"Caminante, no hay camino; se hace camino al andar."
"Traveler, there is no road; one makes the way by walking."
Antonio Machado, Cantares
Taking 5 minutes to write...
En español, "camino" can be road, street, way, or path. The university city rowhouse where I lived was on Camino Raposa. Camino can refer to our journey, our road through life. As you may notice from the quote, Spanish derives the noun for traveler, walker, hiker, wayfarer from caminar. I've long had this famous quote from Antonio Machado as part of my blog footer! Then only yesterday evening, I did a meme via Facebook from a non-facebook site that informed me my life motto was "A path emerges when we walk on it."
To carry that idea further, when we walk on an existing sidewalk or trail, when we drive on a paved surface, our shoes, boots, sandals, or tires change what's there, alter it for future travelers, so in some cases the next person or vehicle, or the 2,000th or 51,000st traveler encounters a different surface that may be harder to tread or maybe smoother and easier. When someone does a job or task, they can make everything easier for those who follow, or they can make it harder, inadvertently or sometimes intentionally. Known as "paving the way!"
stopping by from fmf. love the poem. a lot of truth in just those few words. i like how you pointed out that the path we create can make it easier or harder for those who choose to follow. food for thought. :)
ReplyDeletesara
sarasamomx5.com
That quote is so fitting for you, friend. I'm in the 40 spot this week.
ReplyDeleteI like your take on this word. And that's true the way we walk does make a difference for those who journey after us- for good or for bad. Visiting from FMF.
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