- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2009-2022: CFx6, CP, VdlPx2, Mozarabe, more later.
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My first time taking a bus was a wake up moment on the difference between the Camino one step at a time and transportation. There is something in each of us that wants others to feel things the way we do, say the joy of carrying one's backpack. When that hubris is abandoned and the essential aloneness of life is accepted, I have found the one-step approach very satisfying.What is your perception of time on the Camino?
Yes I got a shock when we took a taxi to Finisterre - he seemed to be driving dangerously fast - but I had just became used to life at walking speed.My first time taking a bus was a wake up moment on the difference between the Camino one step at a time and transportation. There is something in each of us that wants others to feel things the way we do, say the joy of carrying one's backpack. When that hubris is abandoned and the essential aloneness of life is accepted, I have found the one-step approach very satisfying.
I remember standing on an overpass above the Autovia near Sahagun, transfixed. The cars down there were going so fast.I had just became used to life at walking speed.
The writer of Ecclesiastes informs us that there is a time for everything under the sun. In Camino context there is a time to walk and a time to rest. There is a time to wish that time will speed up as one's fatique and discomfort with blisters or sore musles are in your face and immediate longing for things to come to an end for that day. There is however also a time when one wants to slow things down as you get into a new day's walking or stretching the vinho tinto that goes with your dinner in the company of other pilgrims. The relativity of these matters are central to our being ane becoming. Our task is to give thanks in all things as we walk and talk our way though what has been created for us to enjoy. To God be the Glory. There is nothing relative about that. Let time enter the eternal momentarily as we walk along the Way. Let the eternal be our guiding light in matters temporal. Be in the moment. Be in space. Be relatively anchored to the road less travelled for now.Not meant to be a provocative thread, but:
What is your perception of time on the Camino? And I mean PERCEPTION.
We are talking about days to go from there to there, time constraints, skipping parts of it, and so on...
But: The time on the Camino is time away from your everyday world.: Busy? No time to think? Just work 24/7?. Or completely new reflections upon your life?
What is time? Your life, or your life with others? Is your life better alone, or is it better with others.?
Is your life fulfilled on your own or is it better spending time interacting with other human beings, giving from yourself?
Difficult questions, I know, but I am looking for compassion here: Understanding my fellow pilgrims, and trying to help them understanding the Way, for their own best, meeting beautiful people along the Way, proving that life is much more than those things and valuables we left behind.
Because we start out from everyday life, and the Camino is something completely different: Only you, your backpack and you. But then again, you will find people that are just like you, on the Way, and you connect in possibly lifelong friendship.
And time is relative: You can spend a long time with yourself, lonely, but a short time being a samaritan, seeming like a long time.
Just some thoughts on a deeper feeling of the Camino.
Edit: I should add, about time, for many who walk in pain, for whatever reason: Shared joy is double joy. Shared sorrow is half sorrow. I know from experience that it's right. And get an "in vicarto pro" sign in Santiago for your loved one.
During the past years
on every camino there were timeless stretches which seemed to be in another world. Past were the hoards of camera-clicking tourists and/or pilgrims as well as any urbane atmosphere with a bar at every corner. All was reduced to simple basics; I was alone on a seemingly endless gravel path beneath the vast dome of an immense sky. The only sound was the companionable crunch of my boots and perhaps distant birdsong.
Happily for me while tramping along and alone I often sensed that special moment when everything 'clicked' realizing that this was, indeed, MY way and that all was and would be good. ...Perhaps such secular transcendence felt while walking might be akin to what runners call 'the zone'. Your body can handle the task while your spirit glows with the effort. Neither easy, nor impossible; all simply is. ...Thus, thankfully you continue.
PS. I first began to walk the CF when I was 65. In a few weeks I shall be 80. Age and time have taken their toll but hopefully my personal memories will endure. Physically I may not be there, but sentimentally as long as I live I will always "wear" my shell. And whenever my life may end it is reassuring to hope that this beloved route will continue throughout the centuries to come.
Exactly.It came as a bit of a shock the first time I took a bus and realised that what took me a day to walk, could be done in half an hour by bus. But there was absolutely no comparison with the quality of the time spent on the bus with that spent walking.
When on a high speed train in Spain with my son after our camino, I figured that a day's walk on the camino took 4 minutes on the train.It came as a bit of a shock the first time I took a bus and realised that what took me a day to walk, could be done in half an hour by bus. But there was absolutely no comparison with the quality of the time spent on the bus with that spent walking.
Which of those two experiences was the best for you?When on a high speed train in Spain with my son after our camino, I figured that a day's walk on the camino took 4 minutes on the train.
I think that where we are posting this is a clue.Which of those two experiences was the best for you?
Thank you for the article link: I think many of us can relate to it. It makes sense.Returning to the Q at hand once more, I seemed to member Kierkegaard saying smthng on the Time/ Eternity concept.
In searching the net I found this article, stating that when we are in awe, time perception changes. Time does appear to expand:
//www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-awe-stops-the-clock/
I too, have had to backtrack in a bus to fetch some articles left behind, that were too dear to let go of, and also felt the crazy speed going back the 25 kms and feeling it a betrayal of my mission....
I think being in a vast landscape and committed to a pledge to fullfill a mission ( ie in my case, to walk every step of the way) leaves me plenty of time.
I have a framework to work within, this gives me joy and makes me feel happy, leaving me with plenty of time...
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