Listening to the Silence Through the Meseta...

CowboyJoe

Active Member

Time of past OR future Camino

2015

• Jun 11, 2016

• #1

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

Active Member

Time of past OR future Camino

Frances -2016
Portuguese -2019
Le Puy - July 2022

• Jun 11, 2016

• #2

Wow! Love it!

 

Zoula

Danielle

Time of past OR future Camino

CF Sept. 2014, CP Sept. 2016, maybe VdlP April 2018

• Jun 11, 2016

• #3

Well said Cowboy Joe!

 

Robo

Veteran Member

Donating Member

Time of past OR future Camino

Frances 15,16,18
VdlP 23, Invierno 23, Fisterra 23

• Jun 12, 2016

• #4

Think you nailed it Joe

 

Waka

Veteran Member

Donating Member

Time of past OR future Camino

Some but not all, and other routes too.

• Jun 12, 2016

• #5

It's all very true.

 

Wokabaut_Meri

somewhere along the Way

Time of past OR future Camino

Camino Francés 2015
Pilgrims Way 2018
Via Francigena #1 Canterbury-Dover 2018

• Jun 12, 2016

• #6

A meditation from a poet's heart.

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

 

PEI_Heather

Canadian Member

Time of past OR future Camino

2016 - Voie de la Nive
2012, 2016 - Frances
2013 - Portuguese
2012, 2013 - Finesterre & Muxia

• Jun 12, 2016

• #7

Robo said:

Think you nailed it Joe

Click to expand...

(Or toe-nailed it, Robo?! )

 

PEI_Heather

Canadian Member

Time of past OR future Camino

2016 - Voie de la Nive
2012, 2016 - Frances
2013 - Portuguese
2012, 2013 - Finesterre & Muxia

• Jun 12, 2016

• #8

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

So many friends to meet . . . so little time

Time of past OR future Camino

Camino Francés,Inglés
Muxia/Finisterre
Português Coastal
Português Central
Sanabrés

• Jun 12, 2016

• #9

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

 

Patch

Active Member

Time of past OR future Camino

St Jean to Santiago and Porto to Santiago

• Jun 12, 2016

• #10

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

Active Member

Time of past OR future Camino

2015

• Jun 18, 2016

• #11

Patch said:

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.

Click to expand...

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

Active Member

Time of past OR future Camino

St Jean to Santiago and Porto to Santiago

• Jun 21, 2016

• #12

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.