The Way...

The Way...

This morning I woke up to the roar of a C-5 as it took off from Travis AFB. While most mornings I might consider this unpleasant, this morning it was music to my ears. I felt sheer delight and excitement as I begin to think of all the ramifications of that sound. It is official, we have started our 2014 sabbatical! We are at Travis AFB waiting to fly...East... to Europe. Our ultimate goal is the south of France. For those of you who don't know, Tom and I are walking the Camino de Santiago from the south of France to the northwest coast of Spain. We will end up in Finesterre (The End of the World) for a total of about 542 miles. Our walk is called the Camino Frances and it is considered the traditional way.

The Camino de Santiago translates to The Way of Saint James. Historically, Santiago de Compostela is believed to be the final resting place of St James the apostle. The Iberian pennisula was considered his territory when he set out to preach Christianity. It is a pilgrimage that has been walked for about fifteen hundred years. A friend and colleague of mine who had walked the Camino told us the Camino calls you, you don't call the Camino. We have had several months to ponder this and feel this is true for us. It is the spiritual component that compels us.

While we certainly needed to prepare physically for this journey, the beauty has been contemplating the spiritual aspects. We talked about why we wanted to do this walk and God put the word unencumber on both of our hearts. We want to unencumber our lives...There seems no better way to do this than with only a pack on our backs as we walk through the countryside of France and Spain for the next couple of months. I will be reminded that I have always had everything I have ever needed with me. My God (with me), my husband (alongside me) and daily provision (eighteen pounds of it on my back). I am excited to see all that He has in store for us.

So we are off, here at Travis AFB with the hopes of catching a flight out early tomorrow morning. Looks like there might be a flight to McGuire AFB (NJ) and then on to Ramstein, Germany. From there, we only need to get to the south of France. Pretty simple...Buen Camino!