Time Lapse

[tomp734444]

I have just looked at my profile and, much to my surprise and not a little regret, I learn that I joined this forum on 28 September, 2012. I presume that the purpose of my enrolment was the thought of undertaking a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in the near future.

I will start my first Camino on 7 September 2019 - fully SEVEN YEARS later! What kept me away for so long?

Well, there was the small matter of recovery from a cardiac arrest; then there were family concerns that I was “past it”. Life in general formed an impenetrable barrier to my wish to hike The Way.

And of course, FEAR! “Fear of what?” you may ask. Well fear of pain & discomfort, fear of injury, fear of ridicule and above all, fear of failure. Well, I have decided to set aside all of the above and booked my trip. I fly from Stansted to Biarritz two weeks tomorrow 5 September (Ryanair pilots permitting). After an overnight stay in Bayonne, and a train to SJPdP the following day, I get my first taste of Albergue life before setting-out on 7 September.

As I mused on these things, I started to wonder if it was unusual to put the Camino off for so long? Or did others also take time to build-up to it? It would be good to hear other people’s experiences.

Buen Camino!

 

[LesBrass]

Buen Camino Pilgrim... I walked my first camino following cancer. I was very fearful for similar reasons to you but I was also always sure I would walk. I decided in 2013 and went the following year... I've been walking every year since.

I hope your walk is wonderful.

 

[Wokabaut_Meri]

Nothing is unusual about the Camino - it is what is and you get what you need not necessarily what you want from it...

I've met pilgrims who took a decade or more before they took the first step along the Way and others who only decided the previous month/week/day and set off totally unprepared yet full of belief. Pilgrims who had trained for years and those who had never walked any distance in their lives. Most of us fall somewhere in between.

Our trio took 5 years from the initial seeding (Martin Sheen has a lot to answer for!) to undertaking the actual walk. Work, family caring commitments, other planned treks, funds and training took up the space in-between.

I'm in awe of your journey so far, overcoming both physical and well intentioned concerns... and facing off with your fears... naming them is a great start as you are already growing beyond them. I realise that fear of failure is a big concern and I truly hope that you will find that the journey itself becomes the destination and, as such, there can be no failure.

May you go out in peace and may you come back in joy.
On the road in between, may you find what fills your heart, feeds your mind and inspires your imagination.

Buen Camino!

 

[Caligal]

Buen Camino!!!

 

[tomp734444]

Nothing is unusual about the Camino - it is what is and you get what you need not necessarily what you want from it...

I've met pilgrims who took a decade or more before they took the first step along the Way and others who only decided the previous month/week/day and set off totally unprepared yet full of belief. Pilgrims who had trained for years and those who had never walked any distance in their lives. Most of us fall somewhere in between.

Our trio took 5 years from the initial seeding (Martin Sheen has a lot to answer for!) to undertaking the actual walk. Work, family caring commitments, other planned treks, funds and training took up the space in-between.

I'm in awe of your journey so far, overcoming both physical and well intentioned concerns... and facing off with your fears... naming them is a great start as you are already growing beyond them. I realise that fear of failure is a big concern and I truly hope that you will find that the journey itself becomes the destination and, as such, there can be no failure.



Buen Camino!

Thank you so much for your kind words.

 

[JabbaPapa]

I will start my first Camino on 7 September 2019 - fully SEVEN YEARS later! What kept me away for so long?

ouch !!!

Y Buen Camino Peregrino !!!

 

[David Tallan]

As I mused on these things, I started to wonder if it was unusual to put the Camino off for so long? Or did others also take time to build-up to it? It would be good to hear other people’s experiences.

Buen Camino!

I did my first Camino in 1989, but it wasn't what I considered a "proper" Camino, so I meant to come back and do it again some time - "properly!" I did - in 2016, fully 27 years later. What took up the time? Meeting a girl, going to grad school, getting married, starting and continuing a career, starting a family, raising kids. Life. And then I was in my fifties and thoughts of the Camino started coming back, really strongly. At that point, my thinking was that it would probably be a trip that I would do when I retired. But my son was interested in walking with me and wasn't sure he would be in a place to do so in his life when I happened to retire. And I had promised him a trip with me when he was sixteen. So it happened then.