The lessons of the Camino

Hey everyone. I know, I know, I didn't post much, but I was too busy experiencing the camino to log on for extended periods of time.

When I returned from the camino, I was asked if I would give a homily/sermon at my home church. I received so much support from all of the members there at Trinity Lutheran, that I felt I had to share my experience with them.

I chose, as my topic, The Lessons of the Camino. I presented on August 8th, 2010. Several people requested that I post it here on the bog, so here goes. Let me know what you think. It looks long, but (in my humble opinion) it's worth the time to read it.

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain”. I’ve heard this quote many times and always thought “It’s a good one, but doesn’t really apply to me.” Well after my camino, I know this quote to be true. On my camino, it rained twice while we were walking . The first time was on day two. The other was day 34 of 35. It was shocking to me to notice the difference in my own reactions. On day 2 I was miserable in the rain, I was cold, tired, and just plain grumpy, on day 34 I tilted my head to the sky to feel the rain on my face. But dancing in the rain, is just one of countless lessons the camino has to teach us.

A very wise woman that I met told us her interpretation of the camino, it went something like this. “The camino is not a stroll, it’s not about arriving somewhere. It’s walking, it’s feeling, it’s living.” Many people struggle at the beginning of the camino. I know I did. It’s hard to go from living your life at 65mph, to suddenly living at 3mph.

The camino is the ultimate metaphor for life. There’s the obvious, the camino is a path with one destination, Santiago, life is a path with one destination, because no matter what you believe, no one makes it out of this world alive. But the comparisons go so much deeper than that.

The camino is divided nicely into three parts, with a major city at the end of each third. A wonderful man from Brazil told us that when he was at his lowest point someone told him that the first third of the camino is all about your body; making sure that your feet are ok, your back, your knees. The second third is all about your mind, you’re walking along the flat straight meseta, you have a lot of time to think, and the last third is all about your heart or your soul, when you truly start to “get” the purpose of this camino. When he said that it made me think, that’s the way I live each day here at home, maybe not full thirds of my day, but 3 definite parts. The first is all about my body, getting ready for the day, doing my hair and make-up, getting dressed. The second part is all about my mind, teaching, lecturing, writing lessons. The third part of my day is all about my soul, me doing activities that will re-charge me, whether that’s reading a book, watching a movie, or going to the gym. As I thought more about this I realized that on my worst days, I never got that soul re-charge time. My mind time took it over, whether correcting papers, or by not letting go of something that happened during the day. The camino taught me to ALWAYS give yourself that time to recharge your soul.

The camino IS a path. In some spots the path is actually a paved 4-lane highway. In others it’s a gravel path, so overgrown with prickly weeds, that one person can barely make it through at a time. Life is the same way. Sometimes we’re on that 4-lane highway, with enough space to bring as many people with us as we like, but there are times in life where you have to walk alone, decisions that only you can make for yourself, and if you try to bring someone with you, they’ll just end up getting hurt. The trick in life, is knowing what those decisions are, and when to make them.

Everything I needed, I had to carry with me. I weighed my pack, which contained a full 50 ounce camelback water bladder, at the start of day 2. It weighed in at 12 kilos, approximately 26 lbs, only 11 lbs heavier than I had intended. I never weighed my pack at the end of my trek, but I’m guessing that it weighed in somewhere around 12 pounds. The camino makes you take stock, and you would be amazed at how little a person can live on for 40 days. In the end I had 1 extra set of clothes, my sandals, my pajamas, (my luxury item) a sarong, my sleep sack, a travel towel, 3 pairs of socks, contact solution, shampoo, a toothbrush and toothpaste. Since I arrived back home I have been stream-lining my possessions. If I can live out of 1 35 liter pack, why do I have all of this stuff. It’s been quite a liberating experience. I suggest you try it. It doesn’t have to be all of your possessions, maybe start with your junk drawer, you never know what you might start.

