Ok, not going to lie- not sure about my geography here- it’s actually the Atlantic Ocean (but I took the lyrics from a Waterboys song- because I love their music 🎶).I am taking a rest day (hot bath, my own room, private bathroom) in Muxía, a little north of Finisterra, because I met a lovely couple from Australia, they knew the bus schedule and were heading here! That’s the way I roll- follow a pilgrim or follow an arrow- and see where it leads. I am also following the recommendation of a pilgrim I met early on in my journey, who suggested a post-Camino retreat at a place called The Little Fox House. It is run by a Canadian author /psychotherapist and pilgrim who has walked the Camino a number of times and who has set her roots down in Spain. Sounds like my kind of place! I plan to spend 3 nights there and then walk to Finisterra… or not!
Muxía is an ancient place, where first paganism and then Christianity has regarded as sacred. It is actually an area called “Costa da Morte”, the Coast of Death, due to the number of shipwrecks that have occurred in its vicinity. Perhaps it is a good place to mark the end of my Camino- a putting to death or letting go, of hurts and pain from the past, and making room for more love, beauty and gratitude. “Though weeping may remain for the night, in the morning there is joy” (Psalm 30:5- my mother’s favourite verse that marks her gravestone). Sorrow turned into joy… that is why I walk.

This Is the Sea
The Waterboys
These things you keep
You’d better throw them away
You wanna turn your back
On your soulless days
Once you were tethered
And now you are free
Once you were tethered
Well now you are free
That was the river
This is the sea!
Now if you’re feelin’ weary
If you’ve been alone too long
Maybe you’ve been suffering from
A few too many
Plans that have gone wrong
And you’re trying to remember
How fine your life used to be
Running around banging your drum
Like it’s 1973
Well that was the river
This is the sea!
Wooo!
Now you say you’ve got trouble
You say you’ve got pain
You say’ve got nothing left to believe in
Nothing to hold on to
Nothing to trust
Nothing but chains
You’re scouring your conscience
Raking through your memories
Scouring your conscience
Raking through your memories
But that was the river
This is the sea yeah!
Now I can see you wavering
As you try to decide
You’ve got a war in your head
And it’s tearing you up inside
You’re trying to make sense
Of something that you just can’t see
Trying to make sense now
And you know you once held the key
But that was the river
And this is the sea!
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!
Now I hear there’s a train
It’s coming on down the line
It’s yours if you hurry
You’ve got still enough time
And you don’t need no ticket
And you don’t pay no fee
No you don’t need no ticket
You don’t pay no fee
Because that was the river
And this is the sea!
Behold the sea!