Thomas1962
Active Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2010/2011/2012/2013: Madrid -Salvador -Primitivo 2014: EPW 2015: Amsterdam - SdC
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My last camino in september last year was again a very special and good experience for me.
Since then, I'm longing back to this camino and look forward to my next one. In the meantime I just lurk on this forum.
At the same time I realize that my head is on the camino, but my body and my daily life is here at home. I find myself in the situation that 11 months a year I am longing to do something else; it's not how life is supposed to be and how I want my life to be... I'm very happy with all the things I experienced on the camino, but at bad moments I blame the camino for making my daily life feeling less valid.
I'm looking for a way to integrate my camino experience in my daily life. At this moment it feels like two opposite worlds which I don't know how to integrate. I don't feel able to combine them
Do more people recognize this?
My last camino in september last year was again a very special and good experience for me.
Since then, I'm longing back to this camino and look forward to my next one. In the meantime I just lurk on this forum.
At the same time I realize that my head is on the camino, but my body and my daily life is here at home. I find myself in the situation that 11 months a year I am longing to do something else; it's not how life is supposed to be and how I want my life to be... I'm very happy with all the things I experienced on the camino, but at bad moments I blame the camino for making my daily life feeling less valid.
I'm looking for a way to integrate my camino experience in my daily life. At this moment it feels like two opposite worlds which I don't know how to integrate. I don't feel able to combine them
Do more people recognize this?
Hi ThomasMy last camino in september last year was again a very special and good experience for me.
Since then, I'm longing back to this camino and look forward to my next one. In the meantime I just lurk on this forum.
At the same time I realize that my head is on the camino, but my body and my daily life is here at home. I find myself in the situation that 11 months a year I am longing to do something else; it's not how life is supposed to be and how I want my life to be... I'm very happy with all the things I experienced on the camino, but at bad moments I blame the camino for making my daily life feeling less valid.
I'm looking for a way to integrate my camino experience in my daily life. At this moment it feels like two opposite worlds which I don't know how to integrate. I don't feel able to combine them
Do more people recognize this?
My last camino in september last year was again a very special and good experience for me.
Since then, I'm longing back to this camino and look forward to my next one. In the meantime I just lurk on this forum.
At the same time I realize that my head is on the camino, but my body and my daily life is here at home. I find myself in the situation that 11 months a year I am longing to do something else; it's not how life is supposed to be and how I want my life to be... I'm very happy with all the things I experienced on the camino, but at bad moments I blame the camino for making my daily life feeling less valid.
I'm looking for a way to integrate my camino experience in my daily life. At this moment it feels like two opposite worlds which I don't know how to integrate. I don't feel able to combine them
Do more people recognize this?
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this beautiful post!Friend, I suspect that many sense this same feeling you describe in varying degrees. I believe that each of us is capable of employing the qualities of life we found so appealing on Camino into our daily life. Spend some time identifying what you valued so much on Camino and begin to reflect those things in your daily life. Our lifestyles are not as simplistic as we experience on Camino; it is complicated by demands and expectations of others and our selves. We are forced to juggle more competing demands on our time from relationships, work, and a host of other "things".
The challenge for us is not a unilateral withdrawal from life, but a more disciplined way to engage life. Begin to emphasize those qualities that you found so appealing on Camino. If it was simplicity; begin to let go of much of the materialism that the world asks of us. If it was friendships then step out of the safe box that we put ourselves in and meet others just like you did on Camino. If it was nature then get out of the city on weekends or spend time in the parks that are available. If it was the spirituality of the Camino then begin to expand your spiritual experiences in your life.
For me, I find more time for spiritual reflection and contemplation. I find ways to listen to others and learn about their lives. The Camino is a journey that we are still on; it did not end in Santiago. We are not comfortable here because we are pilgrims here. This is not our place; it is not our home. The Camino brings us closer to our home. Find ways to do that where you live and know that you exist to have joy.
Why do you feel that you cannot walk the Camino because of your "'ordinary' life and the people [you] love"? What aspects of your ordinary life prevent you? How do the people that you love prevent you?What keeps me from being on the Camino is my "ordinary" life and the people I love.
Without them I would certainly be free to walk the Camino.
That realisation was the light bulb that went off in my head one day. Be careful what you wish for!
It makes me give thanks daily that I am not free to walk the Camino.
Sometimes its just a matter of changing the way we look at things.
WWWWOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!I've heard people using terms like "life-changing", "transformative" etc. to describe their camino experience. I can't say that these terms apply to me in the sense that I'm not changing my career (late 60s, semi-retired) nor getting a divorce (married over 4 decades). However, the camino experience definitely has had powerful effects on me, in small and big ways. First, the small changes: I no longer drive around to search for the closest parking spot to the mall entrance. I now avoid the elevators/escalators/automated walkways in buildings, malls and airports. While traveling (recently Yangon, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh...), I get a city map and walk around to various sites - be the distance 10, 15 or 20 kilometers - something that would never have occurred to me previously. On a more substantial level: having completed the CF in May 2013 after many days of pain, forcing myself to get up in the morning, lacing my boots and putting one foot in front of the other, I know that most anything is now possible! This task of completing the CF may seem easy for many, however, for a polio survivor (whose younger sister succumbed to the same disease), with an artificial knee, this hike was beyond my wildest dream just a few years ago. In my post-camino life I also try not to sweat the small stuffs. I strive to be more patient. I search for simplicity. So yes, had I been a few decades younger, I would certainly say that the camino had a life-changing effect on me. I do not consciously look for ways to integrate the camino experience into my daily life. Things just happen. The camino was definitely powerful!!
Why do you feel that you cannot walk the Camino because of your "'ordinary' life and the people [you] love"? What aspects of your ordinary life prevent you? How do the people that you love prevent you?
I also have this sense of being a pilgrim, and have worn my small 2 euro scallop shell round my neck every day since my first Camino to remind me. I find that it has helped to think of myself as always being on a journey, and a lot of the parallels between the Camino and life have a resonance for me. In a few weeks I will celebrate my first dry year in a long time. It was a bit of a Route Napoleon at first, but I‘m now metaphorically hitting the Meseta and planning a short Camino from Ourense to give thanks (and mix my metaphors).What helped me a lot was to think of myself as a pilgrim - from now on, all of us are this 'thing' we weren't before: now we are pilgrims!.
My last camino in september last year was again a very special and good experience for me.
Since then, I'm longing back to this camino and look forward to my next one. In the meantime I just lurk on this forum.
At the same time I realize that my head is on the camino, but my body and my daily life is here at home. I find myself in the situation that 11 months a year I am longing to do something else; it's not how life is supposed to be and how I want my life to be... I'm very happy with all the things I experienced on the camino, but at bad moments I blame the camino for making my daily life feeling less valid.
I'm looking for a way to integrate my camino experience in my daily life. At this moment it feels like two opposite worlds which I don't know how to integrate. I don't feel able to combine them
Do more people recognize this?
Friend, I suspect that many sense this same feeling you describe in varying degrees. I believe that each of us is capable of employing the qualities of life we found so appealing on Camino into our daily life. Spend some time identifying what you valued so much on Camino and begin to reflect those things in your daily life. Our lifestyles are not as simplistic as we experience on Camino; it is complicated by demands and expectations of others and our selves. We are forced to juggle more competing demands on our time from relationships, work, and a host of other "things".
The challenge for us is not a unilateral withdrawal from life, but a more disciplined way to engage life. Begin to emphasize those qualities that you found so appealing on Camino. If it was simplicity; begin to let go of much of the materialism that the world asks of us. If it was friendships then step out of the safe box that we put ourselves in and meet others just like you did on Camino. If it was nature then get out of the city on weekends or spend time in the parks that are available. If it was the spirituality of the Camino then begin to expand your spiritual experiences in your life.
For me, I find more time for spiritual reflection and contemplation. I find ways to listen to others and learn about their lives. The Camino is a journey that we are still on; it did not end in Santiago. We are not comfortable here because we are pilgrims here. This is not our place; it is not our home. The Camino brings us closer to our home. Find ways to do that where you live and know that you exist to have joy.
... I realize that my head is on the camino, but my body and my daily life is here at home. I find myself in the situation that 11 months a year I am longing to do something else; it's not how life is supposed to be and how I want my life to be... I'm very happy with all the things I experienced on the camino, but at bad moments I blame the camino for making my daily life feeling less valid.
I'm looking for a way to integrate my camino experience in my daily life. At this moment it feels like two opposite worlds which I don't know how to integrate. I don't feel able to combine them.
You know that I will be disappointed not to meet you this as I am sure you told me you are better looking than Jamilla.
Oh, I'm sure I NEVER said that, Keith.
But, likewise, I'm disappointed not to be meeting YOU. Do you have any walking plans in England for later in the year? I'm thinking of Glastonbury to Avebury, maybe...
Buen Camino.
Hi Jamilla's mumThe lessons that we learn along the way are significant. But then it's time to put them into practice - and that can sometimes seem boring, because no longer a challenge. What I find useful is daily reflection; in the morning giving thanks for life, in the evening going over the day and seeing where I could have maybe done better.
Walking a difficult path is a little bit like a whole life journey, condensed and refined. The uphill treks become a counterpart to dealing with tiring or difficult people / situations; we learn to draw on our extra reserves of energy or patience. The pain of blisters or cramps is mirrored by the anguish of seeing loved ones becoming ill or old. The help and comradeship we share on our camino becomes helping our friends and neighbours when and wherever we can.
: )
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