Camino trek week 2!
3 things I know:
I know I like a good adventure.
I know I postponed my international travels for decades and I don’t want to miss anything anymore.
I know my career, as I've known it, has begun the process of coming to a close. There are new opportunities awaiting my contribution.
Walking is a spiritual journey and a reflection of living.
People have asked me, “Do you make reservations ahead of time at the albergues along the Camino Frances?”
“Nope!” or “No.” (If I’m responding to my mother.)
I answer this way for two reasons:
Michael and I travel well together and, typically, my job is all in the pre-planning (organizing calendars, pet sitting arrangements, requesting time off, flights, airbnbs, train reservations, and as of late, vaccination and boosters documentation.) His job entails present-planning phases (planning the day, mapping our routes, shopping, and assessing the bigger picture: How are we feeling mind, body, spirit). I gladly surrender the job of reservations to him.
I think the REAL reason for my response is: “We’ll know when we get there.” I can expound, but I think when I do, the same words are gonna come out. It’s a part of the journey, not always pre-knowing, but rather, present-knowing.
To travel well, I’ve learned, requires you to find some balance between doing your part and trusting the universe/god/source to do the rest. So that’s what we do.
We have the Capacity for Resilience
I read once that the Camino begins the moment you start planning.
It took me until the age of 57 to travel to Europe and the age of 58 to travel alone with my husband. Before that, our family adventured mostly by car. We had a few off-mainland travels that took my breath away. As a Girl Scout co-leader, I was able to co-lead our amazing gals (often including my daughter) to places that enticed all the senses. But to travel with just my mate required time to mature our growing children.
In 2019, we got 3 entire weeks for ourselves. That was the year I took Michael on a yoga retreat to Tuscany, Italy with Scott Moore and Kim Dastrup, while the kids flew to Naknek, Alaska for the summer to work in a fish processing plant. They vowed never to do that again. Our vow was the opposite.
We dreamed of THE CAMINO FRANCES. We started putting plans to paper and discovered that 2021 was considered a Holy Year, a Jacobean Year (Xacobeo 2021). This happens when the feast day of St. James, July 25th, falls on a Sunday. This happens every 5, 6 or 11 years. I thought the synchronistic alignment of the stars, birthdates, and desires was pure magic…
I was seduced by it all. The flavor of the unknown twinkled under my tongue. We would be pilgrims, yes! I found flights and made arrangements.
But then COVID struck. The world got smaller.
Our most perfectly serendipitous plans were undone.
Releasing this attachment took a bit of time. But once I surrendered to the circumstance, I was okay with my decision to try again in 2022.
Was this my Stanford Marshmallow experiment for delayed gratification?
Was this a ‘patience litmus test’ for my often naggy Taurus personality?
Was I simply seeking being in the Right Place at the Right Time?
I read once that this last question “place” plays a significant but often unacknowledged role in health and happiness. The right place elevates personal well-being. It can help promote purpose, facilitate human connection, catalyze physical activity, and inspire community engagement.
SO, going back to the question: “Do you make reservations ahead of time at the albergues along the Camino Frances?”
I think my answer truly is: “place.” We’ll just know when we’ve arrived at the Right Place at the Right Time.
