Expectations

We have been home now for about a month and a half and I finally feel ready to start posting some reflections on our Camino. We have put up all the information about gear and accommodations (the outer journey) but the story of the inner journey is much on my mind these days and looking for a way out. Let's see where this takes us. Welcome aboard.

 When Robin and I set out on the Camino we were reasonably fit, felt we had the right gear and a pack weight we could carry to Santiago. Those were the basics. Beyond that there was, let's call it, a feeling that something else was looming in our future. We simply knew that this would be more than a long, interesting walk. Of course, we had read a great deal about the Camino including many personal accounts of how pilgrims were impacted by the journey. For some it was a unfortunate litany of physical ailments (tendonitis, blisters, muscle aches, illness, etc), for others it was a grand adventure, a physical accomplishment, and then there were the more compelling tales (for me) of providence found along the Way. In truth, I thought our trip might be a sampling of all the above. It just seemed logical that there would be some challenges (daily distances to cover, aching or damaged body parts, steepness of grade, cold/wet weather), and it was certainly going to an adventure. The providence part well, who could say for sure what that might be. Our minds were open, we were excited, but we harbored a certain wariness of the unknown as well. What we did not appreciate until much later was the why of this journey. In truth we did look forward to being able to say, "We did it." What we did not foresee is what it did to us.