- Time of past OR future Camino
- September 2024 Invierno / VdLP or Cathar
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Happy to hear that a fellow (CanadianI think some people may avoid the Camino as they feel it is a religious or spiritual journey that they can't participate in. I am a lifelong atheist and this is what I learned.
Those long days walking forced me to reflect on things in my life where I could have done better and what was important. It gave me time to look around and reflect on all I observed. I saw how some pilgrims instinctively knew how to reach out and befriend those who walked by themselves. They put aside the tendency to be guarded with strangers and took the risk of reaching out. They invited the solitary walker to join them at their table.I admired their behaviour and tried to do the same.
At first I thought the path would be strewn with rose petals as the onlookers urged me on. I was affronted by the ugly industrial areas as you approached towns. Wasn't this supposed to be a glorious nature walk? Shouldn't they keep everything in picturesque decay for my amusement? Then I did a reality check. Those ugly industrial areas were where people worked at good jobs making the things I needed. Did I expect people to endure high unemployment just so I didn't have to look at factories? We demand jobs and factories at home and so should they. The tiny picturesque villages that we love to walk through don't provide a future for most people. If we want to sustain those villages then we should be generous while in them.
There were tough stretches along highways that spoiled the views. Ugly walks strewn with trash. I stopped resenting them. This is what we've done. We demanded the roads, we created the trash. Pick up the trash and make it better.
It's not just another hike. The Camino forced me to confront the good and the bad in me. I thought hard about the realities I saw. Not just as the occasional stray thought as you go about your normal routine. Long contemplative periods to think about everything around us. Complete strangers shared their most personal stories without inhibition. I learned to embrace the beautiful and the ugly, the surly and the kind.
I grew to understand the Camino spirit. It's why I keep returning because I continue to learn more each time.
Forty days in the wilderness amongst others who are also seeking to figure things out is a wonderful thing no matter what your faith or lack thereof. You're not religious / spiritual? Go try it anyway, you'll come home a better person.
Kirkie, I so agree with you. I am a Christian, but after living a somewhat sheltered life, the Camino and this forum have opened my eyes and way of thinking to embrace and respect the varying beliefs of those I meet, both "on here and out there". There are so many good people to rub shoulders with and I've enjoyed all the many differences we have...the Camino is our common denominator.I care nought for your affiliations. I value your wish to share in the experience of each and every pilgrim.
Well said @BombayBill. As a fellow Humanist, I experienced many similar discoveries.I think some people may avoid the Camino as they feel it is a religious or spiritual journey that they can't participate in. I am a lifelong atheist and this is what I learned.
Those long days walking forced me to reflect on things in my life where I could have done better and what was important. It gave me time to look around and reflect on all I observed. I saw how some pilgrims instinctively knew how to reach out and befriend those who walked by themselves. They put aside the tendency to be guarded with strangers and took the risk of reaching out. They invited the solitary walker to join them at their table.I admired their behaviour and tried to do the same.
At first I thought the path would be strewn with rose petals as the onlookers urged me on. I was affronted by the ugly industrial areas as you approached towns. Wasn't this supposed to be a glorious nature walk? Shouldn't they keep everything in picturesque decay for my amusement? Then I did a reality check. Those ugly industrial areas were where people worked at good jobs making the things I needed. Did I expect people to endure high unemployment just so I didn't have to look at factories? We demand jobs and factories at home and so should they. The tiny picturesque villages that we love to walk through don't provide a future for most people. If we want to sustain those villages then we should be generous while in them.
There were tough stretches along highways that spoiled the views. Ugly walks strewn with trash. I stopped resenting them. This is what we've done. We demanded the roads, we created the trash. Pick up the trash and make it better.
It's not just another hike. The Camino forced me to confront the good and the bad in me. I thought hard about the realities I saw. Not just as the occasional stray thought as you go about your normal routine. Long contemplative periods to think about everything around us. Complete strangers shared their most personal stories without inhibition. I learned to embrace the beautiful and the ugly, the surly and the kind.
I grew to understand the Camino spirit. It's why I keep returning because I continue to learn more each time.
Forty days in the wilderness amongst others who are also seeking to figure things out is a wonderful thing no matter what your faith or lack thereof. You're not religious / spiritual? Go try it anyway, you'll come home a better person.
