WONDERFUL & THOUGHTFUL FRIENDS

As I have prepared for this adventure, I have had some amazing support from family and friends!  So many have expressed words of encouragement and excitement for me.  I was especially touched when some close friends gathered together for a Bon Voyage dinner party in my honor.  We had a great night of company and conversation.  My generous hosts and dear friends, Brian & Sandi,  hired a personal chef for the evening and  he prepared a fabulous prime rib dinner!  Let me tell you... I felt so special :)  But, I was brought to tears when they presented me with a gift from the entire group.  They explained that they knew I was very limited as to what I could carry with me on the trail.  So after much thought they came up with this....

It was a beautiful box and inside was a rock and also a poem printed on a weathered piece of paper.  I mentioned once that there is a stop along the trail called La Cruz de Ferro where pilgrims (camino hikers) leave momentos.  It consists of a wooden pole about five feet high topped by a cross of iron , a replica of the original.  Over the years the base has been forming a mound. A legend says that when the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was being built, pilgrims were asked to contribute by bringing stone. Today, the tradition is to leave a stone, brought from the place of your origin.  So, my friends and husband signed the rock and asked me to carry it and then leave it at the site to remind me that they would be there with me in spirit.  We should arrive at the place about 24 days into the hike.

This is the poem they included with my rock...

Think I'll journey out some day

To wondrous lands afar,

Or even chart a journey to

A distant blazing star.

But rest assured

That where my journey sees to take me to,

Always know that when I go,

This journey takes you too.

And so our journey goes by foot

To conquer mountains tall:

But when we tire,

Let's rest our journey,

Stretched in fields of flowers,

And bathe atop the mountain from the journey--

Oh, autumn showers!

Refreshed, our journey takes a turn-

We'll venture back for home,

But first we'll let the journey

Take a tangent just to roam.

And in the winding route,

This journey's bound to bide content,

But most of all take heed-

Let's make our journey life's event.

Thanks for your love and support. ~Yvette