Many routes along the Camino de Santiago
After reading Sonia Choquette’s Walking Home, about her pilgrimage on the Santiago de Compostela Camino which is a 600+ mile walk across northern Spain to the North Atlantic Ocean, I searched my library for Shirley MacLaine’s 2001 The Camino where she shares her journey walking it. I figured it would be with all my MacLaine books. There are like 10 books and I couldn’t find any of them. The next morning, I checked the smaller bookcases in all the rooms and found them with the astrology books. The Camino was not with them. Time to organize the books. No sooner said than the pre-paving to organization began! I found a Word document from 2011 listing books I’d been sent for review the last 20 years. That gave me a great starting place. I sorted the list by author name, which helped in letting me know just what I have and how I want to organize the library. It’s easier to prepave when I have enough info. More on that later, right now I want to talk about the Camino de Santiago. In the book Walking Home, Sonia Choquette mentions the Martin Sheen/Emilio Estevez movie The Way. I wondered if it was on Netflix, so I checked online. I came to a Netflix page giving me the option to watch the movie right there. I never thought of watching Netflix on my computer. I’m usually in the living room where I can stand and stretch and work out while watching. I watched it and was inspired to further learn about those who pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. In The Way., Martin Sheen plays Tom, who comes to France to deal with the tragic loss of his son. Rather than return home, Tom decides to embark on the historical pilgrimage on the Camino to honor his son’s desire to finish the journey.
It was cool I found the movie in time to get to see the routes she mentions. Later in the book when Sonia describes the church and the public mass at the end of the Camino, I know exactly the ceremony she’s talking about and get to relive it again.
Choquette has written about her walk online as well, see http://trustyourvibes.tumblr.com/…/87784819595/buen-camino A typical passage: “Camino Update: St Jean to Roncenvalles. My ah ha’s for today. Be open to the gifts of the Camino. I have compassion for me and everyone. Downhill is just as difficult as uphill. I can do more than I think. I like my own company. People are really wonderful. Even when exhausted, I can keep going if I decide to. I can especially keep going if there is no alternative. Resting along the way is important. Singing helps climb up the mountains. Singing helps climbing down the mountains too. Eating is such a joy after a hard day’s walk. Blessing for the day I saw an eagle soaring overhead. It was spectacular. It’s also my totem.”
No, I’m not making plans to walk the Camino de Santiago. There are several routes, ranging from 87km (54 miles) to 1,000km (621 miles.) I’m not physically prepared to walk across Spain. A small neuroma (nerve on the ball of my foot) acts up after 45 minutes walking, 15 minutes if I’m barefoot. I’ve got really high arches and if I’d not worn 4″ heels for 30 years, the nerve wouldn’t flame on. And my ankles — as a kid I sprained them all the time. And my knee! Wah!
Will you listen to those excuses? I see I’m just not ready yet for my world to change the way the Camino could change it. By that I mean, how I would allow myself to change by surrendering to forces greater than me and to circumstances beyond my control. But I get a chance to do that every day right here where I am if my consciousness was ready.
I would only embark upon a trek like that after I’ve done some research and happy pre-paving about it. I just now looked at a globe to see exactly where France and Spain are. I look at maps of the different routes online. Everyone writes about the unexpected cold and rain and mucky trails along the walk, especially the last 60 miles. July and August are very crowded along the Camino, writers warn, and who wants to be in the middle of a gang of walkers, half of them on their cell phones and not walking for the same purpose you are? (Excuses!) It’s suggested April thru June, or September are the best times to walk, since those months are hot or warm. I don’t like hot or humid. More excuses! I’ll find a map and see what temperature and humidity they are talking about. I have no relativity until I have more info.
I can see I’m interested and I’m learning more about the Camino every day. That is helping me pre-pave an enjoyable trip, a buen Camino, if I ever decide to go.
In the meantime, I have enough wood to chop and water to carry right here in my own little slice of Paradise.