We arrived in Biarritz, France and found our driver waiting to take us to Saint Jean Pied de Port. Our luggage, unfortunately, did not arrive with us. The otherwise patient driver was outwardly upset. After two hours of paperwork with the airline, we began to understand his annoyance—he had experienced this before. 
 
Tom too became upset. The agents were not able to give us the exact arrival of our missing luggage, which could appear the following day or possibly mid-week. It was easier for me to let go of the temporary loss as I felt the need to continue healing my ankle.
 
The hour-long ride to Saint Jean Pied de Port was filled with distracting chatter and the challenge of a language barrier. We listened to traditional French Basque music on the radio while the driver described the town, famous for the starting point of The Camino, the Way of St. James, and the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The drive through the beautiful Basque countryside of rolling hills gave us a renewed sense of The Camino. Tom continued to administer energy to my injured ankle. 
 
In energy healing, the facilitator (in this case, Tom) makes the energy connection, and I, as the receiver, focus on the healing. I sent positive thoughts into the universe and asked The Blessed Mother for inner guidance. With my foot elevated, it didn’t feel quite so bad, unless I tried bending my toes. The same excruciating pain was still there, which confirmed my ankle still needed healing. 
 
Arriving at our hotel without our luggage was strange. How could we start The Camino the following day without our clothing, walking shoes, rain jackets, and walking sticks? And my ankle—could I even begin the walk? First, a visit to the pharmacy to purchase toothbrushes, toothpaste, and Motrin. A shortened tour of the town prompted a conscious decision to continue to REST my ankle.
 
Tom was stuck on the loss of our luggage. I thought it best not to try and talk with him about it—instead, leave him time to find perspective. Sometimes it is challenging to be supportive of another’s feelings after both experience the same disappointment and yet have such different reactions to it.
 
Within a day, Tom let go of the anger connected to the loss. Originally, he felt the trip was ruined due to the loss of the luggage. With meditation and prayer he was able to let that go and arrive at a different conclusion: if the trip was ruined, it was  due to his negative thoughts that produced the anger and a negative attitude. When he was able to release his negative thoughts, he was also able to release his negative attitude. 
 
Our Camino journey was to begin the following day. The agency that arranged our trip, Camino Ways in Ireland, advised us to skip the first day and take a cab to the second day of our walk in Valcarlos-Luzaide, Spain. I was so happy to hear the good news. The extra day to continue healing my ankle was already a gift of The Camino. We decided not to leave until the following afternoon and on the recommendation of our driver, attended the high mass at the Assumption, Saint Jean Pied de Port’s Basque Catholic Church. As the attending congregation sang the mass in French, both Tom and I found ourselves lost in the beautiful, meditative melodies. The spiritual “gifts” of The Camino de Santiago were already beginning to awaken us to our awareness—even before we started our walk.