[Gocamino] lessons, insights on camino?

[Renato Alvarado Vidal]

> I've just returned from the most wonderful and the most difficult
> experience of my life...my first Camino (Frances). And I did it alone!

	Congratulations, dear Wendy, congratulations; I think that walking  
alone is the best way to do the Camino. When "Diario de Pontevedra"  
in 2004, published a note including the barefoot pilgrim, the title  
they chose was "Non hai nada como vir só para facer moitos amigos no  
Camiño" . That is "there is nothing like going alone, for making lots  
of friends along the Camino".
	I told them that phrase at arriving to Plaza do Obradoiro, because  
that was one of few things I had very clear. Walking alone, I was all  
the time open to everybody, no one was more intime or foreign than  
the other. I saw that pilgrims walking with some friend had, out of  
necessity, a privileged bond with that person, and they could open or  
not that bond, as an option. And the bigger the group, the bigger the  
probability for comunications to remain inside the group's boundaries.
	That year, in Triacastela, I met a large group of USAlanders, from  
Michigan's University; they were coming from Leon and they had  
discovered that phenomenon, they noticed also the development of a  
certain "wrecked's raft syndrome" and they took measures against  
that, so they had begun to invite assorted pilgrims to dinner and  
that way they were including all the time new people to their circle.  
It worked quite well. They adopted me as some kind of "uncle", and we  
made many kilometers together while I told them patagonian stories.
	I also saw pairs to split, meaning some days of breaking process,  
introducing tension to the experience; so I think that going alone is  
as desirable as going lightweight.

> Did any of you find you learn some profound lessons, gained insights
>
	I don't know if it's a profound lesson, but living during a month  
reduced to the bare essentials was fantastically liberating; I  
treasure those days when all I needed was in my backpack, and  
specially the mental attitude of "the pilgrim asks nothing, he only  
thanks"

	Buen camino, amigos!

	Machi