Cold walk

[William Garza]

I wonder how things would have been during midieval times for cold pilgrimages

We have ECWG that rivals space suit technologies
V. Wool,fur and plant fiber tech.

I would like to imagine my distant ancestors from NE Spain..ish area would have have an irresistable pull westward..and being my ancestor would have been oblivious to the little ice age cold.
What accomodations would he have found
What foods to be eaten and was it wine? Mead,beer?
What walking that far in flat shoes must have done to his feet

The people he would he have met
Surely the language of the Italians,The Germans,The French and others would have interspersed the conversations.
Or not...
I wonder if i will see a familiar name in some ancient cemetary in some ancient town.
Jimenez,Falcon,Ximenez or other iterations
Would i walk along his steps.comingling dust of ages?
Not so many questions as simple ruminations of a man getting along in decades.
Will i find your footsteps in time along side mine
Would we have seen the same trees
Branching oerhead
Eaten fruit from the same soil..fertile with history?
Surely..the ghosts ...not in any bad way you see
But mearely,a twist of light from the bend ahead
Or sussurated sighs among the the trees..."ahh,he is a pilgrim,just like i was"
Branches rub among themselves,countless among themselves as the stars and pilgrims passed by...

The river of stars overhead lit with the reflected light of a million million lives...reflected? Who is to say we are not the lights on a river below
So golden
So full of life

We simply dont want to be alone
To know and have known the company of kindred..co mingling and golden
A line unbroken
A line... stretching

Was it a destiny among all possible destinys
Was it simply the call of an open door
Was it an ancient alchemy of the blood and spirit and idea
That to stand still was a bad idea
Or to look on far horizon and migratory instinct takes all mind....

 

[Anto]

Very Poetic and true William,
I have often felt as you describe the faint presence of all those past pilgrims many who carried great burdens to the Tomb of St James. Would imagine in medieval times while there would have been a sense of adventure for some for others a seeking to have great weight unburdened. Maybe still true today but not to the same extent by a long shot . Would imagine that there was quite a number of people who set out in medieval times who succumbed to hypothermia,disease,assault/robbery etc. A completely different story today in the physical sense but maybe not so much in the motivations or in the spiritual sense.

 

[leichecerca]

I love this, I love how it began as a narrative and gently morphed into poetry. I often had similar thoughts too, and sometimes thought I felt ancient presences, especially while pausing at pilgrim hospital ruins. The journey must have been so much more of a struggle and a sacrifice without modern conveniences! (Contrast to today's palpable anxiety when an albergue does not have enough outlets for everyone’s cell phone chargers.) I tried to imagine the weight and smell of a medieval pilgrim’s woolen travel cloak, sodden with rain and perhaps slicked with tallow. We can never know the exact routes traversed by our forebears, except perhaps in places where the Roman roads are still visible, so who knows if their actual dust commingles with ours. Even so, the sense of history and timeless community is so strong, I felt the land itself must be blessed.

Thank you for this lovely reflection.

 

[William Garza]

I love this, I love how it began as a narrative and gently morphed into poetry. I often had similar thoughts too, and sometimes thought I felt ancient presences, especially while pausing at pilgrim hospital ruins. The journey must have been so much more of a struggle and a sacrifice without modern conveniences! (Contrast to today's palpable anxiety when an albergue does not have enough outlets for everyone’s cell phone chargers.) I tried to imagine the weight and smell of a medieval pilgrim’s woolen travel cloak, sodden with rain and perhaps slicked with tallow. We can never know the exact routes traversed by our forebears, except perhaps in places where the Roman roads are still visible, so who knows if their actual dust commingles with ours. Even so, the sense of history and timeless community is so strong, I felt the land itself must be blessed.

Thank you for this lovely reflection.

Would love to do a imagined deep dive into that.what a cloak weighed,smelled like..would it have smelled like line hung laundry,or rancid tallow..heavy in the rain? Or always.
How long did a pair of shoes last?
The sounds of walking..instead of clinking of all the today stuff..the sussurations of cloth and leather..maybe a eating knife.

I think that a Camino would have been a general direction on a established road until bad conditions and locals said, take that pass over yonder
Or
In the next village there is a guide around the mountain
Or.
Wait till the snows are gone...your too late to the pass....