Le Veurdre, day 2, morning

After a simple dinner last night with my hosts, Monseur & Madame Foucaud, I returned to my own little pilgrim house and after doing some writing in my journal, I stepped out into the back garden to take a look at the night sky. At first I could see almost nothing above me; my eyes were still tuned to the bright lights of the indoors. Then, after a moment, it all became wonderfully clear: Oh my! The stars! They filled the dark sky in sweeps of luminescence! Above me almost directly was the Milky Way; Via Lactea, the outer edge of our galaxy; or best, as the French themselves sometimes call it, Le Chemin de Saint Jacques. It wraps itself around our little earth, girding it with light for the night. What a joy to behold it, or rather, feel it so near! I feel it is somehow mine out here...my via, my chemin, my Way of Stars. Not mine in a selfish way, as if I could possess such a thing, but mine in the sense of it dedicating itself to me and the other pilgrims walking to Compostela or Rome or Jerusalm. This Via, this Way is at our service; it is taking us along as much as we are walking along its path. Though it belongs to all, it is ours.