back blogging

since returning to the States i have been making my best attempts at "settling" in, maybe not for 'the long haul' but for a while. it has been an interesting past few months, quite a transition really although i guess i am still going through it. i have been thinking about this blog but not quite ready to write. then i got called out by Ovi. then i got called out by another- stop thinking about it and just do it. they are right and so here i am.
i have been missing the Camino. missing friends, missing walking, missing the simplicity, missing the daily lessons, missing the "buen camino," missing the camaraderie, missing the beauty, missing the food, missing the many languages, missing the pull of the path, and missing the unnerving feeling that you are so intimately connected to the past while being so incredibly present in the moment. 

Ultreïa! roughly translates to onward or keep goingEt suseïa! roughly translates to upwardMedieval pilgrims used to greet each other with these words. Not it is most common to hear Buen Camino. Sometimes Ultreïa! is written on a wall or in a book; i saw it this way a few times. Memories flood back from when i heard it sung. First by other pilgrims then by The Officer, and later by our little family as we sung together.

Ultreïa (French)

Tous les matins nous prenons le Chemin,
tous les matins nous allons plus loin,
jour après jour la route nous appelle,
c’est la voix de Compostelle!

Chorus:
Ultreïa! Ultreïa! Et sus eia!
Deus adjuva nos!

Chemin de terre et Chemin de foi,
voie millénaire de l’Europe,
la voie lactée de Charlemagne,
c’est le Chemin de tous les jacquets!

Et tout là-bas au bout du continent,
Messire Jacques nous attend,
Depuis toujours son sourire fixe
Le soleil qui meurt au Finisterre.

Ultreïa (English)

(a very rough translation i found online)

Every morning we take the Camino,
Every morning we go farther,
Day after day the route calls us,
It’s the voice of [Santiago de] Compostela!

Chorus:
Onward! Onward! And upward!
God assist us!

Way of earth and way of faith,
Ancient road of Europe,
The Milky Way of Charlemagne,
It’s the Chemin of all the Santiago pilgrims!

And over there at the end of the continent,
Santiago waits for us,
His smile always fixed
On the sun that dies at Finisterre.