finisterre definitely feels like the end of the world.  the pace here is slow, even for spain.  there are not many people, and even though it is a gorgeous beach town, there are still ruined buildings in amongst all the houses.  cats and dogs run around, and the gulls are very loud, especially in the morning.  i am not used to hearing them, so i don´t know if the sound they make is typical, but it sure sounds strange to me.  it almost sounds like they are trying to impersonate the sounds that they hear the dogs and cats making.  when i first heard it, i stuck my head out the window to try and find the strange animal making that noise, but all i found were gulls, lifting their heads up and opening their beaks wide to let loose with these strange noises! 

i know one way thati have changed is that i am moving around based on feelings.  part of that is due to the fact that i don´t really have a timetable to follow, work to get to or any appointments at all, actually.  so i really can do whatever i ´feel´like, whenever i feel like doing it.  because of that, i always seem to be in the right place at the right time.  even though i knew that kim and jenny were leaving this morning, i got up and went out for a cup of tea.  i went to the cyber cafe (where i am now) and sat down at a computer.  just as my time was about to run out, i sensed someone in the doorway.  i looked up and it was carrie.  carrie!  (you remember her from her amazing story about climbing o´cebreiero) i saw her at the noon mass a few days ago in santiago and her plan was to walk here.  we fell into each other´s arms and she wept the tears that i now recognize as born of half joy and half exhaustion.  i know them well, and certainly shed plenty of them myself.  she had been walking from santiago and the days had been hot, the mornings very early and the albuerges full, meaning that even if you were tired you had to keep walking to the next village to find a bed.  she finally asked herself what she was doing, and decided to take a bus.  she had taken a bus to the community just a few kilometers up the road from here and had gotten a hotel room overlooking the ocean.  once she was settled in, she decided to read the book she had brought, the little prince.  she brought that book not because she liked it so much, but because she DIDN¨t like it and wanted to finally figure out why everyone else did!  i had never heard that logic before, but that´s our carrie!  anyway, she dove into the book again, and later fell asleep to the sound of the waves coming up on the beach.  she woke up in the middle of the night and was getting ready to just roll over and go back to sleep when she felt that it was important for her to get up and go to the window.  she went and said that when she looked up, all she could see were stars, stars and more stars.  they seemed to be dancing, and she said that all of a sudden, her book, the little prince, made perfect sense to her.  she even saw that the stars were sparkling with love.  she stayed awake looking at them for some time before heading back to bed and sleep.  then this morning, she arrived and walked into the very cafe i was in, since i had followed some inner yellow arrow that led me there, too. 

i brought her back with me to my - now our - room, and after getting her settled, and saying goodbye to the others, we went out.  my plna was to see if catalina and alex were on the bus that kim and jenny would be taking back into santiago.  they were not.  i started wondering if they would make it, but decided carrie and i could head out to the beach no matter what.  we found our way to the beach on the other side of finisterre, a beach that i had heard about from other pilgrims as being more beautiful than the one that is right in town here, where we went yesterday.  we found it, and it is  much much more beautiful!!!  i took millions of pictures which i will upload back in santiago, since i can´t do it here.  i went in the water, and even though it was cold (as in freezing!) i figured i would get used to it.  after about 20 minutes, with my feet and legs feeling like they were blocks of ice, i came out.    the sun was warm, we had a delicious picnic and i wrote in my journal ( a new one, since i filled up the one that bill and maggie gave me before my trip).  i kept hearing the song that martha and i sang watching the sunset my first night here.  did i tell you about that?  what a lovely night that was.  martha was also part of the documentary.  she and i didn´t meet until santiago, but she had long since won the hearts of the crew and everyone adored her.  as we sat together as the sun went down we talked about what the camino had meant to us, and how we had changed.  she told me that she has been married to her husband for 26 years, and all that time, when he tells her he loves her, she always says´´me  too´.  she said she was too shy to say it back to him, or felt embarrassed somehow.  on the camino, she called him and said, ´i love you´to him.  i asked what was his reaction, and she said at first it was silence, but then she could hear how happy he was in his voice.  he told her that he loved her, too. 

so anyway, as our conversation slipped into silence watching the sunset, martha started singing and i joined in.  it was that old song,
which i have copied the lyrics to (thank you google!)

THE END OF THE WORLD
Skeeter Davis   -  1964

Why does the sun go on shining
Why does the sea rush to shore
Don't they know it's the end of the world
'Cause you don't love me any more

Why do the birds go on singing
Why do the stars glow above
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when I lost your love

I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why everything's the same as it was
I can't understand, no, I can't understand
How life goes on the way it does

Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye

Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye

unfortunately, this is a sad song, and it was not a sad moment, but the ´end of the world´ part was perfect!!!  and the melody is quite lovely, and joining in with martha´s voice made me feel like we were really experiencing this together, with each other, and with the sun. 

anyway, when carrie and i left for the beach, i saw the woman who owns the place where we are staying and i told her that i was hoping that my friends would come and stay in the room next to ours.  i wasn´t sure she understood, but i told her my friends´names were catalina and alex, and i was hoping that they would arrive today.  one of the problems here is that the people don´t really speak spanish, they speak gallegos, which sounds like spanish mixed with portugese.  anyway, i had no idea if she understood me or not, and i really had no idea if cata and alex would make it here today.  when we got back, i saw that that room was now occupied, so i figured it would all just work out the way it was supposed to.  carrie and i went into our room and as we got set to go back out, i noticed that we had received a note.  it was a little piece of paper with an angel drawn on it.  there were just three words written on it : ýou are an... ´ and an arrow pointing to the angel.  no signature, no names, nothing.  i didn´t know if maybe kim and jenny had left it, or what.  i looked closer and it was from a pad of paper from a business.  and that business was in....bukharest!!!!  they must have found my room!  now i just wondered if they found it before someone else had gotten that other room, or if they were in there.  after a few minutes, cata came out, waking up from a siesta!  she said they had arrived and the woman told tham that she was full, no rooms were available.  they stood there for a moment, wondering where to go, and the woman said she was very sorry, but the room was reserved for a catalina from rumania.  cata turned to her and said, ´but I am catalina!  that is me!!!¨ so in just another intuitive yellow arrow camino moment, they had found me, and the room that i had wished they would stay in! 

we are all going to have dinner, walk to the lighthouse, watch the sunset, and burn something together, as tradition dictates.  i can´t tell you how good i feel to be with these very special friends.  today as i was in the water, i just kept saying thank you to you.  thank you for believing in me.  thank you for your prayers.  thank you for your love.  thank you for your friendship.  thank you for reading this blog, even if you never made a comment (sarah!) and THANK YOU for reading this blog and making comments.  that was my gasoline on the camino (even though pierre louis said that beer was the gasoline of the camino).  you fueled me, you fed me, you buoyed my spirits and prayed my body strong.  thank you thank you thank you.  my eyes are open so wide here in this beautiful place to take in its beauty not just for me, but for you, too.  as the waves washed over my feet, i let the water heal not just me, but you, too, as its healing powers lapped over my toes.feet, ankles, knees.  thank you thank you thank you.  to paraphrase something we say at agape,  i love you, i appreciate you, and i thank god for you!

peace and blessings-
a