Camino.

[Maura Santangelo]

Dear Todd,

first lose Shirley's book, though she has inspired many people to do the
camino.  Same with Paulo Coelho.

  Follow the advice you see on July 12th of this listserv, the web pages
which were recommended are also very good.  Also see
www.fieldofstars.com and look at Camino afterthoughts.  To prepare
further, walk with pack on without trying to do the whole pilgrimage at
home, just enough to condition your feet and joints.  You will spend
enough time with yourself that you will have your own --and therefore
more meaningful-- experiences.  But do not have any expectations, or you
may not see what is right in front of you.

Having said this I have a poem which I would like to share with this
group.  It is by Mary Oliver, Dream Work, Grove Atlantic Inc., 1986.  I
read the poem after the walk but it was my experience during the walk.
I had seen on the bulletin board in the albergue in Belorado a quote by
St John of the Cross, if i can paraphrase: 'later they will test you on
love",  I was not sure what it meant, especially in relation to the
camino, but during a particularly difficult part of the walk, when I
felt I was indeed torturing myself with every step, I had the very clear
thought: "if we (the pilgrims) all loved ourselves truly would we be
doing this?" It was the start of an epiphany during which I saw very
clearly that the state of grace is our ability to feel the love of god
and that pain and suffering and walking were all optional.  Though I do
not know how else we get the experience to embody such insights.  Best
wishes for a wonderful camino.  Maura

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.




On Tuesday, July 22, 2003, at 04:32 AM, William Marques wrote:

>> My name is Todd O'keefe, next year i will begin the adventure of
>> walking
> the "Camino'.   I'm very excited, as I hope to have a "Shirleyesque"
> type
> experience.  Could someone please point m