Have You Gone on the Camino de Santiago?

In just over a month, I’ll be trekking along the Camino de Santiago.

(Before we get too far, I have a legitimate ask of you. If you’ve gone before, please go to the comments and share! I’m curious: which route did you take? What were the most useful things you brought? Any new insights along the way?)

My dad and I have been saving money and gearing up to go this September. From start to finish, we’re looking at walking about 250 miles along the northern coast of Spain over the course of three weeks. That’s roughly 13 miles a day, with some rest days.

For reference, I currently walk about three miles a day on average. (…Yeah.)

For me, this isn’t because I want to push my body to its breaking point (which might happen.) And it’s not because I want to walk in silence for three weeks in a state of continual meditation (which is less likely, but still possible.)

It’s about engaging in an act of pilgrimage – the ancient practice of dis-locating oneself from the status quo, the day-to-day doings, and to create space to explore the inner life and the world in a new way.

Trying Out a New Rhythm

At least on our practice walks, one thing I’ve noticed is that these long walks don’t feel like exercise; they just feel like exploring. An adventure.

For the first hour, I’m usually focused on how the backpack feels, how my shoes feel, and how the walking is going. And then again, in the final hour, my attention returns to this: how my back hurts from the backpack, how my feet hurt in my shoes, and how much longer I need to keep walking.

But in between these first and last hours, there is a flow – a rhythm. Left, right, left, right, head up, keep going, look around, smell the smells, left, right, left, right.

I think this is part of why so many spiritual traditions involve pilgrimage – sometimes we just need to step away from our status quo in order to remember the preciousness of our bodies and how to pay attention to life and its unfolding.

So, in September, that’s where we’ll be! On pilgrimage – adventuring and getting to know ourselves and the world around us in new ways.

A Book Recommendation

A friend of mine, Jonathon Stalls, is coming out with a book next month and I can’t recommend it enough. Jonathon and I first met a few years back in Albuquerque during an early morning walking meditation.

He is one of those kind souls that truly restores your faith in humanity – a social activist focusing on pedestrian dignity, a contemplative artist, and a walker who travels across the Earth by foot (most days).

His new book, WALK: Slow Down, Wake Up, and Connect at 1-3 Miles Per Hour is, and I’m going to borrow his words here, “an invitation to move, to connect, to participate deeply in the world–and to dissolve the barriers that disconnect us from each other and the living Earth.”

You can read a conversation I had with him a few months ago here.

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