When Walking Just Walk - The Camino Mala Arrives

Gosh - it's beautiful!  The mala made on the Zen retreat in Robertson arrived in Spain yesterday and I opened it from it's lucky red envelope today.  Each person chose four beads and threaded them to make the mala with Heila Soen Sa Nim adding the last 9 beads.

Words can not express what I felt when I opened this special delivery all the way from South Africa.  With the mala was a message, or rather a message from each person who helped to make it.  Each one is so different, moving me from having a lump in my throat to laughter.  The messages changed and flowed into one another, the energy of each matching whoever wrote them and the particular words they chose in that moment.  It was like opening a snapshot in time.  These beads will journey with me on El Camino de Santiago de Compostela - Levante Route, along with the special messages that accompanied them from South Africa to Spain.  Each person will travel with me - helping me (as set out in my intention on the blog from September 21st):

To dedicate each step to all those who have been victims of genocide through the ages and to bring a mala, with one bead representing each of the 56 known genocides, along with those thought to have occurred in history (plus one additional bead to represent all the unknown) to Santiago de Compostela by way of El Camino Levante - Valencia to Santiago.  To carry with me the words Kwan Seum Bosal - the bodhisattva of compassion, one who perceives the cries of the world and responds with compassionate aid.  To offer the intention with each step that these things should never happen again.

Through the various blogs I write along the way, I will scatter and weave their messages as reminders of the reasons for this journey.  They will act as signposts - reminders to be ever mindful and aware that many others are involved and that we are all interconnected.  Something happens when one walks, but it is not possible to explain it.  It is something that can not be put into words, and although many allude to it, one can never really know what it is, until it is experienced.  Like Zen itself.

Thank you Rodney for reminding me:  When walking just walk... that surely must be the title of this journey!

Thank you to all who contributed - you are all very special:

Back row L - R: Tobi, Garvey, Mariano, HSSN, Rodney, Martin (tall guy at back) Kevin, Susan,

Second row L - R: Ann, Jane

Front Row: Masooda, Alida and Anna