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You did not qualify for the compostela paper that time. That does not mean you were not a pilgrim!I was told I was not a pilgrim. Although, I had started in Roncesvalles I did not walk last 100 kms, time constraints.
While I was not there and certainly do not know the exact words that were used in English or Spanish, I have to respectfully suggest that they did not say that! You did not qualify for a compostela because of the rules in place, but even the five to ten million visitors to Santiago who arrive by car are pilgrims.I was told I was not a pilgrim
Totally, Waka. Anyway, even if we think we know why we go, the Camino usually shows us reasons and questions we didn't even know to ask, right? Speaking for myself...I don't know why I'm going, but i have to go. Dopes that make sense?
we live our way into the answers
Totally, Waka. Anyway, even if we think we know why we go, the Camino usually shows us reasons and questions we didn't even know to ask, right? Speaking for myself...
So:
@JenD I enjoyed your post. I find it helpful to distinguish the practical preparation from the 'other' preparation. I remember preparing for my first trip and reading (especially here) loads of advice about bags and shoes and socks and weight and water and walking poles and etc. And finally deciding that there was a law of diminishing returns. A certain amount of information is useful: pack as lightly as possible. Try to find clothes that dry quickly. Get comfortable shoes. Be prepared to shed excess items in the first week. That's it really! I stopped making any changes in my planning six weeks or so before I left. It is not an interplanetary expedition!!Yesterday I had my monthly meeting with my spiritual director. I told her that I had booked my flight for the Camino for this coming June. She then asked me "why are you doing it" (walking the camino). I could not come up with an answer right away because I have not spent enough time really pondering that question. She again asked "why are you doing it?" and I mumbled something like "to figure out what's next in my life" blah, blah, blah. The question has been on my mind ever since our conversation yesterday and I have realized that I must devote most of my preparation to be towards a spiritual end. From reading the accounts of others, whether here on the forum or from books I have read, I realize that one cannot set expectations for what will happen on the Camino in any psychological or spiritual way. One must be open to what the Camino will provide. At the same time I feel I need to approach this experience in a prayerful way - and my experience has begun, my Camino has begun here at home. I have decided that any reading I do will be along these lines. I think I have read enough about blisters, wicking underwear, and the like. I'm curious what others think, not so that I can do what you have done but just as a means of starting a conversation.
Buen Camino and God Bless!
Jen
And what @Waka says too.Come with an empty cup and it will be filled to overflowing. If it's full of ideas...well, there is no space for anything more to come in.
...A big part of prayerful attitude is simply listening.
Then just let go.
I come with no expectations or special questions and let what happens happen. I like walking alone. I like walking with people. I like eating alone. I like eating with people. I don't plan. And it works. And somehow what needs (in retrospect) to happen, happens.
Thank you for your beautiful and wise words, Tim. And for this powerful poem. We might use different language but I totally 'get' it.Let go. You will be led
like a child whose mother
holds him to her bosom
and against all comers is his shelter.
...the opportunity to step out of the mad fairground...
Exactly! The 'call' awakens something deep within our Being and will not let us rest until we take that first step onto the Way... and then we can forget about ever going back to sleep again...The truth is, Jen, no one knows why they go on Camino as a pilgrim. Oh, sure, people make up reasons in their heads but those reasons come after the 'call' to go, not before. If it was just a long walk people would step out of their door and go for a long walk - but Camino is not just a long walk..
Thank you so much for your ramblings, David. My post-Camino era continues to be touched and informed so much by having answered that persistent 'call' and venturing out onto the Way. I have struggled these past weeks trying to come to terms with the suicide of a friend and especially with having missed him during our desperate search while he was still alive. Your words have reminded and reinforced that there are no answers to Life's Rilke-questions, just acceptance of what is.And the thing is - you will not find "answers" on the Camino, not at all, as it is not about answers it is about acceptance and no longer asking, about learning that it all just 'is'.
And then, in a strange way, I think that applies to the spiritual side as well. Yes, it is a kind of withdrawal in one way from everyday life, like going on retreat. And yet it is very much grounded in everyday life. The simplicity of walking one step after another. Along roads where other people are getting on with daily life. It is elemental and ordinary, in a good sense.
Like, like, likeJen, what a lovely post--one that will probably spark a lively discussion.
So much of what you say is deeply true--about dropping expectations, about attitude, and of how your journey has already begun.
No need to know why--just know you are called and trust that. The answers will come.
About these questions, the big ones as well? The way I see it is that when we as pilgrims just settle back into the walking--holding the questions in our hearts--we live our way into the answers. So to start your physical journey with a huge question mark is a wonderful beginning. Come with an empty cup and it will be filled to overflowing. If it's full of ideas...well, there is no space for anything more to come in. A big part of prayerful attitude is simply listening.
That's what I think, just one view. I'll be interested to know what others here have to say--there is a lot of wisdom to be had here.
