Finistere: October 8, 2014: Day 40

Finistere:  October 8, 2014: Day 40

Today  we walked to the End of the Earth, Finistere.  This has been a final destination for pilgrims for more than a thousand years.  Even before Christian pilgrims, Druid worshipers came here.  It is the most western and southern tip of the peninsula.

My new friends and I had breakfast and waited for the rain to let up before beginning our final walk.  The day is overcast and the sounds and smell of the sea provide a deep sense of peace.

As we walk Larry and I talk about faith.  He shared with me an Irish author, Alice Taylor, that has a profound impact on his life and his work as a hospice Chaplin.

While it keeps threatening rain we arrive at the cross with only a sprinkling. We are at the tip of the peninsula. We can see the ocean all around us.  Jill is the first to climb the rocks at bottom of the cross.  She kneels before the cross, wraps her arms around it and rests her head.  This is the moment she has been waiting for.  Her partner has been gone 2 years.  She has been unable to heal. Along the Camino she has felt his presence. Today she lays her final burdens down.

I climb the rocks wrap my arms around it and look out into the ocean.  All is gray.  It is difficult to see where the ocean ends and the sky begins.  This is indeed where heaven touches earth.  The Celts call it thin spaces.  I have the feeling that I am a part of something much bigger then myself.  I offer my prayers.  Climbing down I sit on a rock for a time in quite contemplation.

After a while it is time for the final act of my journey.  I have carried a prayer list with me. It is tradition to burn your burdens at the very tip on the rocks.  I will burn my prayer list as the final act of offering all my hopes for healing.

At the tip of the peninsula is a  lighthouse. I smile looking at it.  Doug and I love lighthouses.  In Oregon and California we have traveled to each lighthouse, camping along the way, over several summers.  It seems right to have the lighthouse here. My prayers are for light in the darkness, healing and renewal.

The path is steep and rocky .  There are people at different places on the path burning items or just sitting on the large rocks looking out at the sea.

I find a large stone, I imagine as an altar.  I take my list out of my pocket and place a small stone on it so it does not blow away. I take out the matchbook Larry has given me. The wind is strong.  Each time I try to light the match it goes out.  Unexpectedly there is a man, Dave, behind me and offers help.  We try to block the wind but it is too strong. Dave spies a cap and grabs it.  We both kneel down and use our bodies as a wind guard. The small piece of paper finally lights and turns to ashes.  I lift the cap turn it over on the stone altar and then the wind comes up and carries the ashes into the air.  I give thanks to God for hearing my prayers and acknowledge that God is doing better things than I can ask for or imagine.

Before climbing back up the hill I turn to thank Dave again.  We take pictures and he tells me his friend Pat from Boise is at the top of the hill.  Later walking back to Finesterre I meet 2 others from Boise headed out to the Point. We all smile at the odds of this happening. The woman said to me Boise rules today.  :)

I walked to the end of the earth to ask for healing today. The Pilgrimage is now done.  Amen