- Time of past OR future Camino
- First one in 2005 from Moissac, France.
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I'm sure it will change me in some ways though, if it doesn't, then it was a terrible waste of time!
I have been pondering along similar lines. Who is a pilgrim? Is everyone who walks the camino a pilgrim? How do you know you are a pilgrim? I think many people I met on the Camino were definitely on a religious pilgrimage while others were on vacation. I think some people became pilgrims on the Way... and discovered they had to change their name from Simon to Peter!!!Hi all - have been pondering about this, this .. what is it? being called, nagged, to go on Camino and one's life being changed by the experience - now, to me it is simple as with my world view it is God that calls and we who answer .. and I feel that goes for agnogs and atheists too - someone sent me a cartoon just now and it made me wonder (after I stopped laughing) how many lives are changed, changed forever by this pilgrimage.
How many thought they were just going on a long hike without really knowing why - how many who had realised their lives were actually empty and went from a mix of desperation and hope.
How many have gone home and been utterly unable to slot back into their old meaningless untrue lives and have realigned themselves; with their friends and family, with the world, with their God (or whatever name they use - it doesn't matter, they are only signposts pointing at something beyond) ... just wondering ... pondering .. how wonderful the Camino is, how blessed we are that it is there, how blessed that we get called, nagged, nagged and nagged, to leave our comfort zones and throw ourselves fully into the immediate and being present life that the Camino is.
That is all .. just pondering, how the Good God - whether you believe he exist or not, will change our lives for the better, whether we like it or not!- this is the cartoon that started this rambly thought process - Buen Camino to you all.
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Hi all - have been pondering about this, this .. what is it? being called, nagged, to go on Camino and one's life being changed by the experience - now, to me it is simple as with my world view it is God that calls and we who answer .. and I feel that goes for agnogs and atheists too - someone sent me a cartoon just now and it made me wonder (after I stopped laughing) how many lives are changed, changed forever by this pilgrimage.
How many thought they were just going on a long hike without really knowing why - how many who had realised their lives were actually empty and went from a mix of desperation and hope.
How many have gone home and been utterly unable to slot back into their old meaningless untrue lives and have realigned themselves; with their friends and family, with the world, with their God (or whatever name they use - it doesn't matter, they are only signposts pointing at something beyond) ... just wondering ... pondering .. how wonderful the Camino is, how blessed we are that it is there, how blessed that we get called, nagged, nagged and nagged, to leave our comfort zones and throw ourselves fully into the immediate and being present life that the Camino is.
That is all .. just pondering, how the Good God - whether you believe he exist or not, will change our lives for the better, whether we like it or not!- this is the cartoon that started this rambly thought process - Buen Camino to you all.
View attachment 23681
I sometimes think the Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage of the mind. When I returned home after mine I said nothing had changed, but I was wrong, it just took a little while to realize it.
How many thought they were just going on a long hike without really knowing why
It's an interesting point you bring up. I've considered many times where the Pilgrimage 'takes place' and what it is and agree that the mind is primary but would also add that for me I believe it was through the month of daily physical effort and rhythm of walking that my mind was finally able to let go of all the other internal and external 'noise' in my life and really let the Camino in. After that point it became spiritual but lest I break some house rules, I'll leave it at that
This is a qualified 'like' - it's never a waste of time. But the rest of your post is right on.I don't know if I can put a 'why' I am doing it. I know it's a really long hike, and I'm not necessarily searching for a life changing experience. I keep calling it my 'reset button'. 2015 was a spectacularly shite year for me...lost my job of 7 years that I was told I was never in danger of losing, lost a lover, a medical issue came up as well, then several close friends died. So I decided to take a three month sabbatical and spent December in America, most of January at home in Kenya, and now I'm in Portugal about to start the camino to have a few weeks of remembering what it's like to sleep in hotels that are not 5 star, that I don't have to sleep with one hand on my phone to answer that important client call, to not get up at 0400 to try and get a training session in because I'll be too busy for the next 16 hours to do one, to be able to do things my way and not the way my lover wanted it done, to have to answer to no one and just check out for a couple weeks. I am sure I'll be in awe of the cathedral in Santiago, just as I am of any beautiful church, but there isn't anything religious in this for me, as I'm Taoist.
I'm sure it will change me in some ways though, if it doesn't, then it was a terrible waste of time!
Hi all - have been pondering about this, this .. what is it? being called, nagged, to go on Camino and one's life being changed by the experience - now, to me it is simple as with my world view it is God that calls and we who answer .. and I feel that goes for agnogs and atheists too - someone sent me a cartoon just now and it made me wonder (after I stopped laughing) how many lives are changed, changed forever by this pilgrimage.
