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I was just thinking....

Kiwi-family

{Rachael, the Mama of the family}
Time of past OR future Camino
walking every day for the rest of my life
in 2012 we were set to do our first camino from Leon to Santiago. We arrived at the bus depot fresh from a week in Paris and it all seemed too hard. Trying to work out how to find an arrow and where to go scared us. It's funny, because we had spent fifteen months travelling the world with next to no plan (and no phone!) and no fear about turning up in places with no knowledge of where we would sleep - and yet we were paralysed when trying to find The Official Camino Route. So we hopped on the next bus to Astorga, knowing it was a smaller place and walked from there!

Last year my husband and I walked on a whim from Porto. We gave but a cursory glance at a guidebook before we left, asked a few questions on the forum (everyone was talking about Casa Fernanda so we thought we'd better find out what that was all about) and just set out.

Sometimes it's good to remember where we have come from!
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Yeah, Kiwi-family...change happens. Isn't it wonderful?
Vividly remembering a powerful moment from my first Camino. From O Cebreiro, looking back and realizing that I had walked from further away than I could see...then looking in the opposite direction, knowing I was going further than I could see...
Something happened to the heart in that moment that has changed the way I see a lot of things, because of course it's not only about the Camino. Since then I've felt more relaxed and confident...not completely of course, but anxiety in doesn't quite have the hooks it had before.
 
I remember the absolute excitement of arriving in SJPdP after years of dreaming, months of planning and hours of flying!

So many things to learn in the following weeks!
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
I guess it is one of life's wonderful moments when you realise that you are never really lost, even if you are not sure where you are or where you are going. When you realise that worry and anxiety are frauds and no matter what happens, in the long run things are gonna be fine.
 
And Aiden?...That quote from Master Sheng Yen nails it. He was a treasure....thanks for putting it here.
 

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