From the Camino

“...a voice will come from behind you saying, ‘this is the way, walk in it.’” - Isaiah 30:21

Our first walking day was rife with opportunity to deviate from the designated path. After a first village, we approached an opportunity, a decision, a choice.

Ahead, take the road. Paved. Near the pacing of cars. Busy. Populated. Less beautiful.

To the right, the rustic, dusty, more isolated Camino road.

We turned right, as per our instructions. Even without previous discussion, approaching these markings on our path were clear indications of the prescribed direction.

If only it were so easy in life.

When approaching a fork, a choice, an option, what I value begins to rise to the surface. Am I ready to encounter people, the hustle and bustle of societal life? Do I need to connect with services that may be found on the paved and packed road ahead? Or, am I aiming towards an alternative path of solitude and steady incline up a hill? What if one is longer? Treacherous? At the end of one lies something or someone I love? What if one path makes me more deeply rooted in who I long to be, and another, while popular, or prescribed, may not be what aligns with who I’m becoming?

If only life path and choices were so clearly marked. If only value-rooted discernment were so crystallized and without gray.

The text of Isaiah recommends return and rest, getting quiet, and nurturing inner trust.

All this walking on pilgrimage is an attempt to disconnect, so we may more deeply reconnect.

May the voice of our Guide be ever more discernible along the way.