The sky is pure gray, no variance, no shades, no contrast. An ancient cemetery is on my right. The past buried here, each person honored with a white, stone cross, laid to rest. To my left a beautiful, old pine tree with green, feathery, soft needles bends over the old road. The camino stretches out ahead of me and disappears out of sight as it descends into more trees, and in the distance the sky is muted by a fuzzy, foggy mist; hills barely perceptible.
In the grey stillness I pause on the soft ground trampled by many who have gone before me. With my camera, I attempt over and over to capture something that has stopped me. I’m disappointed in each digital image, and I’m not even sure what I’m looking for until a silvery, grey cross catches my eye. It marks the place where one has been buried. The image of the cross settles inside me. The line parallel to the earth reminds me of my camino, a journey from point to point, and also of my life, moving through the world, making my way, one side representing my past, the other side representing my future, the midpoint, today. The perpendicular line symbolizes my spiritual journey, and as I grow in my awareness spiritually, I gradually ascend upward.
A deep knowing resonates inside of me as I’m overcome with the awareness that the only place that these two lines intersect is in the “now.” My spiritual growth opportunities only happen in the power of the present moment. As I experience deep gratitude for my journey through life, my eyes are drawn to the cross again, and I follow it down to where it is planted firmly into the earth where I do my spiritual work. I have been placed here on this earth to move through all of the experiences of my human life with the opportunity in each for me to spiritually grow UP.
I breathe in the cool, pine scented air and step forward on the Camino, my camino, gradually past the cemetery, out of town and into the forest. The path is soft, and gives way to my footsteps, one after another. Silence envelops me, the forest once again takes me in, and I surrender to the present moment. Peace washes away thoughts of the past or future from my mind. Like the gentle current of a stream, I’m carving my own path in the earth.
(September 23, 2012, reflection later)