There is a wonderful company all along the camino called Jacotrans. The wonderful people at Jacotrans, with transport your pack for you, for a small fee. Some days the walk was easy, flat or short. But some days the terrain was more challenging. Maybe there was a mountain in between you and the next city. No matter how light your pack is, not having it on these days, can make a huge difference. Life is the same way. Sometimes our load is light. But it’s good to remember that when that load gets heavy, or the road gets challenging, you don’t have to carry it yourself. You can give your load to someone else to help you. Whether that person is family, a friend, a co-worker, or God it pays to remember that help is there if you ask.

There were as many different packs as there were people. Some packs were smaller than your average kindergartener’s school bag, while some were larger than your average kindergartener. But the size of someone’s pack didn’t tell you anything about the size of their burden. Everyone carried different hardships with them, some visible, like the man walking with 2 prostetic legs. Some were not so visible, like the man walking the camino for his wife who died before ever getting the chance to walk it herself. It’s good to remember that a smile can hide a lot.

The biggest lesson that the camino taught me was the value of a healthy body. We all take our bodies for granted, until something goes wrong. The camino taught me the value of having a healthy body, and if something isn’t healthy, take care of it NOW, not 10km down the road when more damage has already been done. I met several people who had to cut their camino short because they didn’t listen to their bodies. The camino is walked by people ranging in age from 16 and under, to 80+. The majority of the injuries happen to the people from 16-35. The people who don’t want to admit that they even have limitations, let alone listen to their bodies telling them about those limitations. An 80 year-old person knows exactly what their body can and can’t handle and don’t request more of their bodies. The arrogant 22 year-old feels a small rub in his boot and ignores it, until he gets to the albergue at the end of the day only to find a blister the size of a tennis ball. The 80 year-old feels a small rub in his boot, and stops, takes off his boot and sock, puts some compeed on the spot, then continues, blister free.

The camino is about life. The camino IS life. The camino makes you slow down and live in the moment. In the beginning I was so focused on walking, that I didn’t notice the camino around me. I put my headphones in and just walked. I saw the beautiful scenery, but I didn’t pay attention. I wasn’t living the camino, I was coasting through it. It wasn’t until Terradillos, the half-way point that I truly started to appreciate the camino. Walking at 6:00 in the morning, the sun hasn’t quite risen over the horizon yet, the birds are just starting to wake-up. It’s a truly beautiful experience, it makes you feel truly alive. If you learn nothing else from the camino, learn to live. Don’t coast through life, live each day. Whether you’re 27 and decide to walk 500 miles, or 87 and decide to jump out of an airplane, it’s never too late to start living your life.


It's been 6 weeks since I returned from Spain, and a month since I delivered this homily. Whenever I feel myself starting to forget the camino lessons, I go back and I read what I wrote. It's helped me hang-on to those lessons in this loud, busy, sometimes frustrating world.

Adios and Buen Camino
Carrie

The Final Push

Well right now we are in Palas de Rei. We are approximately 65km from the Santiago. We are planning to arrive there on Friday. We are doing short, easy days to take it easy. By thursday we will be able to SEE Santaigo, but we´re planning on stopping in Monte de Gozo which is 4.5km from Santiago, so that the nexy morning we get up walk for about an hour, get in in Santiago early so we can get to the Pilgrim´s office and the Pilgrim´s Mass at noon on the same day.

So far Galicia is beautiful. For those of you who don´t know, Galicia is the area in Spain above Portugal. It is a celtic region, and you can tell. It so green, sometimes we swear we´re in Ireland! They also have their own language here in Galicia, Gallego, it´s totally different. They also speak Spanish (castellano) so we can understand them, but if they start speaking Gallego we don´t understand a thing!

A few days ago we were in O´Cebreiero. Which is a beautiful celtic town on the top of a mountain. Sarah and I were planning to skip this city in favor of taking a bus to Sarria to do the last 100km slowly, but Nico told us we had to visit, so we went by bus then taxi. I´m so glad we went. It´s up so high that when you look out over the valley during most of the day, you can´t see much because of the fog in the valley. All you see are the peaks of the mountians popping up through the clouds. It was magical. I got pictures, don´t worry.

