Today’s route brought us a very interesting change of scenery. We are heading into the Montes de Toledo: we’ve swapped brown for green, farmland for pasture and the plain for hills. We crossed the Guadiana nature park, with its river that appears and disappears. The vast expanse of green invited us to sing the soundtrack of The Sound of Music, and it was a pleasant novelty to see flocks of sheep and herds of cows as we passed. Though it is also true that one shepherd got a bit cross because the crowd of pilgrims frightened his livestock…
The village where we are stopping today is tiny: it has 300 inhabitants, not counting the hens. The truth is they’ve been super generous with us and have let us sleep in a little building at the municipal swimming pool: we laid our mattresses out in rows like a military barracks, and job done! We were able to have a good long swim in the pool, and Father let each of us have something from the bar: how spoilt we are! Out came the Nesteas, the patatas bravas, the Coca-Colas…
For lunch, the premium plan: Josep Maria cooked us a fideuà that could feature on the menu of any restaurant with a few Michelin stars. We ate it in the shade of some trees, with a light breeze, and it was heavenly.
These last few days we have been reading a text by Jacques Philippe on poverty of spirit. It is helping us a lot to go deeper into the idea that on our own we are nothing, that everything we have and do comes from God. Here on the pilgrimage we experience it every day: we are often exhausted physically and mentally, but God sustains us and makes us able to smile one more time, to serve one more time. It is lovely to see the “theory” of the spiritual life become reality.
We’ve had dinner and a bit of a get-together; now we’re off to bed, and tomorrow we’ll keep mulling over all these things.
Good night, parents!