Pilgrimage: Body, Mind
and Spirit Part II
By Darrell and Linda Barrett
* A fog-filled valley greets the morning near O’Cebreiro, a quaint hamlet in northwestern Spain.
Often looked upon as a journey of the mind, body, and spirit, the Camino de Santiago, specifically the
Camino Frances, is a pilgrimage that for us started in Pier de Port, France, and took us over 500 miles to
Santiago, Spain. The focus of the first third of this expedition can be easily understood as a trial of the body; the
second third, a test of the mind...
Up and out the door by 5:45 A.M., one small headlamp begrudgingly searched out yellow arrows to point
us westward on our Camino each day. Most mornings, the chill in the air warranted long sleeves and perhaps
pants for the first hour or so, but, alas, most mornings found us just walking fast instead of bothering with
layers that would just be shed sooner rather than later. This was the first mental struggle of the day (not counting our consumption of sardines for breakfast when necessary). Instead of concentrating on cold fingers, arms,
legs, or sardines, we chose to focus our mental energy on God's beauty in the waning moonlight. Scrub bushes,
grazing cattle and sheep, and Spanish stars all made the pain of early rising times and those same dirty boots
quickly fade. Soon the cold turned to comfortable coolness, with the first rays of sunshine just peeking from the
horizon at our backs, and before too long, yellow, orange, and burgundy streaked the sky, causing us to pause
and drink in the magnificent kaleidoscope of colors with which the Master Painter chose to gift us that day. Oh,
how many times did we turn around each morning so as to not miss the constantly changing canvas of the sky!
How many close calls on a rocky path from walking backwards! As our bodies tired throughout the morning,
we could always refocus our minds on God’s natural beauty surrounding us on the trail. Whether it was the
high plains of the Meseta or three different mountain ranges we crossed, this trip caused us to wonder why we
had previously never truly drunk in His beauty at home. Certainly we appreciate living in one of the most
beautiful places on earth, and we take time to enjoy the outdoors, snap pictures of sunrises, or sunsets, or
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