- Time of past OR future Camino
- First one in 2005 from Moissac, France.
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Hi David. Trish here. What lovely wonderful things you have written. There have been times this year when I've been completely overwhelmed with grief and despair and dealing with my separation has consumed me. But when I read things like this I realise that at some stage all will be well and I will be okay. And I will be healed. It'll take time of course but I will get there. I've extremely grateful for wonderful kids, friends and work colleagues who have helped me so much this last year, and now I'm thankful for joining this forum and getting wonderful support from people like you. Cheers, Trish. xxI am not certain how to write this ... please forgive me - text is so bald sometimes .. but ... well ... I have been deeply moved reading some forum posts recently. It all started when Trish, from New Zealand (hi Trish) wrote so openly and honestly about her partner abandoning her with her children and that now, after a year of grief, she was picking herself up and planning to go on Camino, regardless of the people who might think she was crazy. The supportive responses included others who opened their hearts with their own personal traumas and losses, and I realised that these statements are peppered throughout the forum archive - and I thought - such bravery, such courage, such strong people, such honest people - knowing that they most likely thought the opposite about themselves .. but that is not so.
Many pilgrims are hearty, like a long walk, and many other pilgrims live in this world at a surface level where food and comforts and so on are their only priorities - but here, on this forum, and out there each year on the Camino are individuals who have suffered deeply in one way or another - to me, well, they are called to pilgrimage .. and they have responded - there is healing here - and they are such brave people, with vulnerable and open hearts, willing to accept their emotional pain and to rise and search for their real selves. In that sense theirs is a truly spiritual pilgrimage. I honour you all.
That wonderful Jesuit priest and teacher, Anthony de Mello, wrote
"Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics -Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion -- are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep."
To me it is certain that those with their broken hearts or dreams those who have been broken open, who then pick themselves up, brush themselves down, without hatred or bitterness, and respond to the call to Camino have the greatest opportunity of us all to break through, through tears to find joy, to realise that indeed, All is Well.
So thank you, you who have opened your hearts and been so honest, it has affected me deeply.
Here is a Camino song (by Enya) for you - sound up loud now!
All is Well. You will not walk alone, though it may at first feel like this is so. May you walk as if the Good God were holding your hand ... all is well - buen Camino!
Oh My God Annie - it certainly has been a sad year for you. I truly hope 2014 is a happy healthy and fun year for you and yours ....Thank you so much, David.
It has been a very difficult year for me, from beginning to end.
I lost my sister-in-law, Methodist Pilgrim, my Uncle Ralph, my cousin Richard, and a 34 year old friend who died in her sleep on Christmas Eve.
I can only hope 2014 is better…
Annie
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