For only the second time on this Camino, we had to break out the rain ponchos. It rained almost the whole way up out to San Xil. Then thankfully it was lovely the rest of the day.
But what I recall most was seeing Felix journaling as he sat at the edge of a pasture, watching the cows. The mist was getting heavy but it hadn’t quite started to rain. And he just seemed so content.
Not dismayed by the rain getting him or his book wet. Not seemingly interrupted. Not even really cognizant of the weather. He just seemed content.
One of my favorite cartoonists is Gary Larson who drew “The Far Side.” A wonderful pane that he published once was of a cow looking out the window somewhat forlornly, adorned in her pearls while her bull husband sat in a recliner, watching tv with a beer in hoof. And she turned to him saying “Wendell, I’m not content.”
Sort of a twist to the bucolic scene I saw.
I work at centering myself to be at that point. It’s very intentional. But I realized that he and many in the Camino find contentment very easily when out here. Things that bother us don’t throw us off the big picture. We aren’t just staring out the window. We are in the view, in the moment, in the now.
Contentment isn’t comfort. It’s often finding peace and beauty where others somehow miss it. And it’s not a static place, one where you park and stay. It’s a place to rest and move on.
Felix moved on, as I saw him later that morning. And I was content.
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