Life is a journey, not a destination?

[jirit]

Life is a journey, not a destination

We have probably all heard or read this quote.

As in life and as in the way we travel, some people might be described as "destination or goal focused" while others might be described as "journey focused". The former rush march along quickly passing through regions without stopping, determined to reach their destination, while the latter amble slowly along taking their time, taking in the sites, etc without any concern if their reach their destination.

With reference to those that have walked the camino and especially those that have walked the camino more than once, I wonder how your experience of doing to the camino relates to this quote?

Did you find yourself a more "destination focused" person or "journey focused" person, or both or neither? If neither how might you describe yourself then?

Did you start off being one type of person and then change along the way?

 

[windswept]

Ah, well, for me its a destination with the odd sideways glance along the journey beacuse if I don't get the ferry from Santander on the 12 October my wife will not be best pleased having promised her I was just popping out to get a newspaper. What I failed to mention is that it was the Santiago Pilgrim Times. I am leaving from St J P DE P on 8 September, you will recognise me, I'll be the chap hurrying by glancing nervously at his watch.
Best wishes
Rog
http://www.justgiving.com/thepilgrim

 

[sillydoll]

For a Buddhist (and for me!) the journey is everything.
For the medieval Catholic pilgrim in pursuit of a remission from sins the focus was on the destination. There would've been no point in undertaking a long and dangerous journey with no New Jerusalem at the end of it!

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

On my first Camino my companion was very destination focussed and as we walked to his speed we didn't have enough time for the journey. We also jumped sections because he was anxious to be home by a certain date. We arrived in SDC with a week to spare and in that week we could have walked the jumped sections with little problem.

I returned 7 years later and deliberately walked by myself to make the journey more important than the destination. As a result getting to Santiago was somehow much more meaningful.

As the years have gone on I have got slower and slower on the Camino. Part of this is increasing ill health, but some of it is, why rush? Who cares if I have to sleep on the floor? Let's not miss something because my head is down and I passed it by. The slower the rythem on the Camino the better it is. Take your time and drink it in.

I have also increasingly walked just short sections so that I can visit places that I missed even in my 2004 walk when I thought I was journeying.

I think there is much to be said for walking SJPP to SDC in one go to say, I've done it, but then returning to do short sections. Since there was no pressure to get to SDC by a certain date it has been possible to be open to deeper experiences because one is not constrained by the need to get to the destination.

In 2008 I walked from Santa Domingo to Granon - 6.5km - and stopped at the church to get a sello. I spent the rest of the day there and one of the wardens took me in his car to a church off the Camino to see the beautiful paintings and murals in the sanctuary. I could not have done this if I had been on my way to SDC.

However, reaching a destination can bring closure. Being on a journey is actually more stressful because you have not reached that closure. Most of my working and personal life has been open ended with no destination possible. It has meant a stressful life and the reason I have not (yet?) gone under is because I think of myself as a pilgrim; one who is always on a journey and who has yet to reach the destination.

ps. I recognise that living in England has allowed me to return to Spain on a frequent basis. At one time I could get to Santiago from my home as fast as I could get to London. Alas, no longer. This has coloured my viewpoint and my objectives. I guess if I lived elsewhere I might have a different viewpoint. However, the original question was posed in terms of "how was it for you?" and this is my response.

I look forward to others perceptions and view points.

 

[nellpilgrim]

Hi
On my first Camino the destination was certainly the focus that compelled me along and that matched how I'd felt on the other more local pilgrimages that I've made since childhood. I certainly felt a sort of 'destination anxiety' on that first camino, though that feeling diminished incrementally with every step we took away from SJPP and towards SDC.
On my current camino, like MethodistPilgrim, I'm walking on my own, dawdling (not that I was ever a racing class pilgrim ) and savouring each segment of my journey much more. Perhaps having reached SDC once I'm a little more secure in the knowledge that my destination will always be there waiting for me-however long or short the road I take to get there?
Nell

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Life is a journey, not a destination

The space-time continuum makes that a certainty. On the Camino I find it to be both a journey and a destination. Without a destination I would not take a single step, but the fun is in the journey. I hope I never have to select one or the other.

 

[Bridget and Peter]

We too are journey focussed, cycling to Santiago from home a short stage at a time since 2007. So much so that we have not yet reached our destination (except that we did walk the Ingles in March 2009 as a sort of foretaste). Each time we did not even have a definite finishing place in mind, so we were not temped to hurry past interesting places. (Although I must confess to once or twice missing out a steep climb which could be circumvented!)

