Wokabaut_Meri
somewhere along the Way
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Camino Francés 2015
Pilgrims Way 2018
Via Francigena #1 Canterbury-Dover 2018
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) |
---|
I realize that while I am walking it I am in a bubble of sorts. An escape from the day to day grind, whatever that grind may be.
I savor the time I get to walk the Camino. I never ever feel the need to "decompress" from walking the Camino or feel the need to take a holiday to recover from my....holiday? Honestly that concept to me is absurd, and I suppose I see it as a concept invented by the privileged. No offense to anyone....
For me the camino is about people. I see they are the same as I am, someone walking a long distance with a pack on their back, sometimes sharing themselves, sometimes not. Their appearance, their place in the world is nothing compared to the shared experience of the moment. I find while on the camino I am more willing to share and support others, no questions, no doubts. I like that. I can't say I am like that in the 'real' world. Yet.
My comment was not directed to your comment. It was directed to no one in general. Just opinion.It’s NOT about taking a holiday to recover from the Camino - I think you may have misunderstood my questioning so no offence taken.
Many pilgrims relate how they are told by partners / workmates / spouses / neighbours: you’ve had your little holiday but now it’s time to get back into the real world.
I would think just about everyone walking the Camino still knows what is going on in the world while they are strolling through the Spanish countryside and certainly just about everyone communicates with family and friends daily via devices and the internet (which in of itself is a form of bubble dwelling I suppose). That is not what I meant by being in a bubble. I meant it as not being at work/school etc and being able to stroll through the Spanish/French/Portuguese etc countryside with little or no concerns besides whether or not the albergues are full or if you find a good deal on a pilgrim's menu, lol.My "on the Camino life" and "off the Camino life" mesh together nicely, maybe because I spend so much time walking! And my going on a Camino is no longer considered special or unusual, it's just what I do and my family and friends accept that.
I've never felt as if I were in any sort of "bubble" while on the Camino, maybe because I still read the newspaper and communicate with the outside world and during my time "off Camino" I am a moderator of two Camino Facebook pages, participate (since my first Camino in 2010) in this Forum and am a volunteer hospitalera. My link with the Camino is therefore on-going.
Maybe I am luckily but I do not see my daily life at home as a "grind", my going on a Camino is therefore a nice change but never an escape. I have chosen to work less hours, am an independent practitioner who sets my own hours and hence vacations. There is a trade-off of course. Less money comes in but heck, we learn while walking how little we actually need.
What we see and experience on the Camino is at times intense, even magical, but it is only a reflection of that which we can experience in our daily lives at home - if we take the time to stop, listen and observe.
Do you work for a living, or are you retired or something? Just curious....The world I return to is not 'real', its not how the world should be. Its an illusion manufactured and maintained by a psychopathic minority hell-bent on enslaving the majority in consumerism, shallow and inhumane acts of perverse selfishness and destruction. Its not the real world as it should be. Being on Camino reinforces just how false what we are told is, eg how we should live our lives, what will make us happy if we do/have something they manipulate us to believe in and act upon.
Camino is the real world world for me, a real journey of searching and asking. Of being with a community. On Camino I am always blessed with meeting real people, like minded, witness acts of kindness and love. Thats what is real to me, a flash of insight as to how the real world should be.
After Camino, I never fit back into this imposed, perverse false world that is forced upon me. And I am pleased not to do so. You don't have to either - you can let your Camino influence and change you. It doesn't have to be in Earth-shattering leaps and bounds. Tiny or small Camino influences can make a great difference to your life and this world, to make them real, how they should be. Camino has done this too me, been the closest I have ever been to what should be a real world. That's why I (and I am sure many others), yearn for my next Camino as soon I have completed one.
What I love is the Love, Light and Nature of Camino. The real world as it shold be that it offers.
LLN Keith
No, I don't believe you are 'just curious'. Its a passive question as to my relationship to this 'real world' and how I live in it and up to my ideals. There are many ways to reject what is forced upon us and live a real life. And I don't have to explain how to do this. You and others can go and seek this for yourself, its the best way to learn and change. Camino helps with this...Do you work for a living, or are you retired or something? Just curious....
