For me, the Camino was 31 days that subtly unfolded into a mystical journey of sorts. I don’t know why I went initially, other than I had an overwhelming feeling I should. Two days into my walk in 2003 I met a fellow who could have passed for an ancient prophet - long unkempt hair, tired clothes, walking barefoot. Most passed him by as a vagrant, and he avoided others in return. Xavier came and sat next to me while I was resting late one evening in a tiny village east of Pamplona. The man was gentle, wise, and grounded such as no one I can remember and what developed was an emotionally powerful conversation that went on for some time. During our exchange, I posed a question that had plagued me for months leading up to my journey across northern Spain - what I would learn walking the Camino? My fellow traveler surprised me with his answer. I was not there to learn, he told me, but to feel.
His words lingered on long after that evening, and became a catalyst for a re-alignment of my head and heart. The wisdom Xavier offered set me on a path to a rich and deeply felt journey uncovering modern pilgrimage. I could only offer a dictionary definition before I travelled to Europe, and pilgrimage was not my purpose for going. But within a week, I began to experience fully living in the moment, travelling one day at a time, such as I’ve never done before. I came to trust that my needs on the odd sojourn, though I didn’t always know what they would be, would be met with great gentleness when the time and need arrived. And I discovered within my spirit that the real beauty of the Camino reveals itself in a kind of meditative inner peace borne of walking. For a little over a month I slowed down both my life and my heart - no multitasking, no TV or newspapers I could understand, and almost no technology. I accepted the ancient mode of long distance travel, and was afforded the time to look into every pair of eyes I met, sense every tree and stream I passed, and experience the majesty of millenniums old mountains as I first climbed, and then stood on them. Walking 6-7-8 hours a day became like breathing. With my body on automatic, my head and heart experienced their own vacation.
I still remember almost every step of that journey six years later. More than anything, I remember an inner peace so profound; emotional and spiritual peace. I experienced it in the simple life overnighting in dormitory style refugios and realizing the decency with which I was treated. I walked with others and they with me, millionaires, university professors and secretaries, but couldn’t tell the difference between any of them. We all struggled, sweated and slept with equal joy and difficulty. I judged no one, and felt I was judged by no one. The decency of people astounded me. It seemed everyone I met experienced the journey as I did, yet few had words to describe it adequately.
The ‘Camino de Santiago’ or ‘The Way of St. James’, dates back to the early 9th century. The footpath was a trade route from the time of the Roman Empire. Tradition holds it was the road taken by the apostle James as he set out to evangelize Christianity. His remains were reputed to have been buried in northwestern Spain after James’ beheading in Jerusalem. The burial site was discovered around the year 813, near the city today known as Santiago de Compostela. The Spanish tourist office claims the Emperor Charlemagne was the first to travel cross country to venerate the tomb. And thus, the Camino was born. 100,000 walk its 800 kilometers/500 miles every year, millions more in the last millennium.
The Confraternity of St. James in the UK http://www.csj.org.uk/ is one of the best clearing sites for information on and about the Camino.
An interactive map can be found at http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/santiago/spancmno.html
Tomorrow - why go back?
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