Thanks Giving

The Cruz de Fero

In 2008, and again in 2013, I walked the Camino de Santiago - a 500 mile pilgrimage across northern Spain. The highest point of El Camino is the Cruz de Fero, a large cross where pilgrims, or peregrinos as they are known in Spain, leave behind a stone, signifying the letting go of a particular grief or worry. 

The night before we were due to reach the Cruz de Fero, I tossed and turned about what I was going to leave behind. Grief over my childhood? Anger at people in my life? 

After a long sleepless night, I had an epiphany. If I was going to leave something sad behind, I was going to have to come back every year to leave the next troubling issue at the foot of the cross. 

I decided instead to leave something that I would take with me from that day forward. And that something was thankfulness. I wrote my prayer on the back of a peppermint tea wrapper, and "posted" it to the powers that be into a cairn at a spot a little ways up from the Cruz de Ferro. 

It's something I try to remember everyday. When I walked the Camino again in May this year, when I reached the same spot I wondered if the message had changed. I realized it hadn't. 

Dear Universe,

For being
My soul
For love
For energy
For strength
For knowledge

Thank you. 

Does this resonate for you? What are you giving thanks for each day? ​