Where the Road Meets the Self

To leave whatever you are doing and transport yourself to another world, walk 800 km in 35 days, and sleep in hostels with tens of other people with shared bathrooms... this really does seem like a privilege, and probably an odd one by many people's standards. That is the Camino de Santiago, probably the world's most famous ancient pilgrimage route—across Spain (and beyond) that people walk for spiritual, personal, or reflective reasons, ending at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

If I had not experienced 35 days of trekking in Nepal 43 years ago I might not have had this desire in me to do something like this again. Today I can value this all the more than when I was just 23 years old, you see there are things you just appreciate more with age.

There are many things about this experience which I am sure will be hard to explain- I will let you know when I have done it. But I know already that the mere fact of letting yourself become immersed in this world of "pilgrimage"- of walking and walking day in day out- creates a rhythm, a "Vibe" that removes you from one world and transplants you to another. And in doing so, thoughts and emotions arise, a distance is created and in that distance one experiences and reflects differently.

It is truly an amazing experience, one that one registers in body, mind AND spirit, if you will. I am grateful for the opportunity, thankful that I am going to make it happen and feeling that this road will lead me "somehwhere" I have no knowledge of at this moment.

It is a place where past and present, mystery and routine and alone and together converge. That is what makes it "holy" in a very humanistic sense.

The excitement, anticipation and energy of the date of departure a little over 5 weeks from now are definitely palpable.

What will I be asking of the way, and what will it ask of me?