[Gocamino] Angels in disguise

[Richard Ferguson]

I think of the Camino kind of like summer camp, or going away to 
college.   All of a sudden you are far from home, in a shared 
experience, you know no one, and you make friends quickly.   It is 
not likely that you will ever see most of the people again, or that 
they will pass along information to your friends and family back 
home, so no problem telling "secrets", or saying what you really 
feel.  In your regular life, we all get in a rut, we spend time with 
the same people, we have things we would prefer not to share.  We 
don't have the situation that results in that openness.   Nor do I 
have the same openness today that I did on camino.

But I use what I learned on camino all the time.  I specifically 
thought today about what I learned on camino, realized that it 
applied in my current situation, and then acted on it.  The learnings 
have stuck with me, and help me all the time.  So I would say that 
the value of the camino for me is not in the openness, or the 
friendships, but in what I learned.  And of course what I learned is 
mostly about myself, and exactly how I needed to change.   If I told 
you what I learned, you might laugh, or say that you learned that a 
long time ago, maybe in kindergarten.   But it was a very valuable 
learning for me.  And  I needed to be in that situation to really 
learn it and have it stick.

Richard



>
>Think of the easy repoire that occurs around the refugio tables--shared
>experience that has transcended culture, language, gender, age, etc. 
>Meaningful experience.
>
>Keeping the experience and way of being alive and giving back takes many
>forms, not just being a hospitalero (and even they get burned out...), but
>what about practicing that openness to others at home?  It does take an act
>of will, too.
>
>
>
>
>From: Elcaminomejala at aol.com
>To: gocamino at oakapple.net
>Subject: Re: [Gocamino] Angels in disguise
>Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 21:05:25 EDT
>
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>It'll be really great if it could continue after the physical Camino,  in
>our
>realm of realities we live in most of the time, wouldn't it...but  seems
>that
>something happens and we leave it there, all there, as a nice  Camino
>memory...
>
>
>
>
>In a message dated 5/17/2007 8:55:32 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>machi at telsur.cl writes:
>
>  > In the olden days, pilgrims were seen as Godde's messengers,  hence
>  > they were to be treated well -- in case they were 'angels  in
>  > disguise' I guess.
>
>Dear Claire, I think  that's great! Such a magnificent job to do
>while walking El  Camino; to be "angels in disguise"!
>
>  >From a quiet  autumn's night at the shores of Patagonia
>
>Machi
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>Check:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDOTJHbwRj4
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