Stones - and the Cruz de Ferro

I find I haven't mentioned the stones yet.

One of the things Louise used to do was gather stones.   On a beach, or on a hill walk, she'd pick up an interesting stone, and bring it home.  We'd joke about bringing home a boulder to make a seat in the garden.

So at home I have scores,in fact probably hundreds, of these little stones.

My first walk in the Lake District with James before the Camino was up to Blencathra.  We reached the cairn at Hallsfell Top, and I felt devastated that I hadn't brought a stone to add to it - not just picked one up, but one of those gathered stones.  That was the first I'd thought of them.

So on the Camino I have a bag of little stones.  You don't want to carry much weight on this walk, so they are few, small and light, but each is somehow special - it was special enough for Louise to have taken it home.   And now I'm taking them with me as I carry her with me on this road, and leaving them along the way - not to leave her behind, but to mark her passing along the way with me. There are enough for one every few days.  Not necessarily in obvious places, but just where it feels right.

And so to the Cruz de Ferro.  Traditionally pilgrims throw down stones here to symbolise leaving the past, and/or their sins, behind.   To start with I was thinking that the 'Louise' stones would replace this; not leaving behind but taking with.  But there are things, other things, to be left behind too.

So along the way I picked up a very plain and ordinary, even ugly, stone, to do duty for the plain ordinariness of sins, and to contrast with the interesting and beautiful stones that symbolise Louise being along the Camino.  And that stone will be - or by the time I publish this will have been - abandoned at the Cross of Iron.