Walking the Camino: Week 1

By Wendi Bernau

We are staying in León at a hotel (in an active Augustinian monastery) in the historic medieval section of the city inside Roman walls. There is a medieval festival going on right outside our monastery walls. Last night I was walking around the festival and came upon a children’s area (small children) with human-powered rides—a small Ferris wheel made of wood that a human can rotate, an obstacle course with big foam swords swinging, a merry-go-round of wooden seats on chains that a human can push in a circle, etc. I was watching the men operating these rides and listening to the children squealing with delight and he would ask them something in Spanish and they would all cry “Si, si!’ And he would push harder and they would go so fast. I thought two things—first, children are the same everywhere. They delight in the simplest pleasures, mostly because someone is playing with them. That thought led me to my second, which was how wonderful it was to see young men (who looked to be in their late twenties) with crinkles on the sides of their eyes smiling and laughing and playing with the children, showing how strong they are —not just physically but in the power of love and play. My heart was filled with joy.