Dear Caminoheads,

Ten years ago, and then again seven years ago, I was 5 days away from arriving to Santiago. This is the first year though, that I have not thought even once that ten and seven years ago, I was in Spain walking the Camino at this very same time. But today, I did.

Today I remembered something I was told while walking in Spain in 2011 by someone I had not met before and I don’t think I met or saw again. Like every day (and for the first 11 days), within 15-20 minutes of walking, I would start crying. At the beginning it was so odd, almost embarrassing, but somehow I got used to it because there was nothing I could do, and I couldn’t figure out why either, it would just happened.  That day, it was the very early morning, this man passed by my side, he saw I was crying and then he said: “Don´t be afraid of crying, you will always have tears, don´t save them for later, crying is also a wonderful experience, a wonderful way to express your feelings, ensure you cry everytime you feel like.”

Along with what I wrote the other day about the opportunity we have in the Camino to just be who we are and the comment from Catherine to dig deeper into those lines, one of the other things the Camino offers us is the opportunity to be rawer, we are in a state of vulnerability to beauty, to danger, to solitude, to so many things that go unnoticed in our daily lives, that maybe that is what brought me to tears.

It may well be too that in our daily lives, at times we are in a state of “learned helplessness”, as if we learned that whatever we do, the outcomes are the same, and independent of our responses, and after a while, we give up our attempts trying to escape the cycle… so… why would we cry?... (clearly, this is way WAY more complex).

The Camino brings perspective. And at the same time, removes some superficial layers, some of them an armor, some of them or learnings. And there we are… crying, weeping, emotional, as we walk.

Stay amazed loves,

Cris