Tonight is the final of the World Cup. Nico and I have a beer bet on the outcome of the game. He is rooting for Holland, it´s becuase he lives there or something like that. I of course am cheering for Spain. I can´t believe I´m following a sport. This is so unlike me.

It´s hard to believe that we´re actually almost there. If you had told me that I was going to make it, at the end of Day 2 when I arrived cold, exhausted, and wet in Larrasoaña, I wouldn´t have believed you. But it looks like it might actually happen!

Well sorry i haven´t updated much, I´ve been too busy enjoying the camino. I will try to post when we get to Santiago. 65km left! Holy monkies!

Adios and Buen Camino
Carrie

Earthquakes, 12 kilos, the valley of death, and the camino

So I´m not sure if every pilgrim does this, or if it´s just Sarah and I, but we´ve been talking about "If we owned an albergue" We´ve said that our albergue (the places where pilgrims stay) would have toilet paper, and toilet seats, it wouldn´t have bunk beds that were pushed together, like at some places, and a bunch of other things. But my big thing is that the bunk beds would be attached to the wall. I say this for 2 reasons. 1. when the bunk isn´t anchored, you can feel whenever the other person in the bunk moves. One night I felt like I was in an earthquake, the girl on the top bunk moved to much. The other reason I want the beds anchored is because I was climbing down from a top bunk one day and almost tipped the bunk over, not fun.

I weighed myself on the morning I left for Paris. I weighed myself just a few days in Burgos. The result was a loss of 12 kilos! That´s like 26 lbs! It´s crazy. I don´t know if the scale was off, but it told Sarah she hadn´t lost anything, so it might be right. If this keeps up, I´m looking at a 36 kilo loss, I could deal with that.

We´ve gotten onto the Meseta, the flat middle section of Spain. On the day we went from Burgos to Hontanas, we walked through the high meseta. There were no trees, just some kind of grain. It was so hot. We renamed that section of the camino "the valley of death" I ran out of water that day, 3/4 of a km outside of town, so I made it. We later found out that 3 pilgrims have died this month on the meseta from heat/dehydration/exhaustion. That´s scary.

Today I am resting because my feet are yelling at me. I will be taking a bus from Carrion to Terradillos del Templario. I need to listen to my body, and my body is telling me, don´t you dare walk 26km today or we will strike.

Speaking of Carrion. In the church here is the tackiest thing I´ve ever seen. It is a minitaure animatronic Bethlehem. Complete with a light that comes on to illuminate the birth of baby Jesus, and Angels that fly across the back wall. I will post pictures later, if I can figure out how. It was cute, and would have stayed cute had it not been IN the church. It looked like something you´d see on the "Birth of Jesus" ride and Disney World.

Well I guess that´s all for now, my internet time is almost up. I´ll try to write more often from now on.

Adios and Buen Camino
Carrie

Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Well we made it one more day. After 20km we are in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. Today was supposed to be an easy day, only 20km with a couple of hills to make things interesting. Ah the best laid plans

So we started today in Najera, after waking up and getting ready we went to a cafe for breakfast, this is not normal usually we have breakfast at the next town we come to, but today is a special day, it´s Sarah´s birthday! YAY! So we serenaded her with happy brithday in 3 different languages, and the guy who owns the bar/cafe gave her a free package of chorizo. Not a bad start to the day.

Then we actually started walking, and the first thing we do is a hill, not a little up and over kind of hill, but a walk around a bend and find more up, kind of hill. That´s not the best way to warm-up if you ask me. But we made it, just like we´ve made it everywhere else.

We stopped at a little cafe in the next town (I can´t remember the name right now) and I had an orange juice, I´m so addicted to the fresh Spanish orange juice, it´s amazing, I don´t drinkt he stuff at home, and what I do drink at home (diet coke) I haven´t touched since the airplane. Go figure

After our mornign snack we walked, and walked and walked, and climbed a LAGRE hill. This hill was insane, because first of all we could see it for proabably the last 6km at least and we kept saying "oh that won´t be so bad" WRONG, the first part was very steep then the middle was not horrible, but the last part was really steep too. At the top was a pretty little sitting spot with these cute cement chaise lounge type chairs, heavenly! The next "town" was scary. We passed a golf course, mom, trevor, that made me think of you, then we walked through a housing development. But not just one, like 8! And it was really creepy because no one lived in barely any of the houses, and they had the customary for Spain metal gate style shutters on the windows. It never seemed to end! We just wanted to be done with that place because it was so weird.

