Seven Wise Teachings We Should All Remember

/ colleen arnold / 10 Comments

Tomorrow would have been Neil’s 62nd birthday. It’s nice to think of him today and smile without tears. He wasn’t perfect like me (lol) but he sure did have his good points. He was the most generous person I ever met– he would give away his shirt if someone else needed it – and in fact, on several occasions, did just that. He was level-headed and calm and loved to laugh – even when his jokes weren’t funny. And he had a remarkable wisdom that I didn’t always appreciate at the time. This is an old post, but it seems appropriate to resurrect it:

Neil had a way of teaching me things. Sometimes I learned from him, other times I learned because of him, but in retrospect he was pretty wise. Here are seven of his great life lessons we should all remember.

1. Don’t be afraid. Be reasonable, but don’t be afraid – to try something new, to go somewhere alone, to make a new friend, to do what you want.

2. Be compassionate to everyone – young people, old people, tattooed people, long-haired people, smokers, drinkers, drug users, folks in jail  – because underneath it all they’re just people like us. No one is perfect, and every one of us is human and flawed, yet God loves us all. We should love each other.

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The Camino Trail Part 3: What I Brought Home

/ colleen arnold / 4 Comments

Last month I had the incredible experience of hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Here’s the third installment about the adventure!

People talk about leaving something behind on the Camino: grief or anger or other emotional baggage that weighs them down.  I wondered if my walk would uncover something I needed to abandon in order to happily move forward. Oddly, I don’t think I left anything behind, but I did bring something back: fresh eyes for my everyday pilgrimage.

Can you tell which is which?
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The Camino Trail Part 2: Blessings on the Way

/ colleen arnold / 2 Comments

Last month I had the incredible experience of hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Here’s the second installment about the adventure!

An often-repeated comment by people who have hiked the Camino is that they were touched by others they met along the way. (Have you seen the movie The Way? If so, you know what I mean). I expected to make new friends in our pilgrim tour group, but I didn’t expect to be moved by strangers on the walk. As always, God is full of surprises.

One morning, after snapping pictures of several beautiful vistas, I accidently dropped my cell phone into the zippered air vent of my jacket instead of the zippered pocket. Did the walkers 500 feet back see it fall? Or did they just happen to find it? Did the Holy Spirit point it out to them?  All I know is that from my spot on the road ahead, I gradually noticed their shouts: “Amigo! Friend! Pilgrim! Peregrino! Hey!”

When I finally turned around, a couple was quickly approaching, the woman frantically waving my cell phone above her head.

“Thank you!” I exclaimed, my heart pounding and panicked at the thought I almost lost it. For the next few hours I thought about my excessive affection for my phone. It’s loaded with pictures and important contacts to be sure, but after all, it’s just a phone. What other possessions am I overly attached to? I remembered the admonition to enjoy the blessings and gifts God gives you while you have them, but graciously let them go when it’s time. It gave me something to pray about for the rest of that day.

These were not the only kind strangers. Although nature provides plenty of outdoor bathroom space along the trail, most hikers try to use an indoor one.

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