Why I Am Going Back to Andalucia and the El Camino

El Camino Via De La Plata Part I

All I was, all I am, all I will be

Melted away on the trail in the heat,

Walking the Roman, dirt-paved path

Under the Andalucian sun.

The  Camino is absent of people.

Being alone is a good way to be

When you use it to be with yourself.

Emptiness is the absence of purpose.

Nothing seemed right except a simple prayer,

Spoken in hushed Spanish, in whispered breaths;

Resting under the quiet rustling trees,

Sure of my location, but not my place.

Out here I'm living nowhere and anywhere;

Somewhere is a place at some time.

The mountain range just below the name 'Almaden de la Plata' is known by anecdote as "Mount Calvary", and it was, coming at the end of 15 miles of hot, struggling hiking. I felt it to be the test of character ... impossible to go back, necessary to go forward with not much left to give to the effort.