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My goodness...just befor I saw this post i was wondering what draws me to the Camino and there the question was!!! ESP perhaps.Hi Everyone...
I am having quite a profound experience and would love to hear feedback and other people's stories and experiences.
I decided to join friends in Sept to walk from Santiago to Muxia to Finisterre. It was always my dream to walk the Camino, but for some reason I thought I had to do the whole thing, so I put my dream on hold till I could find the time to go.
My friends told me they were doing a tour, not something I would gravitate to normally, but since they invited me, I took it as a sign to just go and spend some time on the Camino.
I was gone only 6 days. The last day I kept having one insight (into my life) after another. Since I am home, I am in another place spiritually. I feel so connected to this place, I dream about walking almost every night, and I am looking at going back within the next year or so. I feel like a completely different person.
I am curious at what makes this walk so intensely special for some of us? I can't say I was part of a community, (we did not meet many pilgrims along the way, as we started out late in the day) I did not end up at any of the albergues along the way, so did not form friendships. I did not have to carry all my possessions, and did not have to worry about where to stay at night, or where to eat. Camino 101. So not your "typical" Camino where you can have insights into your life because of the above experiences. (i hope that makes sense) And yet, I had one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
Would love to hear others stories, or input, or just say hello.
I hope to do the Camino Portugese next.
How wonderful Michael!!! Yes, I can totally resonate with this on so many levels. Such a beautiful experience, thank you for sharing.I know what you are talking about as I had the same experience.
Before the Camino:
After the Camino:
- anxious what life will bring
- not social
- stressed
- over organized
- bad tempered
- not listening
- a loner
- needy in regards to things I needed to have or wanting to have
I met a friend with whom I spoke before I left and she cried when I told her about my experience as she walked the camino a couple of years back. She said that I am the person now she always thought I might be and was worried that I wouldn´t find myself again during my walk. But she was so full of joy that I did that we hugged and even shed a few tears.
- relaxed
- good listener
- very social and need my friends
- see what the day brings me
- couldn´t care less what tomorrow brings as only today counts
I am trying to keep this experience and the new found peace in my life every day and the next camino is soon.....7 months and I am off again.
Buen Camino
Hi @andreak58
What a thought - and soul - provoking post. Thank you.
Yes, isn't there something just magical, je ne sais quoi about the Camino? I've trekked some amazing, remote and spiritual journeys around the world yet none has touched me as much and had as lasting a personal and spiritual effect.
I believe that part of it is that we are walking on already sacred ground where many people have walked purposefully and with spiritual intent before us. There is a sense of shared purpose and focus regardless of the reasons that initially brought us onto the Way.
Words are quite inadequate at times and we can all take different meanings from a phrase so I tend to turn towards the poets to explain.
an excerpt from
For The Traveler
John O'Donohue
from his book: To Bless the Space Between Us
...
A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.
May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.
Listening to Oysterband right now...THANKS!!Hi Andrea,
I have given this a lot of thought, as the Camino has taken over a large part of my life.
1. It's the incredible people you meet and the spirt of good will that permeates the journey. The acts of kindness both given and received. People have time to talk with no distractions.
2. It's the adventure, the not knowing what's around the bend or where your going to sleep. Too much of our lives are predictable and too comfortable, that's why I would not over plan a Camino. Spend ,your planning time, mostly on you equipment and once you start let the Way take you where it wants to.
3. It's the freedom from possessions, you quickly find out how few things are really necessary. The act of caring everything on your back is incredibly liberating.
4. It's the feeling of belonging, this is a route that's been walked for centuries by people not a whole lot different than you. The feeling of not being a tourist , on this road you are part of the fabric of the area.
5. It's the physical challenge and the feeling of accomplishment that greets you at the end of everyday.
6. It's living in the moment, a vacation from the world, the only place you have to be at a certain time is the airport for the flight home.
7. It's the perfect time to reevaluate your life and what's really important to you
8. It's the song by the Oysterband " Santiago" your not who you were before
Hi Andrea,Hi Everyone...
I am having quite a profound experience and would love to hear feedback and other people's stories and experiences.
I decided to join friends in Sept to walk from Santiago to Muxia to Finisterre. It was always my dream to walk the Camino, but for some reason I thought I had to do the whole thing, so I put my dream on hold till I could find the time to go.
My friends told me they were doing a tour, not something I would gravitate to normally, but since they invited me, I took it as a sign to just go and spend some time on the Camino.
I was gone only 6 days. The last day I kept having one insight (into my life) after another. Since I am home, I am in another place spiritually. I feel so connected to this place, I dream about walking almost every night, and I am looking at going back within the next year or so. I feel like a completely different person.
I am curious at what makes this walk so intensely special for some of us? I can't say I was part of a community, (we did not meet many pilgrims along the way, as we started out late in the day) I did not end up at any of the albergues along the way, so did not form friendships. I did not have to carry all my possessions, and did not have to worry about where to stay at night, or where to eat. Camino 101. So not your "typical" Camino where you can have insights into your life because of the above experiences. (i hope that makes sense) And yet, I had one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
Would love to hear others stories, or input, or just say hello.
I hope to do the Camino Portugese next.
