Hold hands and stick together

I've always loved the wise advice of Robert Fulghum's "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" since a clipping of it landed on my desk more than 20 years ago.  (Remember the olden days when you got a clipping instead of an email forward?)  Lately I've been thinking about thinking a lot about this bit of wisdom from the essay:  No matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, hold hands and stick together.  I keep coming back to this thought because in so many ways I am holding onto others' hands as I prepare for El Camino.

 I've been "holding hands" with my friend Kimberly as we work out together each weekday morning, stumbling into the Y for our 5:30 am classes.  On mornings when I'm tempted to go back to sleep, my commitment to Kimberly gets me out of bed.  And now that I'm a part of Shape Up Omaha, I also have a team that I'm accountable to.  

I've been "holding hands" with the cyber community of the two El Camino forums that I'm a member of.  The wisdom of experienced peregrinos is invaluable.  How do you get from Santiago to Sarria?  What kind of pack should I get?  How do you train during a Nebraska winter?  What's a special "extra" that you took along that you were glad to had?  Discussions on the spirituality of walking El Camino, best and worst pilgrim refugios, and endless threads on foot care, boots and socks (peregrinos are obsessed with their feet!).  Through these forums I have been holding hands with folks from across North America, Europe, and from as far away as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.  I don't know their real names or what they look like, but they have become an important community to me. I have never reached out with a question or concern that someone (often many someones) didn't reach back.

This blog itself is a way of "holding hands" with friends and family, sharing with those I care about and who care about me, my hopes and dreams and fear.  Your comments, both online and in person, remind me that I am part of a caring community who is rooting me on.

 This is what communities do.  They help, they support, they hold one another accountable, they root us on and hold us up.  How blessed I am to have so many hands to hold!

While the need to hold hands is true every day, I think a heightened awareness and appreciation of it is important spiritual preparation for El Camino.  On my trek, I will be meeting new people everyday, looking to them for help and advice and companionship.  And some may be looking to me for the same things.  We will all be stronger if we remember to hold hands and stick together.