Surprisingly, I found that I needed to return to Tokushima in order to catch a connecting train back to Temple 11 so I dumped my main bag at The Agnes and just wore my scroll, hat and white satchel on the train to the station near the Temple.
I felt light and relaxed so the walk to the Temple was an easy stroll in the sun – the opposite to what it was when Yahiro San and I walked back from it to the station a few weeks ago, which felt like it took forever and was torture.
At the Hondo I said my Gya Teis but at the Daishido I sang Amazing Grace. It felt like the right thing to do and summed up my experience. By the time I finished, there were a few Henro around but I didn’t let them affect this significant moment and they showed no judgment or surprise.
At the office, the Monk was cheerful and commented Last One!!
I walked out feeling exhilarated.
Once I got away from the main Temple area and back onto the road back to the station, I felt an urge to make a final video summing up how I felt.
I had done it!
In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt that I had written on the bottom of Yahiro Sans stick in this very village, I did the thing I thought I couldn’t do.
On an impulse, I left my Henro hat hanging on a tap by a door to a house. As I walked further along, a man stopped me to tell me I had forgotten my hat. I cheerfully said Hai! and kept walking – mentally skipping.
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