sillydoll
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2002 CF: 2004 from Paris: 2006 VF: 2007 CF: 2009 Aragones, Ingles, Finisterre: 2011 X 2 on CF: 2013 'Caracoles': 2014 CF and Ingles 'Caracoles":2015 Logrono-Burgos (Hospitalero San Anton): 2016 La Douay to Aosta/San Gimignano to Rome:
I love reading 'live' blogs and have been following a couple for a while and would love to share a post from each one - one just finished and one nearing the end but both struggling to express what it means to them to be a pilgrim.
"i'm back in vt, with mixed emotions. i had no desire to leave the camino life - with no stresses other than feet, food, and sleep, the steady push forward to a common goal, the funny, surprising, strange, and enlightening conversations, and of course the spectacular food and sights. all i really missed from the "normal" world were friends and family. so it was great to see them, but hard to readjust to bills, and cars and daytime tv, and traffic jams. and a whole load of other things
it feels like there's so much i could write, and i'm not sure how to make it understandable and truly representative of what happened and what the experience was. in short, the camino was unbelievable, and unlike anything else, the camaraderie, spirit, values, and people combine to create a situation unlike any other. i'd start again tomorrow if i could, or do like one guy - live on the camino, just go back and forth from france to santiago, latching onto various groups to have them pay for food, etc. in exchange for entertaining stories from the road. hmm...i'm liking this option."
"The feeling of being within striking distance of the destination is now palpable among all of us, as we start to chat about Santiago more regularly. But it also causes me to rethink why I´m here and what I´m headed for, so that once I reach the final stop I can be thoughtful about what exactly I have achieved.
Most likely, that question is more appropriately asked, "What will be accomplished in me?" because what happens to me is far more powerful than what I plan or intend. The trite saying is true, "Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans."
My prayer of late has been that the Spirit will pray in me, that the camino will walk me, that whatever I can learn will be accomplished in me. Because, most times, what I want or plan is far surpassed by what actually occurs. That, I think, is grace.
I don´t always know what is happening or what I am learning, but I trust that something bigger than I can imagine is happening. Life is being walked into me on the camino. The shape of rocks and the contours of human existence are imprinted into my feet, on my face, and in my heart as I do the very basic, simple things of living -- moving, breathing, seeing, feeling.
Just walking. Day after day after day. I have plenty of time, lots of time. To walk, to think, to talk, to sing, to breathe in and out, with each of millions of steps over path after path that stretches, seemingly, endlessly toward a destination that can never be fully known until it is experienced. Life is in the moving, the continual step, that eludes philosophizing -- though that´s indeed what I´m doing now, right?! -- and always beckons the pilgrim toward more, into the eternal yawn and stretch of time that disciplines me down to the very simple way of step by step by step.
God forgive me for trading living for planning, accomplishment, and bragging. God give me grace to walk the way."
"i'm back in vt, with mixed emotions. i had no desire to leave the camino life - with no stresses other than feet, food, and sleep, the steady push forward to a common goal, the funny, surprising, strange, and enlightening conversations, and of course the spectacular food and sights. all i really missed from the "normal" world were friends and family. so it was great to see them, but hard to readjust to bills, and cars and daytime tv, and traffic jams. and a whole load of other things
it feels like there's so much i could write, and i'm not sure how to make it understandable and truly representative of what happened and what the experience was. in short, the camino was unbelievable, and unlike anything else, the camaraderie, spirit, values, and people combine to create a situation unlike any other. i'd start again tomorrow if i could, or do like one guy - live on the camino, just go back and forth from france to santiago, latching onto various groups to have them pay for food, etc. in exchange for entertaining stories from the road. hmm...i'm liking this option."
"The feeling of being within striking distance of the destination is now palpable among all of us, as we start to chat about Santiago more regularly. But it also causes me to rethink why I´m here and what I´m headed for, so that once I reach the final stop I can be thoughtful about what exactly I have achieved.
Most likely, that question is more appropriately asked, "What will be accomplished in me?" because what happens to me is far more powerful than what I plan or intend. The trite saying is true, "Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans."
My prayer of late has been that the Spirit will pray in me, that the camino will walk me, that whatever I can learn will be accomplished in me. Because, most times, what I want or plan is far surpassed by what actually occurs. That, I think, is grace.
I don´t always know what is happening or what I am learning, but I trust that something bigger than I can imagine is happening. Life is being walked into me on the camino. The shape of rocks and the contours of human existence are imprinted into my feet, on my face, and in my heart as I do the very basic, simple things of living -- moving, breathing, seeing, feeling.
Just walking. Day after day after day. I have plenty of time, lots of time. To walk, to think, to talk, to sing, to breathe in and out, with each of millions of steps over path after path that stretches, seemingly, endlessly toward a destination that can never be fully known until it is experienced. Life is in the moving, the continual step, that eludes philosophizing -- though that´s indeed what I´m doing now, right?! -- and always beckons the pilgrim toward more, into the eternal yawn and stretch of time that disciplines me down to the very simple way of step by step by step.
God forgive me for trading living for planning, accomplishment, and bragging. God give me grace to walk the way."