The Lesson of the Eucaliptus Tree

Last night, Zara shared with me that we would be seeing a lot of Eucaliptus trees during this portion of the camino. These trees are very invasive and require a tremendous amount of water. I took in this information but promptly stored it in a file in my mind. Today, when we started hiking, I saw two trees...very large...striking...I even smelled a distinctive odor as I passed below them...but had no clue what the trees were...I pondered it for a while and made a mental note to ask someone the identification of the trees. As,I hiked in intentional silence, I spent the first portion of the hike on inner self reflection, but later I chose to pray for my fellow pilgrims. I took each person individually and thanked God for them and their many wonderful qualities and asked him to watch over them and to bless them. When I came to Zara, it immediately occured to me that the trees that I was seeing and wanting to understand were Eucaliptus trees. For me this was a lesson,when we focus on ourselves we have a difficult time with the meaning of life but if we focus on others, our way will be made clear and we will have greater understanding.