I can't call myself an Atheist as I believe there are many manifestations of a conceptual god. (whatever the heck that means). I am not a Marxist but I am a card carrying member of Democratic Socialists of America. I know exactly what you mean.Being an Atheist and Marxist I felt no contradictory feelings on the way. Initially
my primary reason was to support my partner but before I knew it I was on 'my Camino' experiencing all those inner reflections that bubble to the surface. I arrived at the other end positively impacted and eager to experience it all again and again much to my partners amusement, but still an Atheist and Marxist.
Thankyou- I love this post. The reality without rose colored glasses. I am yet to do my Camino- was meant to happen this year- but hopefully the situation will improve for everyone and we can walk and support the villages and each other along the way . It’s still my dream to doI think some people may avoid the Camino as they feel it is a religious or spiritual journey that they can't participate in. I am a lifelong atheist and this is what I learned.
Those long days walking forced me to reflect on things in my life where I could have done better and what was important. It gave me time to look around and reflect on all I observed. I saw how some pilgrims instinctively knew how to reach out and befriend those who walked by themselves. They put aside the tendency to be guarded with strangers and took the risk of reaching out. They invited the solitary walker to join them at their table.I admired their behaviour and tried to do the same.
At first I thought the path would be strewn with rose petals as the onlookers urged me on. I was affronted by the ugly industrial areas as you approached towns. Wasn't this supposed to be a glorious nature walk? Shouldn't they keep everything in picturesque decay for my amusement? Then I did a reality check. Those ugly industrial areas were where people worked at good jobs making the things I needed. Did I expect people to endure high unemployment just so I didn't have to look at factories? We demand jobs and factories at home and so should they. The tiny picturesque villages that we love to walk through don't provide a future for most people. If we want to sustain those villages then we should be generous while in them.
There were tough stretches along highways that spoiled the views. Ugly walks strewn with trash. I stopped resenting them. This is what we've done. We demanded the roads, we created the trash. Pick up the trash and make it better.
It's not just another hike. The Camino forced me to confront the good and the bad in me. I thought hard about the realities I saw. Not just as the occasional stray thought as you go about your normal routine. Long contemplative periods to think about everything around us. Complete strangers shared their most personal stories without inhibition. I learned to embrace the beautiful and the ugly, the surly and the kind.
I grew to understand the Camino spirit. It's why I keep returning because I continue to learn more each time.
Forty days in the wilderness amongst others who are also seeking to figure things out is a wonderful thing no matter what your faith or lack thereof. You're not religious / spiritual? Go try it anyway, you'll come home a better person.
PS: Me, South Australia.What a wonderful thread, and thank you @BombayBill for starting it.
I have trouble with labels (and the judgement which people attach to them), and after a lot of thought, upon my return from the Camino in 2015 I described myself as a "non-believer", that being a softer and I thought more socially acceptable label. It then took me another 15 months or so to process and then write down all that I had learned.
Add to this the reality that I am a very introverted person, which makes the expected social side of the Camino Frances incredibly challenging (communal meals with a group of strangers are my idea of a living hell). So reaching out and befriending, as you say @BombayBill, is another barrier to push through, irrespective of one's religious beliefs or not. (And all being well, when I walk the VDLP in 2022 I'm sure all sorts of boundaries will again be pushed.)
And yet I did. I made some close friends as a result of the Camino ("friends" is a tricky concept for us introverts). I live in south-west Australia, and yet I've travelled to Miami and spoken in the church of one of those friends, and others, who live in Sacramento CA have come to visit us here. And there are others.
So as you say @BombayBill, I think I'm a better person for it, believer or not. Thank you.
We don't often speak about this, but it's so true, and so inportant. Facing everything, unfiltered, and going from there.There were tough stretches along highways that spoiled the views. Ugly walks strewn with trash. I stopped resenting them. This is what we've done. We demanded the roads, we created the trash. Pick up the trash and make it better.
It's not just another hike. The Camino forced me to confront the good and the bad in me. I thought hard about the realities I saw. Not just as the occasional stray thought as you go about your normal routine. Long contemplative periods to think about everything around us. Complete strangers shared their most personal stories without inhibition. I learned to embrace the beautiful and the ugly, the surly and the kind.
The best part? I never encountered a stranger.
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