Sunday, April 14, 2024
This morning we woke up and would have been ready in record time, but Betty had a really tough night and was feeling pretty terrible. Even still, she got up, and we hiked the 12k to Villafranca. During the walk she didn’t talk much. She’s got a sore throat and body aches. She is really sick. I’m not sure how she made it. She was really dragging by the time we got in, and as soon as we got in the albergue, she crawled into bed.
I went to see if the store had anything we could use to make a tea for her. On the way to the store, I saw a medical clinic. When I got back to the albergue, we called the number, and they said they could see her at the clinic in Belorado. So she and River and I hopped in a taxi and headed to the clinic. It turns out she has not recovered from the bladder infection, and now with this cold she’s developed an ear infection as well. They got us on a new regimen of antibiotics, and they told us we needed to rest at least a day.
I’m honestly amazed she made it this far. She’s been battling infection since at least Roncesvalles. That’s 250+k (over 160 miles) hiked with infection in her system. No wonder she’s not been feeling well.
The Camino is such a personal thing. All pilgrimage is. I’ve had so many people tell me over the past couple of weeks that it’s totally OK for her to take a taxi or a bus for a day or two or more. We know that. She knows that. That was our agreement from the outset. We knew that doing this with the kids would be difficult, and we were both fully prepared to use those means of transport as an option. As recently as a few days before we started hiking -- when we were in Barcelona -- Betty’s main goal had been to finish as quickly as possible, and she was looking forward to maybe skipping out on a couple of days so that the older kids and I could move more quickly. But the Camino has a way of working on your mind and soul, and somewhere around Pamplona Betty made the decision that she wanted to walk the entire way to Santiago. I respect that, and I support her in it. The kids respect it as well. Except for a difficult moment a few days ago, they have been on board with taking things at the pace she needs to follow.
In our church’s general conference last fall Sister Tamara Runia gave a talk called Seeing God’s Family through the Overview Lens in which she said the following:
Before we interact with a loved one, can we ask ourselves the question “Is what I’m about to do or say helpful or hurtful?” Our words are one of our superpowers, and family members are like human blackboards, standing in front of us saying, “Write what you think of me!” These messages, whether intentional or unintentional, should be hopeful and encouraging.
Our job is not to teach someone who’s going through a rough patch that they are bad or disappointing. On rare occasions we may feel prompted to correct, but most often let’s tell our loved ones in spoken and unspoken ways the messages they long to hear: “Our family feels whole and complete because you are in it.” “You will be loved for the rest of your life—no matter what.”
[...]
Remember, families are a God-given laboratory where we’re figuring things out, so missteps and miscalculations are not just possible but probable. And wouldn’t it be interesting if, at the end of our lives, we could see that those relationships, even those challenging moments, were the very things that helped us to become more like our Savior? Each difficult interaction is an opportunity to learn how to love at a deeper level—a godlike level.
[..]
[T]he adversary does not want us or our loved ones to return home together. And because we live on a planet that is bound by time and a finite number of years, he tries to perpetuate a very real sense of panic in us. It’s hard to see, when we’re zoomed in, that our direction matters more than our speed.
Remember, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Thankfully, the God we worship is not bound by time. He sees who our loved ones really are and who we really are. So He’s patient with us, hoping we’ll be patient with each other.
So we are going to be patient and we are going to go together. We will stay in Villafranca one more full day tomorrow. It’s a sleepy town with very little to do, so I think it will be a good rest.
Betty has taken the medicine that they gave her, and she took some tea River and I made for her (cinnamon, onion, garlic, and cayenne pepper), and she’s telling me that she’s feeling better.
Because today was Sunday we had a little testimony meeting about what the Lord is teaching us so far on this journey. I was so impressed with the kids. They are paying attention and learning so much.
