[Gocamino] Lawyer's tasks on the Camino. (????)) A book.

[Rosina]

By SARAH DEETH , EXAMINER STAFF WRITER
Posted 11 hours ago







What started out as an impromptu trip to Spain turned into a pilgrimage of sorts for a local lawyer, and a book detailing her emotional journey.
Julie Kirkpatrick, author of, The Camino Letters: 26 Tasks on the Way to Finisterre, said the book was the unintended outcome following a month of walking along the Camino de Santiago trail, also known as the Way of St. James.
The trail is an 800-kilometre route that's been used by pilgrims for centuries. 

Kirkpatrick initially planned to take July 2009 off to work in her garden.
A lawyer by trade, she said she's used to working in logistics. She has a "to-do" list. She keeps it up to date, checking off tasks as they're completed, and knows exactly what she's going to do next.
The idea of giving everything up to go walking in Spain, without a plan, was daunting, she said.
She had worked for six months to make sure her practice was in order, so she could get that month off, intending to spend it in her garden.
Her then 17-year-old daughter was working in France at the time and her plans for the month of July fell through, Kirkpatrick said. Her husband suggested she fly to Europe and walk with her. Kirkpatrick booked the flight, without making any plans.
"I really didn't know what I was doing."
So Kirkpatrick made a "to-do" list, asking 26 friends to give her a task for each day of her trip.
What she received, she said, was a list of tasks that required a lot of inner examination.

 

What were her 40-year-old fears and what would she do if she didn't have them?
Listen to the wind and find a word for every day.
Think of the millions of people who walked the path before her.
Kirkpatrick said the list brought out a lot of emotion and a lot of reflection.
She spent one day walking and thinking about her mother, who died when she was young.
She would meet strangers on the trail, hear stories and have extraordinary experiences.
At the end of each day, she would sit down and write a letter to the friend who assigned her the task for the day.
It was an outpouring of emotion, so strong that Kirkpatrick said she didn't feel she could mail the letters home.
Instead she saved them, and re-read them when she got back to Canada.
"Re-reading the letters turned it into a book," she said. "I decided I was going to be brave enough to do this."
Initially, she intended to give a copy of the manuscript to each person who gave her task.
On the day that it was to go to the printer, Kirkpatrick halted the process to give it one final read through, reading every word out loud.
That afternoon, she said, her father went into the hospital with heart failure.
"I ended up reading the letters out loud, to my dad," Kirkpatrick said.
He died five weeks later.
Kirkpatrick decided to turn her manuscript into a book.
With the help of her husband, they began Pyxis Press.
She offered each taskmaster a chance to change his or her name to a pseudonym before publication, she said, but no one wanted to.
The initial printing of her book, 1,500 copies, sold out in about eight weeks.
It's on the second printing. Kirkpatrick said international distribution is being sought.
She has travelled out west and to Toronto several times for book signings and to talk about her experience.
The response has been overwhelming, she said.
On Nov. 27 Kirkpatrick is giving a performance of her book in Toronto with tabla virtuoso Ravi Naimpally and jazz-fusion ensemble Besharah at Trinity St. Paul's United Church on Bloor St. W. It begins at 7:30 p.m.