Made it to Najera yesterday and today is a rest day - my first in three weeks and only my second since leaving Moissac the day after Easter. I am in a hotel room with two German friends that I first met at the gite at Hunto (5 km out of St Jean Pied de Port).
This morning I bought new socks and Capri pants. I also visited the Najera Museum. I made it to the post office before they closed for the day (at 230 pm) and mailed my long pants, rain chaps, gators and a few other items back to the US. Unfortunately it only removed a kilo from my pack.
Later this afternoon I will visit the Monasterio de Santa Maria de Real when it reopens after siesta.
It took me less than four hours to walk the 17 km from Navarrete to Najera yesterday. Yesterday afternoon my friends and I took the bus to San Millan de Cogolla to visit the monasteries at Susa (from the Latin word for upper) and Yusa (from the Latin word for lower). San Millam lived in the 6th and 7th centuries in caves that were the foundation for the much older monastery at Susa. Codexes from Susa are the source of the earliest known writings in the Spanish and Basque languages dating back to the 900s.
Tomorrow it is back to walking for me. It had been unbearably hot up until Wednesday night when it finally rained. Yesterday was overcast and cool and today is the same.
In Estella an older pilgrim from Nebraska shared a story and a benediction that I want to share with you.
First the story. Before leaving for the Camino family and friends had written messages for her to read on the Way. The message from her son was particularly meaningful and she kept it in her pocket. Unfortunately somewhere along the Way it fell out of her pocket. Days later a young man from Canada approached her and asked if she had a son named Collin. Yes! How did you know? He explained that he had found a paper with a message from Collin to his mother. He thought it was so beautiful that he wanted to return it. So, he had been asking all the English speaking women if they had a son named Collin.
The benediction.
1. Blessed are you pilgrim, if you discover that the "Camino" opens your eyes to what is not seen.
2. Blessed are you pilgrim, if what concerns you most is not to arrive, as to arrive with others.
3. Blessed are you pilgrim, when you contemplate the "Camino" and discover it is full of names and dawn.
4. Blessed are you pilgrim, because you have discovered that the authentic "Camino" begins when it is completed.
5. Blessed are you pilgrim, if your knapsack is empty of things and your heart does not know where to hang up so many feelings and emotions.
6. Blessed are you pilgrim, if you discover that one step back to help another is more valuable than a hundred forward without seeing what is at your side.
7. Blessed are you pilgrim, when you don't have words to give thanks for everything that surprises you at every twist and turn on the way.
8. Blessed are you pilgrim, if you search for the truth and make the "Camino" a life and of your life a "way" in search of the one who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
9. Blessed are you pilgrim, if on the way you meet yourself and you gift yourself with time, without rushing, so as not to disregard the image in your heart.
10. Blessed are you pilgrim, if you discover that the "Camino" holds a lot of silence; and the silence of prayer; and the prayer of meeting with the Father who is waiting for you.
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