I can identify a separate flavour of the camino experience and personal learning for each stage, which fed back into our lives (which have been quite upheaved over these past few years) and I don't think that would have happened in the same way if we had set off to arrive at Santiago in one continuous journey.

We stayed in the Abbey in Leffe in 2007 with a group of cyclists who were going to arrive in Santiago three weeks later. Did they get the opportunity to drink in Chagall windows in Reims, contemplate Picasso's Guernica in Guernica, hear a solo flautist in an empty cathedral, sit and chat to an old lady in a small village about the hedgerows, read ALL Dr Conquet's notices in the pilgrim gite in Benevent L'Abbeye, spot autumn crocuses in French forests resounding with the barks of hunting dogs and revel in the April wild flowers and the blue sea and the wheeling birds of prey of the North Spanish coast and sketch medieval carvings in countless old churches?

 

[WolverineDG]

Whenever I felt myself getting caught up in the rush rush rush, I sang this song to myself:

You better stop (stop) and smell the roses
You gotta count your many blessings every day!
You're gonna find your way to Heaven is a rough & rocky road,
if you don't stop & smell the roses along the way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3a5vN4tUl4

HT to Mac Davis, who also wrote & sang "Oh Lord, It's Hard to be Humble" (very funny song)

Kelly

 

[michaelwalker]

I walked my first Camino in spring last year. My second is to start next month. Thank God, how blessed am I? pinch me please.

I've meditated on this and let me try and write what came to mind.

There is an exterior journey of walking and a concurrent inner journey.

On the physical, there is the walking and associated blisters and muscle aches etc. In time these are easier to handle and reduced as your feet toughen and your fitness improves.

On the inside something much more remarkable and enduring occurs. For me it was a radical and amazing shift. There was a purging of work and home stress. This took a few weeks. I literally felt energy moving out of me as I gazed across fields of grain rolling in the wind. As the grain turned to me, I felt a beautiful energy flowing back. I was releasing the groaning weariness of work and city life.

Then psychologically and spiritually, the pain. Recollections of bad stuff. Welling up like a tar fountain. Without incessant demands or talking and analysing, I could Feel. I cried teardrops of release at the edge of those wheat fields.

Then there was the growth of youthful wonder. Of that childlike feeling you get as you explore further and further away from your home as a teenager. Inside I was travelling back in time, I was becoming youthful again. This was reinforced as I sat in centuries old churches and buildings in the heat of the day.

Then healing grace. Praying at night in my tent became an intimate conversation. I was struck just how awesome this all was. How lucky and blessed was I to do this and be here!

Colours in nature appeared more vivid. Green was amazingly verdant. The blue skys, intense. I was aware the colours were in me as well as in the fields, grass and sky.

I left something there in France, and gained a lot more.

Then Spain, that first night, with the 120 pilgrims in the albergue in Roncesvalles was bewildering. (I had slept in my tent in SJPP).

On the Camino Frances, some, with limited time, rushed. Others boasted, through their pain, of walking many, many kilometres a day.

The Camino Frances was about people, an opportunity to share love. To forgive that snorer next to me as they started up in a bellow. To share food or accept some. To walk side by side with new friends. To be slightly and happily amused when I saw that look of consternation on peoples faces when good things were done to them by total strangers. And to feel the same when it happened to me. This was a social journey.

Santiago. The 'destination' was a dream, but sad as well. A dream as you know you're a tiny part in the ongoing pilgrim thread. Sad at knowing it is all over. Finally that feeling of loss and wondering "What am I going to do now?"

Go back again of course!

 

[Anniesantiago]

For me, life is a journey, and part of that journey is making connections with people.

I often find myself feeling very lonesome here on Earth. People are so connected to their televisions, their computers, their cars, their jobs, and their telephones that they rarely look up and say hello. If you asked them to describe the person they just passed on the street, most couldn't tell you if the person was male or female, because they were too busy texting while walking.

On the Camino, thankfully, many people leave those distractions at home and make an effort to connect with each other. They actually look you in the eyes and speak to you. They sit down beside you and converse over a great dinner. They walk with you to have coffee. They chat while washing their clothes by hand. They have time for laughter.

It's such a blessing.

Connecting with other humans, with nature, and with God... those are some of the main reasons I love walking the Camino.

The destination? I have no idea what that looks like.
On occasion I think about it.
But it's unknown.
All I am sure I have is this moment called "now."

 

[JohnnieWalker]

I've walked a lot of routes, some several times...whenever I walked a part of route, say to update a guide or whatever the stopping seems in some way unsatisfactory. Of course the experience is in the journey but for tme the context of this pilgrimage to Santiago only has perspective against the backdrop of the great Cathedral of Santiago and the other pilgrims who have celebrated arriving there for centuries.

