Lots of people are talking about love, expressing love, finding or looking for love on the Camino. Surrounded by it as I am, it is the theme of today. Like most people who are not raging egomaniacs I have never felt quite up to snuff by my own standards for being the perfection I know I should and could be. With my life 2/3 done, I think that I am coming to understand what I have always been told. Self love must come first for all of the rest to follow and, without it, you are blind to how much you truly are loved.

And if you go first in loving your imperfect self, it is so much easier for those who want to love you to do so. I am a fortunate human in that I know that I have a community of people around me like angels who know me as imperfect and they still manage to groan, grin and bear me.

Ah well this is not an original thought. One of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, said it best for me, and it is good that I remember her for this step on my Way. I will share her with you as I close this with a big thank you to all of my loving community – especially to Dalito who makes all things possible… abrazos y besos.

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver