Somehow I have been trudging along writing Caminoheads for almost four years and have failed to notice something possibly important. There has been a shift, a change over time. One way to look at it is that I have not kept up with certain important people in my world, in the Caminoheads’ world.
It has dawned on me recently that my whole readership has changed. If I may back up slightly to fill in some history, the original idea for this blog came from my nurses at the oncology treatment center. This was just before running off to Spain with the newly hired film crew. So originally there were the nurses reading and then there were pilgrims reading that I walked with in Spain reading Caminoheads later in 2014. And although I still have some of these “old timers” on board almost all of the current readership are folks that have joined since then.
This phenomenon in one way I feel guilty about in the sense that I have neglected precious readers possibly. Or perhaps this shift sort of proves that The Camino does live on in a very vital way. It lives on with people all over and it can be kept and shared. What I am saying is that we here are inspiring each other, or buoying each other up when we had no physical connection through the Camino de Santiago proper. It is enough to be a “graduate”.
I must send out emails to my Camino buddies to reconnect. We need each other’s energy and direction always. Please forgive me you guys for this lapse. This is what happens when you make stuff up as you go along, my favorite method.
OK, have a walk momentarily. A gray soggy morning here. There is standing water on the trail again and Raven Creek is flowing just like real wintertime although it is April. Time for things to dry out. The California girls, Annie and Esther, are showing up here on Friday evening so we need some last minute springtime for them, please.
Lapsed loves, Felipe.
Phil, all I need is you and Rebecca and Annie and some Rosé! Can’t wait to see you! I’m so happy to be be walking this Camino journey with you!
Esther ~ OK, picked up the Rosé. Everything set for your arrival, puddles are drying up nicely. Felipe.x
Ohhh, my sometimes-forgetful Pal,
remember that some of us Web-footed NW Islanders know also that when the Gray & Soggies show up where Springtime & Planting is expected it’s pretty easy for the S.A.D. downward mood slide to herd us right over to the shoulda/woulda/coulda department. It is the department that forgets and ignores the potential joyful satisfaction of rediscovering our other lenses, our old friends we CAN reconnect with and even the possibility of their joy at reuniting.
Feels different when the sun is shining and the trail is dry, right?
And while this blog is directed to Caminoheads, there are others (besides me) that aren’t strictly, ‘technically’, Caminoheads but who want and expect and delight in this written part of authentic exploration along Phil’s Camino. I hope our participation is might encourage you to remember that Caminoheads is appreciated by the more than the few who comment, the few who consider themselves to be feet-on-the-Spanish-ground Caminoheads. And I hope our participation, silently or otherwise, is welcomed, or at least accepted, by the rest.
You’re doin just frikkin fine, my friend.
If only my ducks were in such great order as yours.
I’d better get started, like Now…
Yes, yes, sorry to ruffle feathers. Steve my buddy, I apologize. I wasn’t trying to create a “them and us”. I was trying to say something that seemed to be important at that moment. I have tried to define Caminohead way back when and I think, as I remember, that it was someone who embodies the spirit of it as opposed to someone who physically was boots on the ground there. Yes, and still think that is fine. I was trying to make a point that people who didn’t actually walk together in Spain still have a large sense of camaraderie and instant connection when they meet. They seem to “speak the same language.” And speaking of ducks, did you see the pics of Wiley’s flock? Phil.