[Gocamino] Off to Santiago

Wed Apr 7 01:55:04 PDT 2010

Hi all,
I set off on Saturday to walk from Assisi to Santiago, via parts of the Via 
Francigena, Via Tolosana, Camino Aragones, Camino del Salvador, and the 
Camino Primitivo.
If any of you happen to see an overweight Aussie on the trail, please say 
hello!
 For details of my walk, visit www.assisi at santiago.com
Buen camino
Alan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <sue.kenney at sympatico.ca>
To: "Saintjames" <saintjames at yahoogroups.com>
Cc: "GoCamino" <gocamino at oakapple.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 7:00 AM
Subject: Re: [Gocamino] [saintjames] Thinking of writing a book about 
yourcamino?

Deborah and others,
After my first Camino I started off telling stories to people who had never 
been exposed to the Camino. In the first 4 years I spoke to over 5000 people 
in Canada, the US and the Bahama's and borrowed money to finance it. So many 
people told me I should write a book. I had no plans to do that when I 
walked the Camino and so I told them I wasn't a writer. Still I had so many 
requests that I wrote My Camino and it's a Canadian best-seller. It's not 
perfect but what I found is that people were tolerant because I had the 
courage to speak my truth and to bare my soul. And guess what, I'm not 
perfect but I have something to say. That's what the Camino taught me.
Like you, I almost always speak and share my story with non-pilgrims. Most 
of the people who buy my book aren't pilgrims. I find men and women, 
children and elderly all read my stories because I believe they are 
universal. Many people have written back to me to say they walked the Camino 
because of me. It's a great honour but I'm not promoting the Camino, I am 
promoting being on a life journey.
And I am still distilling the lessons of the Camino. I wrote my second book 
on the Camino, did a one woman show, directed a documentary, wrote poetry 
and I live the Camino everyday. It's not for all of us. I'm heading back to 
the Camino in May for 3 months to walk and talk to pilgrims about how to 
integrate they journey into life back home. What I found is that there is so 
little support for pilgrims when they get back into the "real" world. Having 
walked 5 times now, it is my honour to share my experiences with others. 
I'll be blogging and encouraging others to blog about their experiences.
I am so grateful to the people on my path who helped me with their support, 
critics, feedback, honesty and truth I want to give back. We need advice 
from people like Sil but if it stops you from writing then you'll never 
stand up to the riggers of the promoting a book in the real world.
I would be happy to help anyone out there who is writing their Camino story. 
Feel free to contact me kenneysue at gmail.com anytime. If you have questions 
or you want me to give you some notes on your writing, I welcome it.
Buen Camino back home.
Sue
ps Now I'm writing my first novel about a woman travelling in India. The 
Camino lives on in other parts of the world.

Love and light,

Sue

www.suekenney.ca

> To: saintjames at yahoogroups.com
> CC: gocamino at oakapple.net
> From: GASpangler at hotmail.com
> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 09:41:26 -0700
> Subject: RE: [saintjames] Thinking of writing a book about your camino?
>
>
> The effects of the Road vary.
>
> Ponder if you would, how many different reactions there might be from the 
> demise of a relationship. Some consume their weight in chocolate, other 
> stop eating all together. Some hit the bar scene, others stay at home. 
> Some crawl into a bottle, others don’t go near liquor or libation. 
> Post-Camino effects of the Road to Santiago can be just as diverse, but 
> not quite as obvious.
>
> I meet folks who want to experience all the ‘good stuff’ and none of the 
> ‘bad stuff’ the Road has to offer. Sometimes that’s skipping the perceived 
> boredom of the Meseta. Sometimes that’s taking a bus through a ‘tedious’ 
> part of a big city. Tour groups promise travelers a ‘Camino’s Greatest 
> Hits’ approach instead of the more traditional and taxing Pilgrim 
> experience. There are as many variants as there are walkers.
>
> I have read many of the treatises offered by the newly-minted Pilgrims. 
> Not all are born to write. Yes, many make factual, spelling, grammatical 
> and even mathematical errors. Oh, well. Skipping the ‘boring’ or 
> ‘problematic’ literature is like skipping the ‘boring’ or ‘problematic’ 
> parts of the Road. Many of us come home a bit disoriented. Something 
> happens we can’t quantify .. something a bit intangible. Try to translate 
> the intangible into any language, please. Now ask a non-writer to do that. 
> All can write, but not all are writers. Perhaps the unskilled word 
> wranglers are at a loss, and the baseline experience is all they can 
> muster. It’s their way of decompressing. You know, that Post-Camino thing.
>
> Why do we walk in the first place? What’s so strong a draw that many of us 
> are repeat offenders? Why do we seek out Camino literature, Camino 
> pictures and Camino music? Why are we even talking about this? We’re 
> addicts. Every Camino is different for every Pilgrim who has ever walked. 
> It’s been that way since the whole Walking-to-Compostela thing began. 
> Chill. We’re not all clever people and not all brilliant authors. Be kind 
> to our less gifted family members. This was supposed to be fun. Let them 
> do what they need in their life (Camino). None of us are finished yet. 
> Even the bad writers need a break. “The tourist demands, the Pilgrim 
> appreciates”, as the saying goes. Let’s all aspire to be Pilgrims. 
> Appreciate, help and encourage those who might lag behind.
>
>
> Buen Camino,
>
>
> Grant
>
> http://www.ElCaminoSantiago.com
> Resources for the Pilgrimage Road to Santiago
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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