25.5.2014 Camino aftermath: Spirituality

Camino and spirituality.

"You are right. 'The peak' — you told me — 'dominates the country for miles around, and yet there is not a single plain to be seen: just one mountain after another. At times the landscape seems to level out, but then the mist rises and reveals another range that had been hidden.'
So it is, so it must be with the horizon of your apostolate: the world has to be crossed. But there are no ways made for you. You yourselves will make them through the mountains with the impact of your feet."

The Way, #928, Josemaria Escriva.

James Clar: One minute dream state (2012), installation of fluorescent tubes, CCCB Barcelona

You may hear it many times at Camino: the Way is not about reaching Santiago, the city itself is not the goal, the walk itself is the goal. Almost like a overworn phrase. What does it mean? 

Somewhere on the road I have met two Dutch guys offering a refreshment (by donation,which means pay as as much as you wish). These two guys were volunteers working for an Albergue (a pilgrim's hostel) for some time. They set up a small stall on the Camino and while pilgrims stopped for a glass of ice tea, they were asking them questions targeting their motivation and expectations. 

Now I understand. Now after the Camino. I think these guys could have felt that Camino is becoming very crowded with many people with different believes and different reasons to walk. However, there is a difference between pilgrim and tourist.

I wasn't spared a question what my reasons were. I told them I wanted to start writing a new book of my life, nevertheless I had not been sure how to start the first words of the first chapter, first sentence... What should the storyline be, the plot... and I was hoping that the Camino would reveal it to me. Do I know it now? I don't think so. I will still have to figure that one out for myself, but now I have the belief. And that's more than nothing.

One thing I noticed through is that the Camino is a magical place that works for a pilgrim like a mirror in which you can see yourself truly. Camino will send you people and situations that you have to deal with and throughout these lessons your personality is peeled down like an onion, layer by layer, that is - let's come back to the previous idea - in case you walk the Camino as pilgrim and not tourist. Certainly, such situations would appear in normal life as well. Nevertheless by deciding to walk the Way you are leaving normal world and entering a unique realm of new spiritual perception, in case you let yourself be prepared for it in advance.