Patricia Clark recounts a tale from her trek on Japan’s Nakasendo Trail when she saw an opportunity to participate in a chain reaction of goodwill. What many Americans call “paying it forward” and what her Japanese hiking companion called a “happiness relay” speaks to the universal language of kindness.

Bick Treut describes the seemingly random, perhaps divinely designed way a culturally diverse group of pilgrims come together to form what he calls a band of angels.

A classical musician on Camino is encouraged by her teacher to have a piece of medieval music ready to play at all times, and to play for listeners as a gift.

When a pilgrim falls ill along the Camino Francés and is hospitalized, locals from Estella—including friends he had made earlier that year as well as other strangers-turned-friends—came to his and his wife’s aid, showing them how community forms the foundation of Spanish culture in some villages.