I heard about the Camino Francés from a friend/colleague of mine who had decided to leave full time employment and take a 8 month long sabatical. A friend of hers had already planned to do the Camino from Astorga onwards the following month, and invited her to join. At the time I thought it sounded like a great opportunity, but it seemed such a luxury (time, time away from family and obligations, a whole year's worth of annual leave - just to walk from Astorga!). I was cracking under pressure from my day to day life, I knew I wanted to do it, but a misguided sense of loyalty pushed it to the back of my mind.
She came back from her "walk", 6kg lighter in body, but infinitely lighter in spirit, and dragged us all to the boardroom for a slide show of her pictures. 2 hours in, the audience had dwindled to me and one other. She told us how she thought she couldn't go any further, but pushed herself as she thought that there would be a village just on the other side of the woods, just to be faced with a mountain. She related how she felt completely and utterly defeated, let her pack slide from her shoulders, and she just lay down on the ground. She joked, saying "Here, jy kan my nou kom vat" (Lord, you can come fetch me now), but I was crying. In fact, I'm tearing up right now just thinking about it, and it is more than a year later. 7 months after that slide show, I was diagnosed as clinically depressed (only took so long because I didn't want to acknowledge that I needed help).
I smile when people say "the Way provides"... A year after first meeting my psychologist, I needed help again, so I went back to my psychologist. It was in that session that he asked me if there was anything in the world that I wanted to do, that would be just for me, and the next two worlds just slipped out: The Camino. Initially, he looked a bit surprised, then gave a little chuckle. I then found out that he had walked the Camino Francés. Not once, but twice. He and my husband have been my support team to get to this point. My kids have been great too, provided I promised to bring them souvenirs from Paris (why Paris??).
It was after this that I watched The Way. I recalled seeing the DVD a few years earlier being sold at a local music shop, but the description didn't grab me (granted, I did only look at the front cover...). I've since bought it (had to order it online, should have bought it when I had a chance), and have watched it about 6 times, with my husband, and with the kids. every time they get to that last hill, where the two pilgrims look across to Santiago, I start crying, and I cry right up to when they get their Compostella's. My favourite character is Joost. I hope to meet a few like him along the way.
The downside was that I had to explain that I was not going to do something silly and die on the mountain, so I made Daniel sound like a complete tot for going what was CLEARLY the WRONG direction (just to put them at ease, I am aware of the dangers on the mountain specifically), and promise not to lose my pack because their Eiffel Tower snow globes will be in there (shhhhhh, I'll only get that on the way back).
In a nutshell, after first hearing of the Camino, I knew I wanted to do it, but it took some further divine intervention to actually start me on the way... To The Way... Which, by the way... I'll be walking through May...
