[Gocamino] Pondering...

[Kathy Gower]

I have received a few responses already (!) and I can see why people might 
not want to reply to this very personal posting regarding spiritual 
experiences (not religious)  in a wider forum.  I chose goCamino rather than 
a larger group for that purpose.

When I thought of preparation for a pilgrimage, it meant to me, with a great 
deal of naivete and enthusiasm, packing lists, maps, bits of history, 
cultural orientation and logistics. I searched list serves (at that time the 
UCLA group that preceded this goCamino) and thought I was prepared.

Years later, I see that it was my whole background as a catholic  that may 
have been one of the biggest preparations as I easily fell into the pilgrim 
masses, staying at religious hostels (Roncesvalles to begin with!), and for 
the small insights that accompanied sitting in the still quiet of some of 
the chapels, etc.  It doesn't mean to say that there is where I had my 
deeply spiritual experiences...those hapened between people and in solitude 
under the roof of the sky without the religious trappings.

However, I was on a path that had been tread for centuries for primarily 
religious reasons, "Wife of Bath" and other Chauncerian pilgrims aside.  It 
was a karmic path probably before that as well, in pre-Christian times.

I guess my question has to do with preparation, or lack of it.  I did not 
consciously prepare in the manner of say Joyce Rupp or Lee Honaicki, and yet 
my pilgrimage has altered all aspects of my life since.  Is there a 
correlation bewteen spiritual preparation (something often overlooked) and 
spiritual experience, or does that often come unbidden in these times?

Is spiritual preparation also a necessity or is it enough to be truly open 
without any studied or prescribed approach?