• Get your Camino Frances Guidebook here.
  • For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here.
    (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation)
  • ⚠️ Emergency contact in Spain - Dial 112 and AlertCops app. More on this here.

Search 69,459 Camino Questions

Listening to the Silence Through the Meseta...

CowboyJoe

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2015
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
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
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!
 
Very true and I am one of those who enjoyed the meseta.
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
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.
 
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...
 
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.
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.

Most read last week in this forum

My name is Henrik and I will be coming down to SJPdP from Sweden on March 26 and start walking on March 27. I don't really have any experience and I'm not the best at planning and I'm a little...
When I hiked the Frances Route this happened. I was hiking in the afternoon just east of Arzua. I was reserved a bed at an albergue in Arzua, so I had already hiked all the way from San Xulien...
I'd like some recommendations about where to find the most current and up to date information about albergues that are actually open. I'm currently walking the camino Frances, and I can't even...
I am finalizing my packing list for Frances, and do not want to over pack. (I am 71) I will be starting at SJPdP on April 25th to Roncesvalles and forward. I was hoping on some advise as to...
First marker starting from Albergue Monasterio de la Magdalena in Sarria (113.460 km) Start: 2023.9.29 07:22 Arrival: 2023.9.30 13:18 walking time : 26 hours 47 minutes rest time : 3 hours 8...
A local Navarra website has posted a set of photos showing today's snowfall in the area around Roncesvalles. About 15cm of snow fell this morning surprising pilgrims on the way...

❓How to ask a question

How to post a new question on the Camino Forum.

Similar threads

Forum Rules

Forum Rules

Camino Updates on YouTube

Camino Conversations

Most downloaded Resources

This site is run by Ivar at

in Santiago de Compostela.
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliate program, designed to provide a means for Ivar to earn fees by linking to Amazon
Official Camino Passport (Credential) | 2024 Camino Guides
Back
Top