I have a friend who picked my brain while planning her Camino this year. I gave her the normal packing advice and tried to help her prepare for hiking/dorm life as best as I could, with the understanding that the only way to really prepare to be a Pilgrim, is to go and be a Pilgrim.
Watching her progress on FB, I noticed she started her Camino in Pamplona, took a bus somewhere before Burgos, bussed Burgos to Leon (didnt like Leon) got on a bus to Astoria and now plans to walk the last 17 days to Santiago.
As I sit in my nice Tempurpedic bed with clean white sheets and am surrounded by purring cat and the big brown (hungry) eyes of my golden retriever, I still have to remind myself that everyone's journey is different and her experience is hers.
It's hard not to judge - or should I say, easy to judge when you are comfortable and your feet don't hurt, when your A/C is taking the heat out of the day and when you can drive your Audi to the nearest 24/7 supermarket for... Well, whatever you feel like at the time!
Everyone has a different reason for walking the Camino de Santiago. Therefore it makes sense that the way in which they experience it, will need to be adjusted in order to meet their needs. It's a 550 mile hike that has less to do with hiking than you would think. Being on the trail is the chance to reconnect with yourself, to explore what is going on inside (like it or not) and to weed out distractions in a way that has been successfully helping people along this path for over 1000 years.
I'm taken back to the night just over a year ago, when we met an Italian guy who was running his Camino in 2 weeks, with pretty much no gear. Lots of people at the Albergue we were staying at, thought he was doing it wrong. That he was missing the point, missing a spiritual awakening, turning it into a physical challenge instead of stopping to enjoy the view. At the time, I thought he was doing it right for him. He had recently lost his long time girlfriend and like Forrest Gump, he was pounding his issues out with long days and serious physical exertion. His journey required a different view, a view that was serving him and breathing new energy into the new life that had been thrust upon him.
They say it takes about 28 days of consistent behavior to form a new habit. I hiked 14 days on the Camino de Santiago trail in 2015... And if the judgment I'm experiencing is anything to go by, I'd say those 14 days where I felt acceptance and no judgment for another persons journey were great, but obviously not long enough to solidify a habit.
So maybe my Camino de Santiago 2016 involves getting back to that place of understanding and acceptance.
It's time to re-focus on the journey that is mine and save all that "judgment energy" for other stuff... Like meeting new people, facing challenges, finding different solutions and embracing opportunities.
I will be walking for about 35 days. Plenty of time to create new behaviors and form new habits!
(fingers crossed)
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