[Gocamino] Pondering...

[DoSnover at aol.com]

Dear Kathy-
 
Thank you, ever so sincerely for asking this question of spirituality  and 
preparation for the journey, it has stirred up a lot of good stuff, it seems  
for many of us.
 
In my walking around everyday life I am a writer and a chef in Chapel Hill,  
North Carolina. 
 
The section of the Camino I have walked is near  Arles, St. Giles and in 
remote Languedoc in the Haute Montagne.
 
This less walked part of the path intrigued me for many reasons. I was  drawn 
to explore more about St. Giles as his life and legend held a  magic and 
healing that I was seeking. Also we have a lot of deer in and  around our house 
and I love them, their mystery, the forest, their  appearance at dusk and dawn,  
- they are a totem animal for  me. But I digress.... 
 
My childhood mirrored a bit of Rosina's - and though not Catholic- rather a  
buffet of faiths ran through our house from which to choose. I was raised  by 
my Nana who was Mennonite, occasionally saw my mother who had  re-married a 
Jewish man, a father who took us to Bible School, a Great  Grandfather who was 
High German Lutheran. And still at the end of the block  was The Holy Spirit 
Church, when her bells rang, she drowned out  all other voices; a pleasant 
reassuring ambiance of my young years. I  have come to look at those bells' meaning 
as; despite what  was going on for me, God was there and heard me. 
 
So, journey and quest are significant and deep words to me.  They have always 
been a part of my recovery from dealing with a few toxic,  alcoholic, and 
abusive figures in my childhood. Then when both he and I  were 18, the brother I 
knew (he was really my cousin I learned later)  drowned. 
 
On the path I also felt a huge release and truth, yes, freedom form the  
everyday pressures and a linking up with the greater world. The world away from  
measuring achievement through a formula of success = money.  It was a  
pilgrimage of the best kind, an inner journey as well as outer. Survival and  
self-reliance and also giving up to the whims of  the road.. we met a  wonderful lady 
in market in Nerac who offered to have us return to her home and  pick from 
her coquille that she had hoped to use on her way to Santiago, but she  was 
caring for an elderly mate and knew she wouldn't get there. I have  vowed to make 
it for her..
 
The novel I have written and am editing, City of Ladies, was a  preparation 
of sorts too. Eleone is woman talmelier  - a french  bread apprentice. Her 
search across the mountains leads her to the  truth about Maman, a gitane from St. 
Marie de la  Mer. And driven by her devotion, her apprentice's pledge to 
adore  and defend bread she discovers that home is not always where you are  born, 
but where you are found. 
 
And I think for me, the journey itself, is home. 
 
Merci beaucoup!
 
Dorette
 

 
C'est  si Bon! owner and chef, Dorette Snover 

teens! look what's  coming!
four weeks of open air markets, beekeepers, bakers, and  cooking classes in 
the heart of paris, provence and tuscany the summer of 2007  

C'est si Bon! Cooking School
Chapel Hill,  NC
919-942-6550

_www.cestsibon.net _ (http://www.cestsibon.net /) 
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