Shattered Dreams

I wrote this during the first wave of the pandemic, but for reasons unknown, never published it. Today I came across it again and thought now might be the time to share it:

We live in a world of shattered dreams:

• Shattered dreams of walking a Camino any time soon again.
• Shattered dreams to keep our loved ones close and save.
• Shattered dreams of a normality as we used to know it.

In that shattered world we now live in, I remember the words of a priest friend here in Santiago:

• Be brave, tell somebody: I care about you!
• Be brave, tell somebody: I forgive you!
• Be brave, tell somebody: I hold you and yours close in my thoughts and prayers.

Because that is all we can offer each other just now:

• A thought
• A prayer
• A dream that we might meet again.

The whole world is shattered and we don’t know where we go from here.

The yellow arrows are hidden.

We have to take the yellow arrows we learned about in the past now into the sad reality that is today’s world – and make the best we can out of our past experiences, for a better future for all of us.

What we have learned on the Camino we now need to apply in this strange world we woke up to.

• To share what we have.
• To discard what we don’t need.
• And, most importantly, to forgive ourselves and others.

This is not a time to hold grudges, but a time to hold hands, virtually and safely, to confirm one single thing:

We are pilgrims and we are in this storm together.

We can build a better world together.

If we stick and work together.

This is the time to stay physically apart so that when we meet again, nobody is missing.

Properly distanced hugs from Santiago, SY