How many thought they were just going on a long hike without really knowing why - how many who had realised their lives were actually empty and went from a mix of desperation and hope.
How many have gone home and been utterly unable to slot back into their old meaningless untrue lives and have realigned themselves; with their friends and family, with the world, with their God (or whatever name they use - it doesn't matter, they are only signposts pointing at something beyond) ... just wondering ... pondering .. how wonderful the Camino is, how blessed we are that it is there, how blessed that we get called, nagged, nagged and nagged, to leave our comfort zones and throw ourselves fully into the immediate and being present life that the Camino is.
That is all .. just pondering, how the Good God - whether you believe he exist or not, will change our lives for the better, whether we like it or not!- this is the cartoon that started this rambly thought process - Buen Camino to you all.
View attachment 23681
Cat - I cannot answer here as it strays too far into the religious, although what I would write isn't actually discussing religion - even so, some would take exception and post negative things .. there are one or two on the forum who do this, sad really. I know of no other online places where this can be discussed.
All of the below is my merely personal opinion, just that - and it is not about religion
I think that I can however write this without breaking forum rules as it is about experience and not religion .... What I do know is that most people seem to have no real idea why they feel that they have to go ... I mean, why would you go? Why on earth would you go? Unless you live in Europe it is stunningly expensive and then ..to suffer walking some 500 miles over three mountain ranges in all sorts of weather, carrying everything on your back, crammed into mixed refugios, most of which are really primitive - why would anyone want to do that? How on earth can that seem to be a good idea? Yet people do exactly that, over two hundred thousands now each year.
On Camino some experience change, many do not. Some experience deep life-altering change, others a new way of looking at their life, a break that has given them perspective. What I have observed is that those who stay in continuous contact with the world they have left tend not to have deep experiences. Those who travel in groups or with their partners tend not to have deep experiences (though they may indeed strengthen their mutual love to a strong degree).. a pilgrimage, as the journey is really internal, has to be encountered alone.
- the Camino is there, waiting .. something happens to a person .. they overhear someone talking about it, or hear about a film, or see someone wearing a scallop shell and google it ... and then it sits in the mind and nags and nags and nags until they have to go, and most don't know why - now, some go on a walking holiday, some go for a long and strenuous hike, some go because their friends are going, some youngsters as a gap-year thing, some go on Pilgrimage ... but all because something has called them and won't let them go. What is common amongst those who go alone - not everyone, but common - is that there is a crisis in their life. Lost a job, partner, debt, lost their religion, God forbid, a child, woke up at 3am and found their life was utterly empty, looked back at the last 30 years of their working life and it all suddenly seems utterly meaningless and they had no idea what was real and what was not .... so they go on Camino .. inside, even though they may not know it, they are lost and are hoping to find 'something' but there is no 'some thing' to find, no external object that will satisfy .... it doesn't exist - but, by going through the physical pilgrimage they also go through an internal pilgrimage and sooner or later they come face to face with who they really are - or rather, the unhappy corrupted lonely person they have been, and at the same time they look to that other life they have left and either see the true treasure within it - their family or children or loved one, or a vocation they can pursue of helping others, or that it is so empty that they will have to create a new one - and they are changed, not into something different but into who they really always were, the original them - bold, courageous, generous, loving, kind, full both of laughter and tears and willing to express both at the drop of a hat ..... this Camino - the why did I go, what did I experience - it cannot really be explained in words - those who have been changed know, those who haven't don't.
.... here's a thing - do you remember those 3D images that at first looked like 2D but if you looked long enough and in the right way they suddenly became these utterly amazing 3D images? The deep Camino experience is like that - what was 2D suddenly becomes 3D - one cannot explain it, one cannot teach it to others and if they try to explain it to those who can only see the 2D picture they will be disbelieved, scorned, call delusional - and it has always been like that.
Cat, you are asking for a product that you can display to your class, but there is no product, only the experiential - I'm afraid that you have to go on pilgrimage to Santiago .. and, poor Cat .... you may not know it but you are already hooked - you will be nagged and nagged until you goBuen Camino!
p.s. - what you could do is show your class the film The Way, with Martin Sheen ??
Dave i think we met in st jean a few years ago i think you were giving out ear plugsCatherine - you are very kind - but is only my personal opinions!
Ahh - so you are one who has been called and nagged and nagged to go? Marvellous!
Yes, I am one of those opposed to the constant electronic contact with the old life - for many reasons, all to do with the "thereness" - and even boredom! - of the inner journey.