I know that many people feel that way, but where you stay, and whether or not you carry everything does not a pilgrim make.Stayed in hotels en luggage was send so I was also not the 'real' pilgrim.
Ah..we missed each other by about a week or so. I left Finisterre on Sept 18th. I understand everything you are saying. I am also thinking about CF (or a portion of) end March or so. The only job of the Camino is to walk. How simple.Hi Andrea,
We may have passed eachother , I walked to Muxia and Fisterra sept 26 en 27 after reaching Santiago sept 21. I started in Porto sept 7, first travel alone. Stayed in hotels en luggage was send so I was also not the 'real' pilgrim. But I have the same feeling as you about the Camino. After 2 weeks my husband came and it felt like I wasn't ready with my Camino.....I got that Camino fever and I cannot explain either. Like I don't fit in my daily life, my job. I try to get Some weeks off and go for the Camino Frances in may end april. Then for more weeks, and again alone. Why?? I can't wait to be back on the Camino, it was so nice and easy just to walk , meet nice people and see nice things....
So I don't have a answer, just the same experience which is difficult to explain to others....
I was asking myself, is it a flight for daily life and all the things you have to do, working, cooking, making appointments with other people to have a social life. On the Camino there is nothing you are obliged to do, you only walk. And that gave me such a free feeling. And the addition I feel now can't that make normal daily life more difficult? I hope when I go for the whole way and being away more weeks I Will reach a point of freedom that I can take back home.
It surprised me that the effect from the Camino was so big. Just after two weeks.
Greetings
I am curious at what makes this walk so intensely special for some of us?
Beautiful post, Annette, althought I eradicated most of it in my response.Listen folks...I honestly don't know...I can't explain it and I really feel inadequate by the fact that I can't explain it!!
...
I don't know!
I can't explain it
Why is it such an addictive thing for me? ..don't know!
@andreak58 -
Welcome to the Forum!
I had to think about how to summarize my response to just one thing because I can sooo drone on.
It is the only place/activity in which I experience effortless immersion in the present moment....day after day.
That is the foundation for the rest of the good that comes my way on the Camino.
Maybe that makes sense to you, maybe not.
B
Last night, I was looking for a place to eat in central Leon when I was spoken to by an elderly, and lost, German pilgrim, in German. He was looking for the municipal Albergue. He chose to speak to me. I had spent the previous night at the municipal Albergue. I had learned some German many years before. I was able to lead him to the Albergue, to help him get checked in, and to enjoy dinner together while he told me about his pilgrimage from Germany, begun June 3rd. Why did he speak to me? I was not in pilgrim gear at the time. Why was I able to help him? For me, this is the magic of the Camino - not just that we are willing to help one another, but that the appropriate person will be there when you need them, rejoicing in the privilege.
I am pretty sure I haven't found where I fit in, if I could spend my life walking...It could possibly be that you have time to think...for example:
I am curious at what makes this walk so intensely special for some of us?
My daughter walked it, a colleague walked it, a customer walked it, a friend walked it. Deep in my heart I knew I would walk it. Sold our business and walked it. Think of it every day. The water channels interested me. I just loved the whole thing. We were injury free, only tired and hungry at day's end. I would go again in a heart beat and I probably will when a few things line up. Buen Camino.
As an overall experience, I think the Camino is greater than the sum of its parts. Two months on from walking into Santiago and I am still not fully sure why I even walked it in the first place. I could give vague references to notions of travel, adventure, culture, escaping the rat race for a while and the simple fact that I enjoy walking. Back in St Jean, I certainly didn't see the Camino as having any particular transformative potential.
But somewhere along 'the way', the walking experience transcended what we were actually doing. Completing a Camino felt different to any other travel experiences I have had. If it was simply about culture and travel, well Barcelona has more to offer than Burgos. Adventure? More exotic locales in faraway lands pack more punch than many of the days on the Camino, some of which blended into each other after a while as the day to day routine set in. Enjoy the outdoors, nature and walking? For sure there are some dramatic landscapes along the way, but scenery wise nothing to compare with the Alps, Patagonia, New Zealand.
So what it is about the Camino that allows it to linger in the sub-conscious longer and deeper than other travel experiences? I don't think you can point to one single answer. Perhaps for some of us, it provided the opportunity to live more simply, to have the time to think free from the daily grind which consumes our lives. When you have that time to think, you gain an appreciation for the bigger picture. Returning home you develop a yearning for more meaningful experiences and stronger connections with loved ones.
On a very basic level, the achievement of completing a Camino is a huge boost to my own self-esteem. I didn't like the person I was becoming pre-Camino. Now I feel stronger and more confident and calmer as a person. There will always be feelings of inadequacy in my life, but if I can walk to Roncesvalles and O Cebreiro with no training, I can overcome little moments of crisis in my home life. If I can get through the Meseta in 40 degree heat, I can withstand moments of self-doubt. If i can walk into Santiago with pilgrims happy to call me a friend after walking across Spain together, I can always meet new people and mix comfortably in new social situations.
The special people you meet along the way and that potential to channel the post-Santiago Camino spirit elevates it above any other travel experience I've had.
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