Postscript

 Time wanders on.  It is over three weeks since I got back, the knees still ache, the shoulders are not yet talking to me, but the road weariness is lifting. 

A small prayer has been answered. Yes, it looks like I get to be Mary and Martha both - we are in touch with a Ukrainian family that will fill our house again with the commotion of life. Undertaking this adventure is no less worrying than setting off from Zamora destination Santiago. Then I knew my knees would swear at me, I knew my shoulders would take offence, but it was a training exercise I felt I needed and wanted to undertake - training in the discipline of trust in his guidance.  Of guidance on the camino I have written.

This new adventure too I know will not be easy. We have had the experience of sharing the house with a family of five, a long time ago, when our own family of five included three children under five as did the other family.  I recall the pain of what I still refer to as "teapot training"; my disproportionate struggle to overcome my annoyance that those houseguests were completely unable to return the teapot to its customary corner of the kitchen counter.   I remember all that, just as my shoulders and knees had never forgotten the physical challenge of that first camino. 

I'm counting on the metaphorical red ponchos of life to show me the way around similar inevitable apparently uncrossable obstructions that I will encounter in this adventure.  Grace God, that as my knees and shoulders met the challenge of carrying me and my belongings from Zamora to Santiago, so may I meet the challenge of opening my house to others. That training in trust, that I will be able to meet the challenges that will arrive, will come in handy I'm sure.

Martha's job, taking care of a house, making a home for people, - it's the hospitaliero's job.  I have had the adventure of being peregrina, now for the adventure of being hospitaliera. The memories of kindnesses received - the hospitalieros of Zamora, of Angela and Capo of Fontanillas, of Alexandro of Bodenaya from the first camino - will light the way. Thanks be to them and God.

To finish: a favourite prayer, not that I am a very good Martha. When it comes to it, housework is not really my thing, but I like the prayer, and it inspires me to try harder. If I say it loudly to myself I might be able to muster the energy to clear the rooms.

Lord of all pots and pans and things
Since I’ve not time to be
A saint by doing lovely things or
Watching late with Thee
Or dreaming in the dawn light or
Storming Heaven’s gates
Make me a saint by getting meals and
Washing up the plates.

Although I must have Martha’s hands,
I have a Mary mind
And when I black the boots and shoes,
Thy sandals Lord I find.
I think of how they trod the earth,
What time I scrub the floor
Accept this meditation Lord,
I haven’t time for more.

Warm all the kitchen with Thy love,
And light it with Thy peace
Forgive me all my worrying and make
My grumbling cease.
Thou who didst love to give men food,
In room or by the sea
Accept this service that I do,
I do it unto Thee.

-Klara Munkres

Some of you have asked for the account of the first camino - it is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8xi0FP9yLjudEJSSUpyemFDOTA/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-eL5UTUmxXjZJs5f6LbH1AA

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