So...what about you jirit?

 

[mspath]

I am an American woman living in France who from 2004 through 2010 has walked the Camino Frances six times often alone in winter. Fulfilling a dream held since university days, at 65 I first set out.

I, too, wanted to experience what so many had done across time and to see what had been built along the way while pondering the myths and ghosts of history. As most pilgrims do I discovered this endeavor to be hardly a walk in the park, but a unique mix of contemporary mundane chance and historic legend. With time walking on an empty path while hearing only the distinctive crunch of my boots became a true pleasure.

Kindnesses of strangers along the way offering smiles, water, conversation, help and hospitality were a constant support. After walking two months when I first arrived at Santiago de Compostela in 2004 seeing at last the great cathedral, touching the hallowed stones, and weeping with joy as the great bells tolled were special thrills. Overwhelmed with emotion I silently gave thanks for all that had passed. Later when sorting memories and souvenirs, I slowly began to realize that my mind and heart had been deeply changed by this journey. Thus, I decided to try to return.

And so I have, five more times.

Long may I be able to do so, but as age and time eventually take their toll hopefully my personal memories will endure. Physically I may not be there, but sentimentally I will always wear my shell. ...

Thus thankful, respectful and humble, but curious and with an ever eager heart, at 72 this autumn I hope to continue once more.

Ultreia!

 

[Arn]

I am a life long "counter".

I count to 100 before I rise in the morning...sometimes I'm on snooze control and I'll count to maybe 500 before rolling out of bed.

As a youth I ran cross country and know that I can cover 1.4 miles in about 1,125 strides.

In the Corps, I can move at (with full 70lb pack) about three miles an hour...with 10 minutes rest every 50 minutes.

When I hike...it's about 4 km per hour with a 20 lb pack.

So the destination is always a number away. If that sounds like I'm stuck on counting...not so.

I've found that I can stride right along keeping pace internally...stop at a monastery, go to Mass and pick right up where I left off.

I've a metronome in my head and a place to go...the difference is what I set it at.

On the Camino...I set my pace...the Camino sets the tempo...we both arrived in Santiago.

 

[lynnejohn]

I'm a long-time OCD, so the Camino posed a unique challenge the first time. I was shocked by how quickly I left this particular affliction behind - 4-5 days! It is so important to me that I will never leave this journey as long as I'm alive.

So my signature says it all. The journey is what changes me, enhances me, encourages me, soothes me and completes me. The destination is always in the background. It's the compass point towards which I walk and nothing more.

Others here have described aspects of the journey - kindly strangers, friendly pilgrims, communitas, wonderful landscapes, yummy food, and epiphanies of the heart, spirit and soul.

It's all good. And it's about the journey of our whole lives, after all. And at the end of it all . . .

"A pilgrim is in an in-between space for a little while, a time both of great transition and great potential. In this place, you can learn and experience things that it would be impossible to learn while not on pilgrimage. A pilgrim experiences communitas, the elimination of differences between people of different ages, classes and nationalities. Barriers between people are thrown aside as a great feeling of unity and connectedness brings people together in a way that seems impossible within the regular structures of society." - Unknown.

 

[Arn]

Bravo...Lynnejohn,

Well said and deeply moving!

 

[ksam]

Interesting posts all. I guess in a way, I started somewhat "goal" or "destination" oriented, and discovered absolutely, the journey was IT! As Annie said, I've often felt a certain disconnect or loneliness in the world or is it our current culture. Just a sense of not quite belonging...of yearning for something. Something not quite defined or clear. On occasions in the past I've felt a glimmer of that connection, but only fleetingly. I remember hearing about the Camino for the first time about 20 years ago and having just this absolute deep resonating response of ...YES...this is mine I want/will do this.

So now, after two Camino's I know a little more the reason for that response. On the Portuguese route the desire only got stronger, as I felt the actual draw of the journey. I still didn't quite realize the why though. This time, walking at a much more individual pace I began to feel I'd found "home" or at least what passes for a home for what I've now described as my "tribe" or my people. People that walk the Camino are just a little different than perhaps the average person on the street. A little more willing to step out of their comfort zones, be that physical or emotional. They're little more willing to just be open ... to what ever the world, the universe, God and others have to offer. We, the Camino Tribe, are a little less focused on things like externals...appearances, job titles, wealth and all the things that others use to measure out the "value" of a life. To suddenly be among others of a similar mind set was an amazing experience. I found that for the first time, almost ever, I didn't feel alone, even when I was, in the strictly physical sense.

