[Gocamino] Winter Camino

[Sue Kenney]

Jeff,

I just realized that you might really appreciate a piece I just wrote for my
newsletter that refers to my experience walking alone on the Camino. I
thought the other members might enjoy this too.

Sue

Stories from the Path
This Month's Virtue is Grace
 A virtue represents moral excellence, honour and integrity. The virtue of
grace has proven important to me as a leadership quality I have learned,
both on and off the Camino.

Grace
Simone Weil said, "We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles
but the grace to transform them." On the Camino, I wanted to deal with my
troubles so that I could understand my higher purpose in life and begin to
actively create my reality. After a few days of walking, I noticed that over
a period of 6 to 8 hours of thinking, the same thoughts and ideas repeated
in my mind. To make matters worse I tried to control these thoughts. They
were centered around fear, guilt, envy and self pity leaving me disgusted
with the banality of it all. I desperately wanted to get past this.

The activity of walking as a simple pilgrim in the grandeur of the universe,
helped me to develop a sense of humility. This lead me to a state where I
was willing to freely surrender to the Camino; to the way. In an effort to
reach a higher state of awareness I embraced a form of walking meditation
and practiced self love every day.  Soon a ritual developed. At the end of
each day I would spend the last kilometer walking in a state of gratitude.
By repeating this ritual daily, at the end of the 780 km journey to Santiago
I felt as though I had reached a state of grace; something I had never
experienced before in my life. Through grace all my troubles seemed to
transform into gifts and I could begin to see my purpose unfold.

Living withGrace
On the Camino I learned, lessons are not good or bad, positive or negative;
I am thankful, they just are.
Living with Intention
I have the grace to transform my troubles.



Jeff Stys wrote:

> I am one of the 'few pilgrims' who is heading off to Spain in a few
> days.
>
> I plan to walk from Pamplona to Leon in about 15 days.  I did the Leon
> to Santiago route in September 02.
>
> As a Houstonian, I've gone out and stocked up on warm clothes. I'm
> really looking forward to it but, as my flight approaches, I am getting
> a bit nervous about all that solitude.
>
> Is anyone else planning a winter camino?  I'll do a quick summary of my
> trip when I get back after the first of the year.
>
> Happy Holidays.
> Jeff
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gocamino-bounces at oakapple.net
> [mailto:gocamino-bounces at oakapple.net] On Behalf Of Kathy Gower
> Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 9:17 AM
> To: peregrino at att.net; GOCAMINO at oakapple.net
> Subject: RE: [Gocamino] Am I getting all the messages?
>
> Hi Richard,
>
> There have been very few messages, but there is also a feature of this
> list
> serve as I understand it...that replies to a post go only to the maker
> unless one clicks on "reply all".  I think that is to discourage a lot
> of
> "same here" or "ditto" type replies.
>
> It's the quiet season right now, too, with few pilgrims actually on the
> road
> and dreams of next year's journeies rather chthonic at the moment, ready
> to
> burst forth in the spring....
>
> my two cents, anyway
> ------
> From: peregrino at att.net
> To: GOCAMINO at oakapple.net
> Subject: [Gocamino] Am I getting all the messages?
> Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2004 04:28:30 +0000
>
> I get a few messages from GOCAMINO at oakapple.net, but they seem to be
> relatively few, maybe one a day or less.  I was inclined to think that
> things were OK because I get some messages, but if I am getting all the
> messages, the group has become relatively inactive.  So, is there a
> technical problem, or is the message load just light?
>
> Richard
> _______________________________________________
> Gocamino mailing list
> Gocamino at oakapple.net
> http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gocamino mailing list
> Gocamino at oakapple.net
> http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gocamino mailing list
> Gocamino at oakapple.net
> http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino