Listening to the Silence Through the Meseta...

[CowboyJoe]

The Camino is an endless repetition, a universal calling, a prayer: Walk. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

The Camino is not what you think it is.

And not what you think it should be.

It is everything and it is nothing.

It forces you and moves you, teases you and slams you, questions you and fights you.

It blisters you, depletes you, weakens you and at the same time toughens you, builds you, strengthens you.

It questions you, talks to you, listens to your silence.

It is the outside of the inside of you and everything in between.

The Camino is sinner and Saint, history and legends, believers and non-believers. It is scores of nationalities all marching in the same direction, all for different reasons, but each following the same road toward the same destination.

The Camino is 500 miles of sorting out, taking in, letting go.

It is a physical, mental, and emotional reality check of what you think you are and who you are.

The Camino fills you, then empties you. It teases you and calms you.

And does it again and again with each coming day.

Walk. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

There is comfort in repetition.

(From today's initiation walk into The Meseta. For more see my blog: Caminojoe.com)

----Don-Qui-Joe-te
Man of La Manche Blisters
Grandfather of the Camino

 

[Stellaluna]

Wow! Love it!

 

[Zoula]

Well said Cowboy Joe!

 

[Robo]

Think you nailed it Joe

 

[Waka]

It's all very true.

 

[Wokabaut_Meri]

A meditation from a poet's heart.

You've captured the essence of the Camino with these words.

 

[PEI_Heather]

Think you nailed it Joe

(Or toe-nailed it, Robo?! )

 

[PEI_Heather]

Don-Qui-Joe-te
Man of La Manche Blisters
Grandfather of the Camino

Aside from your most eloquent and spot on definition of the Camino (to me anyway), your "author's" name is awesome! Don-Qui-Joe-Te! I love it!

 

[Mike Savage]

Very true and I am one of those who enjoyed the meseta.

 

[Patch]

Nice post and wish I could agree with your sentiments. But to me, and I am guessing many others, it's a nice pleasant walk. I personally can find beauty and solitude every where in our beautiful world, sometimes in the most unlikely places. But glad you have found it on the Camino.

 

[CowboyJoe]

Nice post and wish I could agree with your sentiments. But to me, and I am guessing many others, it's a nice pleasant walk. I personally can find beauty and solitude every where in our beautiful world, sometimes in the most unlikely places. But glad you have found it on the Camino.

Wish I could agree with your sentiment about the Camino being a "nice, pleasant walk." That's not a word I would use to describe it! A nice pleasant walk is for tourists; a pilgrim, on the other hand, should encounter a level of difficulty it seems, otherwise the penance would be too easy and the indulgence not meaningful. I find silence and solitude in many places, not only on the Camino: the Arizona desert, my Oklahoma farm, in the middle of a trout stream in Idaho, in the desert of Morocco, the Rockies of Montana, sailing across the Atlantic on a 46-foot sloop, and especially in the arms of my family. The Silence, I've learned, isn't in the places I go, but in my heart. It is with us all the time. All we have to do is listen when all us seemingly quiet...

 

[Patch]

Cowboy Joe,
To be honest I couldn't actually see where you disagreed with me.
As I said I am a tourist along with the vast majority of other walkers. You on the other hand are probably a pilgrim - of which their seem to be precious few.
As for penance, I have no real idea of what this means - apart from the dictionary meaning.
It's a great walk through history for me. Our monasteries and convents were demolished centuries ago, they are just ruins now, when the independent English Anglican church was established.

I have done some great walks in your beautiful country as well. Not a great lover of boats.