Camino Gratitude Primitivo

Today was one for the books. We pushed through 43 km over 10.5 hours, starting in La Mesa and grinding through 2 km of total elevation to finally reach A Fonsagrada. My legs and back are feeling every bit of those steep Asturian climbs. 

The trail tested me today, I ran out of water with 10 km to go and not a station in sight. Navigating that dry stretch through the mountains forced me to focus on breath, step, and spirit. As St. Maximilian Kolbe said, “In the design of God, every trial is a preparation for a greater stage of life.”

Lessons from the Trail

I shared the miles today with Lars, a new friend from Berlin who spent thirteen years working with men and women with disabilities. As we walked, he shared a simple but heavy truth: every person, no matter their circumstances, wants to be heard and to have a say in their own life.

We talked a lot about “willing the good” of the individual. For the people Lars served, that love wasn’t a grand gesture, it was the gift of his presence. It was listening deeply and asking questions with real, undivided attention. It brought to mind Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who wrote, “Love is not a feeling; it is an act of the will that consists of preferring in a constant manner the good of others to the good of oneself.”