Why do we do it? No idea really. apart from this "call" I sometimes wonder if it is in our genes? Were we migrating herd followers for millenia before we started farming? It seems certain that the ancient cultures such as the Celts did pilgrimage over long distances - will we ever know??
We may meet! I should be on Camino at that time, doing first aid - look out for a fat man in brown with a face like an old coconut
Catherine - you are very kind - but is only my personal opinions!
Ahh - so you are one who has been called and nagged and nagged to go? Marvellous!
Yes, I am one of those opposed to the constant electronic contact with the old life - for many reasons, all to do with the "thereness" - and even boredom! - of the inner journey.
Why do we do it? No idea really. apart from this "call" I sometimes wonder if it is in our genes? Were we migrating herd followers for millenia before we started farming? It seems certain that the ancient cultures such as the Celts did pilgrimage over long distances - will we ever know??
We may meet! I should be on Camino at that time, doing first aid - look out for a fat man in brown with a face like an old coconut
Dave i think we met in st jean a few years ago i think you were giving out ear plugs
very welcomed indeed my sister is a snorer ,so thanks again
if that was you .
I hope we meet, David. Where will you be doing first aid? I will definitely look for you!
And, I agree, The Call seems to be an ancient, unexplainable, intuitive human condition.
Just had a long discussion with my partner about how we will, or will not, use technology on our journey.
Thanks for all your thoughts!
Catherine
If you're lucky, or so disposed, the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage will change you.
The Camino de Santiago, like it or not, was founded by religious people, with a religious purpose. Religion is also all about personal change, and transformation... as the cartoon points out: it can change your very name.
The Camino is about change and transformation... and suffering, too.
So it only makes sense to discuss the camino in religious terms.
I am always dismayed at the closed-minded pilgrims who refuse to acknowledge the camino's historic roots as a religious pathway, and who come down hard on Christian pilgrims, saying "this is MY camino, I will travel MY way," and who refuse to acknowledge that religious belief, let alone human suffering, can have any positive outcome.
Any mention of the religious reality of the camino is condemned as "judgemental" or "outdated" or even "fascist," and discussions of redemptive suffering are seen as pathological or masochistic or "just sick."
Many pilgrims have had terrible, harmful experiences with Catholicism or organized religion or Christianity, but they choose to walk this overtly Christian path... and somehow they expect the place and people here to bend to THEIR sensitivities and sensibility. I do not think this is realistic, nor is is appropriate. The Camino is studded with crucifixes and blisters and hospitals, because the camino, and religion, and pilgrimage, are all about transformation and change... things that are very hard work. Things that are painful. Things that are inherent in any worthwhile human endeavor.
Christians, like it or not, are taught that sometimes great effort, sacrifice, and pain have wonderful outcomes.
Pilgrims, Christian or not, often discover the same thing as they walk.
I say all that to say this: If you want "the true camino experience," don't look for it in boots, albergues, movies, dinners, plans, guidebooks, routes, or flights. Set aside your preconceptions about Catholicism and religion and pilgrimage and The Camino de Santiago and what the church did to you or your loved ones, and accept that this is a path invented by Catholic Christians, but quite generously open to everyone.
Just walk. Open your ears to the birdsong and rain and wind. Open your heart to what comes. It will be boring and painful and amazing, all in turns... But if you come with a child's heart, God will meet you out there. Somehow, some way you don't expect it, or even recognize.
And wow, that is when the change begins!
Albertagirl - good questions indeed - I think you should start a brand new post on this - I think it will get some interesting responses - I would love to hear from others on this subject - will you post as a new post? (Think you should!!).
Of course, if you think it would be helpful. D if you like but happy for you to use my name.
I tried to reply to you, but don't think it posted. Please excuse me if you read this twice!I don't know if I can put a 'why' I am doing it. I know it's a really long hike, and I'm not necessarily searching for a life changing experience. I keep calling it my 'reset button'. 2015 was a spectacularly shite year for me...lost my job of 7 years that I was told I was never in danger of losing, lost a lover, a medical issue came up as well, then several close friends died. So I decided to take a three month sabbatical and spent December in America, most of January at home in Kenya, and now I'm in Portugal about to start the camino to have a few weeks of remembering what it's like to sleep in hotels that are not 5 star, that I don't have to sleep with one hand on my phone to answer that important client call, to not get up at 0400 to try and get a training session in because I'll be too busy for the next 16 hours to do one, to be able to do things my way and not the way my lover wanted it done, to have to answer to no one and just check out for a couple weeks. I am sure I'll be in awe of the cathedral in Santiago, just as I am of any beautiful church, but there isn't anything religious in this for me, as I'm Taoist.
I'm sure it will change me in some ways though, if it doesn't, then it was a terrible waste of time!
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