It would be nice if I paid a little bit better attention I guess. Maybe have to play my Trench Card, as in sorry just keeping my head down in the trench here. But Annie reminded me with the bouquet of flowers that we met on March 2nd four years ago. Little did I know that we would both run away together with the circus shortly afterward. It has been four full years of a world of Camino logic. Thanks Annie, it’s alperfect, the whole thing.
Some Official Caminohead words and phrases:
Alperfect – better than all good, an appreciation.
SJA – St. James Again or St. James Afoot – referring to the influence and movement of St. James in our lives.
We can’t help ourselves. – being always connected with each other and things Camino we tend to run into ourselves and each other everywhere.
I am going to go and make a big lunch. See you, Alperfect love, Felipe.
Congratulations Felipe and Annie for an amazing 4 year journey. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Felipe I am happy to hear the weather has warmed up and that you have been able to walk more. What a beautiful, yet cold and snow filled week this So Cal girl came to visit Washington. I’ve been home almost a week now and I have still been pondering the question you shared with me on our walk together. The big question everyone has been contemplating…”what are we figuring out here”.
Today I began to ponder the two “here’s”. There is “here” the blog where there is one type of exploration, ruminating, sharing of ideas, but now that I have shared a walk on your Camino I propose that there is another “here” and that is your actual, physical Camino trail, your homebase.
When I came to visit you I had no expectations for the time I would spend with you on or off the trail. I did think we would walk a bit more together but I understood very quickly that might not happen.
I didn’t come to your Camino to figure anything out and yet as I walked those laps on multiple days I began to have very personal experiences, emotional and spiritual. I gained insights and felt connected to a deeper intuitive part of myself I had never experienced before. I had answers come to me I didn’t even know I had questions for. And perhaps most importantly was not only a greater understanding of community and connection but that we have the power to live and create the kind of life we want to live. I have the power to live and create the kind of life I want to Iive.
Felipe I hope this isn’t too personal to share here but you are an inspiration to all of us. Not only on the blog but also to those of us who get to share life with you in person. You live each day to the fullest that you can and that has inspired so many people who love you.
Perhaps I will never have a good answer to that question you posed to me that day. Perhaps there is only one “here” and not two. Perhaps this blog and your Camino provide a “place of possibility” where there isn’t a single answer or answers to the question but instead a place where each one of us is free to explore, a place where can figure out what it is we need to figure out or gain a deeper understanding of and then share this journey with others “here” within this community.
Hi Rho,
Your comment is very powerful! And I can totally relate to you! And while personal, as “here” at Caminoheads or in the Camino or in the pilgrims “salon”, we all get that there is no other way to comment but to be personal: the experience of the pilgrimage, wherever it is, is a personal one, and while we all agree on how the experience changed us, it has changed us individually, releasing a better version of who we are, or may be the word is “a more authentic” version of who we are.
John O’Donohue, who is one of my favourites authors wrote that “To be born is to be chosen”, and from that also said that if there would be someone else who could do what we have to do in the world, that person would be here instead of us. And I love how your wording “a place of possibility” for “these” Camino-related places and experiences, I think one of the greatest things we learn is that we can safely be who we are (authentic), and with that first understanding, all is possible for us, as the life to live is the one which has been awaiting us to show up to, and one we can face with the gifts we have.
Maybe Phil needs a Chief Bureau for the South West things???!!!
“Down here” hugs,
Cris
Hi Cris,
It is nice to “meet” you here. As someone who has yet to do the Camino I am fascinated that some of my experiences I shared above align with what you are sharing. So now I ponder…in walking those 9 miles on Vashon Island, was introduced to my authentic self for the first time?
The first night at Phil’s house he asked me why I want to do the Camino and after much discussion I realized that one of the main reasons is that I want to put myself in a “place of possibilities”. I understand I don’t need to go to Spain to do this, but there is another part of me that hears the call of the Camino and that there is something I need to experience there. Maybe it is connected to this authentic self.
Several years ago I watched an 8 episode series on PBS about Pilgrimages of different cultures. In the opening monologue Bruce Fieler said that as church attendance decreases, the amount of people doing pilgrimages is increasing. While he never answered the questions as to why, this is something else I have pondered. Could some be looking for deeper connection to themselves, others, God, community? And now based on what you have shared, I wonder if that could include a return to or at least an opportunity for discovering ones authentic self?
I am familiar with some of John O’Donohue’s work but I have never read or heard the quote you listed above. That is also incredibly powerful! Also what you have shared following his quote helps. On which day I do not remember, but on one of those laps on Phil’s Camino I experienced that first understanding that all is possible for us. Authenticity is a good word to describe much of what I experienced during my visit there.
There is a quote I read recently on Facebook which complements what you are sharing though I do not know who said it:
“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that really isn’t you so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”
Thank you Cris, You have helped to bring me some clarity of my recent experiences and I find it very helpful to know I am not alone.
Hugs from So Cal,
Rho
Rho ~ thanks again for coming to us here. I think there is one here. I think that we are dealing with a mystery lately. It is a mystery in the spiritual sense of the word. Usually with earthly logic we are mentally blocked by a mystery, we don’t like them, they are an obstacle. But in a heavenly sense we are invited in to certain mysteries that are forever fonts of inspiration. One day we understand it one way and that suffices for that moment. Then the next day, or month, or year we have grown and we understand it in a new way and that completes us for that moment. One is not better than another just a different facet of the jewel.
Relax into it and don’t let it throw you. Have confidence that you can ride it gracefully. This stuff is way bigger than we are but we can’t let that bother us, we belong here. Felipe.x
Thanks for the clarity!!
Zach ~ you are welcome. We try our best. Stop by again, Felipe.