I often been asked since I have returned from the Camino de
Santiago questions. Some include: Why
did you go on this journey? What did you expect to get from this walk? Did you get what you were looking for? Was
there any wisdom gained from this experience?
I have often answered these and other questions with
standard rote answers. So it is now that
I have decided to begin the Camino again; no, not the walk itself, but to use
the concept of the walk to journey back to me.
The truest gift of the Camino de Santiago is that she keeps
on giving. I am often amazed at how
these few days have become the basis of my life. The one advantage of the Camino is that through her rolling hills, fields and streams, I was able to have the time to move
inward, closer to myself. (Frankly not
much more to do walking 15 miles a day).
The real shock was when I returned home, this serenity turned into the hustle
and bustle of daily life. And with each
passing day I moved further and further from any truth I had discovered.
I found that “life” took over from that peace. It was no longer an option to quietly sit and
reflect as cars zoomed by, emails needed to be answered and things needed to be
done! What happened to that peace? Where
did it go? I realized it’s easy to
capture and keep safe in that safe space called the Camino, but perhaps a bit
more challenging in my everyday life.
So I choose now, to begin again, to walk the Camino, in my
life every day. To take the same journey
inward with all that life avails me in this moment. To listen to the sounds of my soul, to really
experience the world around me that I have
created, and to honor the truth that lives inside of me.
I share this journey, not from a place of wisdom, as I am not wise, not from a place of knowing, because I know nothing, but from a place of perspective. All I can humbly offer are musings and thoughts with a sense of deliberate truth. Take what you wish or nothing at all as I offer it freely.
2 comments:
finding peace in chaos is an eternal struggle. And yet, we can find pieces of it each day. For me, I am most at peace when I remember my place under the Cross. A place of unbearable suffering and hate and ridicule, yet as Christians we find beauty, healing and strength...and if we sit long enough and be still under there, we find peace. It is my favorite place to hide, only because it is the last place people think to look for me. Yet there I sit, knowing my Savior hung there for me, I wait and HIS WORDS wash over me "It is finished" and I am most at peace with my world, my journey. I pray that you can find your way there and sit a while. And if you say "Bruno!" I will answer "Canal"!
Gina, I agree that sense of peace is the external struggle. My journey now is to bring it into me as the true connection. As St. Francis has said, Make me an instrument of your peace. Not simply to feel, but to be. That is the journey. To become..
And as you have so kindly remarked, I would respond in a like manner! Bruno! Canal here!
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