[Edited for spelling]
My answer to this one: "El camino se planta una semilla in mi corazon." There is grace in the walking, especially if you don't gab all the way. There is also grace to be found in saying the Rosary every night before sleep. Even if you fall asleep in the middle and wake to finish the rest in the middle of the night!Yesterday I had my monthly meeting with my spiritual director. I told her that I had booked my flight for the Camino for this coming June. She then asked me "why are you doing it" (walking the camino). I could not come up with an answer right away because I have not spent enough time really pondering that question. She again asked "why are you doing it?" and I mumbled something like "to figure out what's next in my life" blah, blah, blah. The question has been on my mind ever since our conversation yesterday and I have realized that I must devote most of my preparation to be towards a spiritual end. From reading the accounts of others, whether here on the forum or from books I have read, I realize that one cannot set expectations for what will happen on the Camino in any psychological or spiritual way. One must be open to what the Camino will provide. At the same time I feel I need to approach this experience in a prayerful way - and my experience has begun, my Camino has begun here at home. I have decided that any reading I do will be along these lines. I think I have read enough about blisters, wicking underwear, and the like. I'm curious what others think, not so that I can do what you have done but just as a means of starting a conversation.
Buen Camino and God Bless!
Jen
Yes. You are called. There is more for you to discover. We know a professor who can't understand why we would go to Santiago twice. He doesn't understand the whole point of the Camino--it's not merely "I was there" and ticking the invisible list. It's about the--for lack of a better word--retreat the Camino becomes as you go.My wife asked me why I was doing the camino again because she couldn't understand why I wanted to go off for 6 weeks or so and just walk, I had no answer to the question, only to say that I don't know why I'm going, but I have to go. Does that make sense?
She then asked me "why are you doing it" (walking the camino).
That reminds me very much of lines from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a young poet:I lost count of the number of friends and acquaintances who asked the 'why' question before I set out on my first pilgrimage. There were so many that I actually alternated my response, having decided upon four separate answers each tailored to a different audience. None were fabrications but none told the whole truth of why I wanted to do this thing. Now, with a bit more than three months until I return, the 'why' question has returned. But this time I'm better prepared to answer. I simply tell then that I walk because I must. Put simply, there would be a large piece of myself that would be missing if I didn't make the journey. People may still look at me as if I'm a bit touched but I feel that I've answered the question fully and to the best of my ability.
Yes, it is as simple as that!I've never asked anyone why they walked the Camino. I just figure they are doing it for the same reason I was, and that is because I wanted to. When I learned of the Camino for the first time I immediately knew I wanted to walk it, and was going to do it one day.
The first time I walked it I never discussed it with any family members as I was working overseas at the time. I just went and did it after a contract ended. I had time to and Paris was just a short flight away. As far as subsequent Caminos go, I had a couple of inquiries as to why I wanted to do it again, and I would answer because I wanted to, and walking it makes me happy. Brings me joy. I love those first steps out of SJPdP. So cool. A couple of hundred yards out you look ahead to where you are going and give a quick glimpse back to where you came from knowing that there's a plaza way on the other side of Spain where you will stop.
I guess my only spiritual preparation I do is when in SJPdP I go to the church there, and pray and ask for a safe and healthy pilgrimage and to take care of my family and loved ones while I'm gone. When I get to Santiago I go in the cathedral and say a prayer of thanks for a safe and healthy journey. Sometimes on the Camino I dedicate a walking day to someone I know.
Ditto for many of us, I would guess. It's something people often write about when reflecting on the journey.Does anyone recognize this?
Hi JenDYesterday I had my monthly meeting with my spiritual director. I told her that I had booked my flight for the Camino for this coming June. She then asked me "why are you doing it" (walking the camino). I could not come up with an answer right away because I have not spent enough time really pondering that question. She again asked "why are you doing it?" and I mumbled something like "to figure out what's next in my life" blah, blah, blah. The question has been on my mind ever since our conversation yesterday and I have realized that I must devote most of my preparation to be towards a spiritual end. From reading the accounts of others, whether here on the forum or from books I have read, I realize that one cannot set expectations for what will happen on the Camino in any psychological or spiritual way. One must be open to what the Camino will provide. At the same time I feel I need to approach this experience in a prayerful way - and my experience has begun, my Camino has begun here at home. I have decided that any reading I do will be along these lines. I think I have read enough about blisters, wicking underwear, and the like. I'm curious what others think, not so that I can do what you have done but just as a means of starting a conversation.
Buen Camino and God Bless!
Jen
So you found the question???It helps me to focus and question correctly. Otherwise I'll end up with 42...
So you found the question???
Feel like sharing and putting us out of the 42 misery?
Good you found the right occasion to post this very personal reflection. It is in a lot of ways an echo of my own reasons to walk, and probably also for some of the other members on this forum.But it seems right now to share with the lovely like minded people on this forum.
Boy if that's 'all' the Camino can do, I'm grabbing it with both hands!I do know that the Camino experience has made me more reflective, rounded, content, tolerant, kind.
I think it's out the realm of theory at this point, Purky.To keep on point I gladly borrow the following from the IMHO underestimated Douglas Adams:
"There is a theory which states that.....it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory mentioned, which states that this has already happened."
In the meantime I just breathe and try not to panic.
There are more things in heaven and earth, VN, than are dreamt of in your philosophy...I think it's out the realm of theory at this point, Purky.
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