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Edward M. Caldwell's avatar

Hi Sean and Jamie,

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. We can almost be there with you! Stinky feet and all. ❤️

Hello Sean’s commenters,

I think of Sean Dietrich as a good friend. We’ve never met outside the internet. But we’re great friends in heart. The heart bridges everything and everyone when it’s exercised with good intentions.

It’s possible to love someone without a handshake or a hug through writings and even pictures. Sean and I are web friends. So are some of you. We’re following Sean’s pilgrimage thanks to these dispatches highlighting his journey.

Sean jokes a lot. And he also loves a lot. He wrote in a couple of his pre-pilgrimage posts that part of the purpose of walking El Camino is to find God. That rang an alarm bell in my bipolar disordered brain. Is Sean in the middle of a crisis?

We can write down our emotions in the context of an event or situation. We can mask our emotions because we don’t want to burden others with our woes. Or was Sean’s “God comment” another lighthearted look at wearing out his and Jamie’s feet?

Speaking of feet. I’m betting that God doesn’t have or need feet. But will be walking with Jamie and Sean the entire way… and then some. ❤️

Writing can be good and calming therapy. So can a walk in the mountains. My spirit travels with them.

Have a blessed day!

Ed

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Linda Eriksson's avatar

Leave it to Sean to find a dog to love on in the middle of Spain!

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ELAINE BARROW's avatar

I hope you can’t feel the weight of all the souls traveling with you who are yearning for these pilgrimage reports. Many of us have dreamed of the Camino and read about the journey. Never has it been more real than what you are sharing! Thank you!!

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Dolores's avatar

“Because tonight all nearby hostels were full”.

This ‘misfortune’ leads to glorious hot showers and homegrown and homemade foods enough to make us salivate. Humble hospitality, it’s what we humans were made for. A calling, indeed.

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Carol M.'s avatar

This was a beautiful reading for today. Holy (Maundy) Thursday.

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Cindy Gallop's avatar

Yes…..story lines up well!

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Lori C.'s avatar

Amazing that blessings can come in the form of sheep cheese. Glad you got to fill your packs with food, otherwise you might be 95 lbs when you get home and it will all be in your calf muscles! The scenery is amazing. I'm loving being on this journey (minus the hunger pains). Tread on!

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Frances Decker's avatar

I am loving this so much...I'm walking alongside you in my mind. Thank you

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Cindy Gallop's avatar

Me too!

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Josie's avatar

God is walking right beside you all 🙏

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JD Britnell's avatar

I think in your search, you have already found God in the faces of two beautiful souls that you have encountered that offered you love by way of a shower and refreshing and another who opened her place with food for you. She may have arrived late but God has his timing in everything. Thank you guys for sharing your lives with us. With brotherly love, your unmet friend JD

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Georgia Johnson's avatar

I am in Antwerp Belgium today and saw a brass heart embedded in the cobblestone street marking the path to The El Camino.

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Cindy Gallop's avatar

Love that image!

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Bill in Tennessee's avatar

This pilgrimage is beginning to sound a lot like Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, which I endured back in the late 60s. It was a different kind of "spiritual quest" in that it was shaping and disciplining me toward the man I was to become in later years. Sean is being remade and reshaped, and maybe that is what he is seeking. To see the world differently and to become the man that God wanted him to be before he was born.

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Michael Knight's avatar

Hola Ola…

I am reading / listening to this as I take off in the dark this morning here in Salt Lake City on a “training hike”… Up a pretty darn steep road (it is a “hill day” for me)… And it is trying to rain… And I am devouring - savoring - your every word as I will be traveling in y’all’s very steps in less than 4 weeks… So your posts are a lot more to me than what they might be to many others who stop by here to spend time with the two of you… And I can’t begin to express my appreciation as you find the time and energy to share with everyone despite the damp and hunger and fatigue… Grace and peace to both of you as you continue your trek… Buen Camino ❤️

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virginia westlake's avatar

Best of luck on your trek!

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Michael Knight's avatar

Thank you so very much!

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Susiebelle's avatar

Thinking of y’all as I’m up early making bread for our Maundy Thursday supper tonight. Maybe there was no room in the inns but God put one of his beautiful moms in your path to minister to you. Who says miracles do not happen?

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Te Burt's avatar

The kindness of strangers. In Spain, they take that as far as it will go. Here's another one: Someone to watch over [them]. So far, our Pilgrims have landed in (stinky) clover. And wouldn't you know it: Sean found a dog! DUH.

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Carol Reynolds's avatar

. . . for Maundy Thursday, indeed. Perfect. Thank you for another gift.

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Wesley Nichols's avatar

Thanks man. You're living my dream.

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