Even now, weeks after, just the knowledge that there are so many wonderful people, out there, walking or having walked, means a connection, a bond. I think I'm still in that stage of figuring out the post Camino part. Guess that means I'm still journeying... Santiago itself simply made for a nice and convenient ending point, a beautiful way to punctuate the journey.

If at any time I was watching the clock and pushing...and I was (!) it was because of familial obligations. My first granddaughter was born only 2 1/2 weeks before I left, and I'd promised to be home for her baptism. If not for that, it might have been a much longer time before I'd headed back. Much longer!! But as others have said here...there is always another Camino, just waiting!

Thanks to all the other responders...and to Jirit for posting such interesting and introspective responses...Buen Camino, Karin

 

[jirit]

I've walked a lot of routes, some several times...whenever I walked a part of route, say to update a guide or whatever the stopping seems in some way unsatisfactory. Of course the experience is in the journey but for tme the context of this pilgrimage to Santiago only has perspective against the backdrop of the great Cathedral of Santiago and the other pilgrims who have celebrated arriving there for centuries.

So...what about you jirit?

Hi JohnnieWalker

What about me? Maybe this the reason why I asked the question

After my second camino and fourth pilgrim trail, the Via Francigena in Italy and the Jakobsweg in Austria, being the others, I must admit I was somewhat lost for words.

Was I more destination or journey focused?

On my first camino whereby my wife and I walked together, we were a little bit of both. We obviously wanted to walk the entire distance to Santiago (that was our goal and destination) but we want to enjoy the journey (the culture, food and people bundled together into one very special experience).

I was probably more destination focused (it is my nature I guess after 30 plus of business life), so I was more determined to achieve my goal.

However, as we moved along the camino to our stated destination (the way as some describe it) the journey became just as important for me.

By the time we reached Santiago, my destination and my goal, I realized the importance of the journey.

When we did the Via Francigena in Italy, it was the journey that was more important for us and especially for me, and the destination (Rome in this case) less so.

When I did the camino in Spain, for a second time this past May and June, I had found a better balance between the journey and destination. I fact all I thought about most of the time was the journey itself and become lost in the spirit of the camino.

It is the journey whereby we grow, learn and mature. However, the destination motivates and inspires us to complete the journey.

 

[grilly]

I have to admit: I love to reach Santiago de Compostela. I love the place.
If life is definitely a journey for me, the Camino is both a journey and a destination.

I'd like to say that I walk it more slowly (yes, i do, my body cannot do today what it did six years ago), but I still feel that the Camino is a river and the closer I get to Compostela, the more I want to get there. I have to learn to postpone gratification, I guess.

The Camino is also an inner adventure, an encounter with myself and Nature and those I come across. As I always walk with my husband, I don't think I am as available to others as I might be if alone.

There is the call of the horizon, the silence, the noise of the feet on the dust. The sudden sight of a town or village or church or ermita. The Spanish language, the people, history, culture...

As the time to close my front door nears, the moment to pack the bag, to test everything one last time, to catch the cab to the airport is on the horizon, I do feel like an animal who is to go back to a place I love. I love the connection between Santiago and myself and, like many others, I don't know what I would do if suddenly i could not do it one more time...

 

[jirit]

Thanks everybody for your responses - all were most interesting and quite varied.

I have a few more questions floating around in my head that I will ask a bit later - hopefully your answers will help sort out my thoughts

Regards

 

[nancytailor]

life is nothing but a role which everyone have to play
quote of the Skp.bed bug los angeles
Life is not always a bed of roses but keep on track and don't lose heart. I've walked a lot of routes, some several times...whenever I walked a part of route, say to update a guide or whatever the stopping seems in some way unsatisfactory. Of course the experience is in the journey but for tme the context of this pilgrimage to Santiago only has perspective against the backdrop of the great Cathedral of Santiago and the other pilgrims who have celebrated arriving there for centuries.

 

[juliaanderson]

well said as life never ends at some specific goals. as life is journey we focus some destination but never be satisfied ever.

 

[Jimmy C.]

My God, what an amazing thread. I have so enjoyed all the answers. I'm a lurker this past month or two and have gained excellent practical information for my first Camino in ten days. But this thread is deep and meaningfull. One can actually sense what all the respondents are feeling. I'm only so glad I gave myself enough time to take it all in and not rush. I'm only sorry I wont meet so many more of you Fabulous people. I'll have to settle for what the Camino allows. Well done Jirit......Jimmy C.