After this "town" we finally got back on dirt path and found, guess what, another hill! This one wasn´t as bad, but when you´re tired, any hill is a big one. I made my way slowly to the top only to find ANOTHER HILL! I can´t wait until we get to the meseta with no hills for like a week. Though there is also no shade there.

Finally we arrive in Santo Domingo. We´re at the Albergue run by the Spanish confraternity. It´s VERY nice, the mattresses are thick, the showers hot, the toilets have seats (the last place didn´t, and we´re only like 20 people to a room, which isn´t bad by camino standards.

Tonight is Sarah´s birthday so we´re going out. Of course it´s hard to go out too much when the doors lock you out at 10:00...

Well everyone that´s it for today.
Until next time

Adios and Buen Camino
Carrie

PS Excuse the spelling the keys on this key board are a little sticky.

Audrey Hepburn Lied

Well day 2 of walking, and we are in Larrasoaña. We are approximately 40km along the camino of 800km more or less. Today was tough. It rained literally all day, in fact it´s raining as I write this. I walked without my rain jacket for almost 20 minutes today.

We left Roncesvalles at about 6:45 and had a wonderful breakfast in the next town, which I forget the name of. Casa Juan, it was amazing. I ordered Orange Juice, and watched the woman cut an orange in half and juice it, then give me the glass. It was so delicious, like eating an orange, but without all that pesky chewing.

Then we walked. today was another mountain day. It was really tough going especially with the rain. Though I discovered something about myself. Right after breakfast, walking out of the town, on the outskirts are a bunch of cattle farms. The smell instantly brought me to the Carstens farm. I thought about Uncle George and Grandma Carstens. I will always associate the smell of cows with Uncle George, in a good way.

Today there were 2 major climbs then descents. The walk up was strenous, but the walk down was more so. The first descent, was hard because they paved it with some kind of formed concrete which made the way kind of trecherous. It wasn´t slippery, but I was too careful to find out if it was slippery anywhere. The second descent was brutal. It was very rocky, quite steep, and muddy. Not a good combination.

To add to the interest of the day, there were a lot of bicigrinos (pilgrims on bikes) I have no problem with doing the camino on bike, but SLOW DOWN! I stopped once to rest and looked back up the pàth, and luckily I did because there were 6 bikes hurtling toward me at breakneck speed. Not fun.

I made it to Zubirri. It was another 5km to Larrasoañn, but I knew I would not make it, so I took a taxi, and I´m so glad that I did.

Tomorrow we go to Pamplona, only a month early for San Fermin and the running of the bulls.

Well until later folks
Adios and Buen Camino
Carrie

Well that´s the Pryenees for ya

Holy Bajeezus.

We´ve made it to Roncesvalles. We are staying at the municipal albergue. It is 1 giante room with 120 bunk beds. ...yeah.... Not exactly thrilled with the set up but hey it´ll all work out.

We took a taxi to about half-way up the mountian and walked to Roncesvalles, we walked 11km, don´t ask me how many miles that is, I don´t have my converter with me. Also the trek up the mountain sucked, but the trek down was worse. Oh my dios. My knees we literally shaking from overuse.

Tomorrow we might make it to Larrasoaña, or we might only go to Zubiri, we´re gonna play it by ear.

I´ll post more later, right now we´re going to go to dinner and maybe the pilrim´s mass.

Later
Buen Camino
Carrie

PS. Mom I love you! Trevor or Ann, give Meredith a kiss for me!

Quick note

We made it!

Almost 24 hours of traveling, but we're here in St Jean, just had a wonderful dinner, and now it's off to bed, we're exhausted.

We've decided to stay in St Jean tomorrow to rest instead of starting right away. I think it's a good call.

More later

Adios and Buen Camino
Carrie