On my Santiago forum there is an incredible group of people who give and give, stories and advice and information, to all of us who are embarking on our Caminos. I too share, since I am now a Camino veteran. In today's forum there were some beautiful writings that moved me. This one is from Sillydoll, who expresses her sentiments in such a way that I felt it spoke not just for her but for all of us as well. I want to share with you.
"You can almost pick out pilgrims who have walked a long distance on their camino - they have that chilled out (almost spaced out!) laid back, no fuss look about them. We met an Austrian in Foncebadon who had walked from home. He was so quiet and withdrawn, tanned and weather beaten that he almost blended into the landscape. Pilgrims who are just starting out or who have only been walking for a few days still have a clean-cut, worried, apprehensive, sometimes ‘loud’ look about them – like the group of pilgrims we met at Sarria who stood out with their clean clothes, raucous songs and never-ending banter.
The first few days on the camino are an anxious time for most. I think ‘jet-lag’ is a symptom of your soul trying to catch up with your body - especially if you have flown across oceans and continents to get there. It takes me at least 3 or 4 days to get over jet-lag and settle into the rhythm of the camino - getting ready in the morning, setting out into a strange land and walking every day.
The camino breaks you in slowly. At first you are shattered at the end of each day but then the endorphins take over and you get used to the adrenaline rush. You can only start to relax once the backpack is comfortable, the shorts don’t creep, the shoelaces are tied properly and once you become accustomed to spotting the yellow arrows you stop fretting about getting lost. You start to ‘go with the flow’ and you lose sense of time. After a few of weeks you get into the Zen-zone. You become one with nature and all your senses are alert – like antennae – and you can hear a gentle wind, a field mouse, crickets in the wheat and listen to the silence.
Last year my husband joined us in Sarria and walked for 7 days and although he enjoyed it very much, he said that he didn’t think he could do that for 6 weeks. I explained that one doesn’t repeat that first settling in week over and over again. The first week is the most difficult but you get fitter and fitter as time goes by; you stop fighting the camino and let it take over and when you do that, you become a part of it and that is the addictive essence of the camino. That is why we keep going back for more."
Yeah.
