CAMINO DE SANTIAGO - PART 24 - THE CALL OF THE CAMINO, EXTRACT FROM 'TO THE FIELD OF STARS'

Before I left I downloaded about 10 books onto my kindle to read while I was away. This is an extract from the only book I actually read. It is called 'To The Field of Stars' and is written by a Catholic Priest, Kevin Codd,  about his Camino experience. I think that this extract sums up the “Call of the Camino” perfectly.

“It may well come to pass at a certain point in the course of a life that a person hears of stars dancing in a field at night. It is possible that such a story would be immediately dismissed as the stuff of a childish fantasy or a piece of old wives’ tale, not to be taken seriously in these modern times. At best, the story may be taken as simply another happy ending to a fable created by the likes of the Grimm brothers or J.R.R. Tolkien. It could also be that the image of stars coming low to earth and performing a joyful circle dance in the dead of night might nevertheless capture a person’s imagination even if such an image would not seem to belong to the world of facts and history and our modern understanding of what transpires in the course of real life.

I am about to share here a story about stars at dance. May I advise you to exercise a modicum of caution in attending to what follows, for the story of stars dancing over a field in a faraway land may so draw you away from the ordinary business of daily life that you find yourself, quite to your surprise, in a new world of unexpected adventures and remarkable people and some very profound mysteries.

If this should happen to you, if the story of the stars playing above the dusty bones of an old saint should capture you in its strange field of gravity, it may well draw you out of your house, and out of town. And if you leave home to see these stars cavort for yourself it will surely change you. You will come to see that which was previously unseen. You will witness miracles. You will, in the end, find yourself coming to know what is most true about these brief lives we have been given to live out on this tender earth.

So if the very thought of seeing stars dance piques your curiosity at some deep level, then pay attention to what follows, for the walk to the field of stars, to Santiago de Compostela, is a journey that has the power to change lives forever.” 

BUEN CAMINO, MY PILGRIM FRIENDS