transformation in solitude

[radekorion]

Good evening,

Would like to ask if someone had/has experienced deep transformation after dooing the Way alone ?

greetings,

radek

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Yes indeed. Alone and in company.
You are never really alone out there. Silence is essential, I believe, to true transformation (which is why I think twice about plugging into a music system).

But the camino also supplies you with kind listeners to help you process and solidify the shifts that begin and continue in the times of solitude.

It´s a perfect combination. There´s nothing quite like it, therapy-wise.

Reb.

 

[andy.d]

Radek,

Yes, I believe so. On the Camino de Levante recently I was the only pilgrim for the first three or four weeks. This was very hard and very good - I wouldn't swap that experience for anything.
The second half of the Camino I was usually with others, generally in a quiet way. This was also good and was less half.

I'm still processing it all and will be or some time. If you read my blog entries, you'll pick up something of how it affected me at the time. Walking solo through La Mancha was very special.

Sorry I can't be more specific at the moment (although my wife says that I am getting through Christmas - I'm a priest and look after two very different communities of faith - much better than normal)

Andy

 

[KiwiNomad06]

I walked by myself, and though there were always people not far away on the Le Puy route, in my early weeks I walked alone most of the time. Maybe I didn't experience 'deep transformation' but I think in that quietness, I did experience changes. When my feet were very sore in the first ten days, there came a point where I realised that I needed to concentrate on being thankful for what was around me, rather than on the soreness of my feet. So being thankful in the present moment- perhaps that has been a gift of my Chemin. And I am glad I had those weeks where I just walked pretty much with myself alone, though I am also grateful for the company I had later on- especially over the Pyrenees, and in the last 100km from Sarria when I walked with a couple from Quebec the whole time. (I had first met them three weeks into my Chemin just after Cahors in France, and we kept losing and finding each other from then on!)

I think though that sometimes people are hoping for a transformation on the Camino that does not always happen. I met a young woman at a cafe on the rural route for Astorga. She was, I believe, deeply unhappy to the point of considering suicide, and had hoped that walking part of the Camino might 'cure' her. It hadn't, and she was about to return back to London where she was studying. I often think of her, and hope she is still alive, and that her life has become happier.
Margaret

 

[sillydoll]

Our spiritual advisor to the CSJ of South Africa (Fr Frank) once wrote:
“Solitude is necessary and often welcome but there are times when we need com-pan-eros, the ones we share bread with; not just the edible type but also the bread of our experiences and the many insights, revelations and learning that we consume as we walk along the Way.”