The Road
Caminante son tus huellas ….. The road you walk, traveller
El camino, y nada mas ….. It’s just your tracks, nothing more.
Caminante no hay camino ….. There is no road, traveller
Se hace camino al andar ….. The road is made by walking.
This is my own translation of part of a poem by Antonio Machada, which he wrote a hundred years ago or a little more. I contemplate these words now as I begin to feel my spirit slide through the veil of another Lent. It is time once more to enter the wilderness, to walk mindfully on the forest floor or across the sea-salt marsh and down, with the river, to the sea. I will read something from the Scriptures along my way and I will listen to the birds and watch the creatures as they make their own tracks through the Spring-misted day. I will leave behind me all thoughts of knowing and ask the Creating One to speak like the earth with my feet.
No two walks on this beautiful peninsular could ever be the same. And this one will not give up all her secrets now. But through the years she will speak tenderly and patiently to my slow, quick mind, revealing a little deeper, each time, the mysteries of life and life and life.
Just like the walking, the Scripture book I carry whispers afresh as I stop to glance. It matters not at all how many times I have read, each return is new. I know that in truth the first
bible-word could never fully speak until John’s vision of Christ’s Return was complete, and all in between, and the writing of final words, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” I shall not abstract any of the words from this book but will simply wait while they make their journeys through me and through you and all God’s children. God is in me and in this earth, and all creation is one. I breathe not one breath by the work of my lungs alone. They are not my lungs. They belong to the cosmos and I shall return them one day, though I and the cosmos will dance on.
There is no road here.
No cars.
But there is freedom
in my steps
and the grass soaks my feet
with
holy water
from the sea.
Tonnau Duw ('God's waves') Fr Tim Ardouin 