, my ability to understand was pretty bad. We stuck with English.

Sara, too, was interested in what the church is like where I come from. She likes church, she said, and she believes in God, but she has a lot of questions. She goes once in a while but not very often, but she wishes more young people did go, and that she had friends to go with. She thought if the worship had more variety in the music, that would help. She had a pastor who she thought was a pretty good speaker--but didn´t see the church really trying to engage the world very much.

She is walking the Camino to see if she can find some direction in her life. She has finished school and has a job that she likes (business management consulting, if I understood right), but she´s wondering if that´s all there is, or if there´s more she should be doing with her life. She wonders how you figure that out--how you know if you should be happy where you are with what you have, or whether you should be looking for something different in your life.

I run across that a lot on the Camino, it seems.

It had never occured to her that perhaps the Church might have some insight for her, from what I could tell. She was also very surprised at the kinds of things that happen at St. Paul, and the focus on serving out in the world. Her experience, from what I gathered, was that the Church was there to help you feel better in your life. The idea of really drawing one´s identity from that center was new to her, I think. We talked a lot about the difference between teaching about religion, which was what she sees the Church focusing on, and sharing faith--expressed in courage and joy and love.

It was a fascinating conversation, and the time absolutely flew past for me. When we hit Rabanal, I thought we were at the village still 8 k out; we were both very pleasantly surprised to find we were done walking for the day! It had gotten pretty hot today, and that last leg would have been a pretty tough slog (Marty said it sure was for him), but I barely noticed it.

The albergue here is again lovely. There is a cafe attached, and after I ordered my lunch the hostess gave us four large sandwiches and told us to keep them for tomorrow. (I hope they´re still good--they´re sausage. Again, standards are a bit different....) She also offered me an ice pack, which I used for my left shin and my right foot, and then passed to Raphaela for her knee. (I really hope she gave it back to the host; I haven´t seen her since.)

So again, a good day, with good (for me, at least!) conversation, and some new friends that ease the loss of the Camino friends I left behind when I had to bus so much. The Camino provides!

Tomorrow is the day we carry our pebbles to the pilgrim´s cross. Hard to believe we´re already at that point in the journey. And I´m very, very glad that I´m walking now; I´ve been looking forward to being able to carry those prayers and lay them down.

Blessed Sabbath to you all!