Love to, but there are three people who depend upon me to help keep them fed and clothed, lol. I have to still toil away in the "perverse false world" that enslaves others for the sake of consumerism. You know, like the consumerism that allows us to communicate on these really cool, affordable electronic devices, lol.No, I don't believe you are 'just curious'. Its a passive question as to my relationship to this 'real world' and how I live in it and up to my ideals. There are many ways to reject what is forced upon us and live a real life. And I don't have to explain how to do this. You and others can go and seek this for yourself, its the best way to learn and change. Camino helps with this...
Best regards, LLN
Keith
Love to, but there are three people who depend upon me to help keep them fed and clothed, lol. I have to still toil away in the "perverse false world" that enslaves others for the sake of consumerism. You know, like the consumerism that allows us to communicate on these really cool, affordable electronic devices, lol.
And yet, during the 2 1/2 days of the Australian Friends of the Camino conference here in Adelaide, I felt so strongly the emotions and shared experience that you describe. It was an opportunity to share with others, almost as though we were back somewhere in Europe, walking... I have to say, I found John Brierley's presentations so moving - I was far more impressed by his words to us than I have ever felt reading his guidebooks!For me the camino is about people. I see they are the same as I am, someone walking a long distance with a pack on their back, sometimes sharing themselves, sometimes not. Their appearance, their place in the world is nothing compared to the shared experience of the moment. I find while on the camino I am more willing to share and support others, no questions, no doubts. I like that. I can't say I am like that in the 'real' world. Yet.
Oh Anna! Spot on! I heard exactly those same emotions expressed by so many.And yet, during the 2 1/2 days of the Australian Friends of the Camino conference here in Adelaide, I felt so strongly the emotions and shared experience that you describe. It was an opportunity to share with others, almost as though we were back somewhere in Europe, walking... I have to say, I found John Brierley's presentations so moving - I was far more impressed by his words to us than I have ever felt reading his guidebooks!
I was moved by your post, and instead of looking for words of my own, here are some that have been attributed to various persons, but the messages is the same:Wow! It's been almost a year to the day that I got back from my first Camino and I'm still processing the experience. While nobody has come out and said "Get back to reality", there is a sense of "Camino Life" and "Non-Camino Life". Reading this post has given me a sudden realization - I feel like I came back from my trip a better person. Yes, in some ways my thinking and behavior has changed (I think for the better). Why would I want to go back and be the person I was before the Camino? As time has gone on, I find myself "slipping" a little. I need to remind myself to chill out, let it go. I think this is part of the motivation for doing another Camino. How do you get back into the real world if the real world has changed?
❤Oh Anna! Spot on! I heard exactly those same emotions expressed by so many.
It was truly like being on a Camino and spending the evenings in an Aussie Albergue.
...and John Brierley was a gift - so moving and yet challenging as well. I think, like any Camino, we’ll be processing our experiences for some time.
Go Well
❤Oh Anna! Spot on! I heard exactly those same emotions expressed by so many.
It was truly like being on a Camino and spending the evenings in an Aussie Albergue.
...and John Brierley was a gift - so moving and yet challenging as well. I think, like any Camino, we’ll be processing our experiences for some time.
Go Well
I attended his presentation in Melbourne last evening and found it very worthwhile. He made some interesting points about much of what is discussed in this thread, using anecdotes from his camino travels.And yet, during the 2 1/2 days of the Australian Friends of the Camino conference here in Adelaide, I felt so strongly the emotions and shared experience that you describe. It was an opportunity to share with others, almost as though we were back somewhere in Europe, walking... I have to say, I found John Brierley's presentations so moving - I was far more impressed by his words to us than I have ever felt reading his guidebooks!
I got to say, I have never observed anything Utopian about walking the Camino. Sure, you are in the company of mostly like minded people, but I have observed all the negative stuff life off the Camino walk has. Petty arguments, selfishness, egocentric attitudes, rudeness, theft and other crimes, arrogance. I can only assume all those things have always been on the Camino, and certainly were more abundant and at times fatal during Medieval times.A quote that has stuck with me was one that was shared on one of the Camino podcasts I listen to (My Camino, I think). It goes, "The Camino is God's dream of how people should treat one another." In that sense, the Camino is the dream and the rest of our life is the real world. But consider who is doing the dreaming. Perhaps God's dream has more reality than our perceptions of "regular life".
The whole thing calls to mind the Taoist tale in Zhuangzi "Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man." (translated by Li Yutang)
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?