As I walked that road, surrounded by trees, feeling the stones on my tired feet, I saw a child on the side of the road, sitting down and making a tantrum while her Dad stood there telling her that they needed to keep walking.
As I got closer I started to discern their conversation. She was tired, she didn’t want to keep going, she was sad, angry…The word that popped into my own mind was “despaired”.
I could hear her father insisting: “We need to go! We need to keep walking! I know you’re tired, I’m tired too, but we can’t stop!”
What an inhuman thing to do! Keep pushing this child, making her walk all this distance!
I thought about saying something but ended up not doing so. However, I spent the rest of the day condemning this father, feeling the revolt growing within me.
Eventually, the night replaced the day and I stopped at an Inn, looking for some shelter and hot food. I made a friend there, we toasted to our own paths and I ended up sharing the story of the child and her father.
“What a malevolent thing to do! Who does he think he is? How can he do that?!” - I complained to my friend.
A sad smile formed on his face.
“I’ve met him a few days ago” - my new friend told me - “I ask myself the same thing. I judged the man with every single cell in my body. So much so that I ask if they needed help.”
“He looked at me, the father, and all I could see in his eyes was fear. A fear that disarmed me, that shook me to the core”.
“My wife was killed in a car accident by a drunk man” - he said. “She was the love of my life. Her biggest dream was to be a mother and he accomplished that 4 years ago. We had a perfect life. And now she’s gone and I don’t know what to do anymore. So I came here, hoping that somehow, through this walk, an answer would emerge. I know it looks inhuman to people around us. My daughter can’t understand why mommy isn’t here anymore and I can’t find the words to explain it to her. I just know, in my bones, that we need to keep walking.”
By the end of the story, my new friend was crying. I excused myself from the table, lay down in my bed, and cried too. I cried for more than half an hour, sobbing, and convulsing. There was I, thinking of myself as someone superior, judging the man…
I never saw that father and child again in the path but they gave me the biggest lesson I could ask for. I shall not judge others before approaching them, at least once, with curiosity.
Once I finished the path, kneeling down in the church, I was blessed with this serenity.
If that man felt, in his bones, that they needed to keep walking, that was God talking to him.
If he carry that certainty, he would find what to do. Having the will to go through that path, with a child, after what happened to them…That was divine strength manifested through the man. That was the proof that he could push through the pain and become the father and man that his child needed.
As I got up and started to leave the church, I saw them.
They were holding hands, crying while laughing and walking.
A look of pure joy on both faces emerged when they hug in front of the church and most people around them, some knowing the story, cried with them, while hugging their own family, friends and lovers.
May all of us have a blessed year, with a lot of curiosity before judging others, joyful smiles, and divine strength.
Such a great story 😊🙏