Day 29- Aire-sur-l'AdourWell my test as a pilgrim didn’t eventuate this morning as the heavy forecast rain failed to wet the ground. On two occasions we put our rain gear on for 10 minutes but it proved unnecessary. We walked most of the time with Yves the policeman, after having spent the previous 3 nights in his company. I still do not understand his French, but we are educating him in Australian (as opposed to English) and he is proving a fast learner.
You may wonder why I make the distinction between English and Australian, it’s all to do with the accents. Many French people understand a little of what the English and Irish say to them (in English) but find it most difficult to deal with the Australian accent. Enda and I sometimes find it difficult to ask our French hosts the right questions. Consequently, for the past three days the police chief is helping us with our enquiries. Yves has the most engaging personality and is immediately at home with everyone he meets on the Way. A truly great ambassador for the Camino. For several days now those Pyrenees mountains on the horizon have started to grow larger even though they are days away yet. When we first saw the mountains we saw only the snow covered peaks from our hill tops, but now we are starting to discern the foothills. While we are filled with excitement at reaching them, we don’t wish our journey to end. But end it must, as must all things both good and bad. Completion is a necessary part of everything. How do we deal with completion? While walking over recent days I started thinking much about completion and realised there is a wonderful poem allegedly written by King Solomon towards the end of his reign. We know it as Ecclesiastes 3 and it is reproduced below. It takes opposites and combines them to complete the cycle. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. While some of the concepts such as war and hate may jar a little in our minds 2000 years after Christ, they made perfect sense in Solomon’s era and were appropriate for that time; and the sentiment of completion remain so today. Thinking about it as we walked (I admit I didn’t recall all the verses) it seemed to make a lot of sense to review our life’s activities in terms of completed cycles. For in even the depths of any cycle there is the glimmer of light and hope.
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