It took me one year to plan for my Camino, starting by watching the famous movie , The Way by Martin Sheen, then reading through books about the pilgrimage..etc I felt I was planning it too much, aiming to go there to spend time to explore my inside and escape the political and social bubble I’ve been surviving during the past years. I was quite worried that am too lost with my thoughts that I might go there and will not know how to prioritize my thinkings, beside of the physical preparation. So I decided to practice at the gym, walking daily on my treadmill. Then I had some appointments with a life coach to help me do it right. I had some papers with list of points written to think about, and now am ready to fly.
The day I started walking up the mountain from St Jean Pied De Port to Roncessvales , I felt all the physical practicing was useless! I felt my beats are getting higher and I started to panic, feeling I will not be able to finish this trip… Looking around me, I saw the same look on most of the pilgrims around me, whether walking or biking…everyone is breathing hard and suffering to walk up this mountain, so it wasn’t me only! Suddenly I felt the camino is giving me a clear message: if you wanna have a new start, you gotta die a bit first and live again! My heart beats started to slow down gradually even though I was still doing the same effort walking up. Again everyone around is feeling the same, and people stopped at Orisson to start talking to eachother. First camino friends are made here and people are sharing their experience of those first 7 km , congratulations you are on the way…no way back… don’t stop walking and…. BUEN CAMINO
Everytime I aim to start thinking of one of the points I came with, I find myself distracted with the beautiful scenery or by knowing new friends, who I can swear each one of them I met for a reason! I ended up not even looking at the papers I got and I nearly forgot everything my life coach told me. One day I decided to throw all these papers as I realized that I should give up and enjoy the natural life coaching flow of the Camino…
Conclusion… Aside from buying the right walking shoe and using it few miles ahead, nothing else should be planned to be on the camino…just plan your long vacations and go !
Sherif, Cairo.
(This is awesome; plain direct Sherif. Thanks man!)
Thanks for sharing that rather personal experience Sherif. A metaphor for everyday life perhaps? Excessive planning and preparation often seems a little redundant once you actually get to the doing of whatever it is you’re excessively planning for.
Cherry – you have a cherry pic with your comment. Yea, most excellent and I need to get something up there for myself. I happen to know that is a tattoo because when I first met you I had trouble hearing your name and you just quickly showed me it on your forearm, most effective. You are pretty good at being effective, I have noticed.
But the topic is Sherriff’s thoughts. I really hope that the life coach wasn’t too expensive. But we all did this in our own way. Over planning is sort of what we do best. And that is one of the BIG Camino lessons, to have faith that things are unfolding to our benefit (and when it is really good, our amusement). Love you, Felipe.