Anticipating the Way

Landmark signpost used in the movie, 'The Way," with Martin Sheen

This will be me in less than a month, having just crossed the Pyrenees from France into Spain. Just another 790 kilometers to walk. Will I make it? I'll let you know.

Made it five years ago but then now I am five years older. It's only wine that improves with age, isn't it? And that's not always guaranteed because sometimes wine turns to vinegar.

Crossing the Pyrenees

Four weeks until countdown

In less than 28 days, I will be on the road again. Procrastination is over. I have finally decided to walk from St. Jean Pied de Port in France across the Pyrenees and then westward across the top of Spain. Will see what happens.

I am having some problems with the knees. Definitely some degeneration of the cartilage from practicing shiatsu therapy on a mat for so many years.  Five years ago it was the left one. This time it is the right. There are some that would say that a problem on the left side is a problem with the feminine. So, now it's a problem with the masculine. I obviously can't win.  I'll take that with a good pinch of salt - the non sodium variety.

Meanwhile at the gym I am working on strengthening the medial quads and stripping the iliotibial band along the sides of the legs with a cylindrical foam roller. Hopefully that will help.

Last time I walked, I had problems with shin splints. This can occur if the legs are overworked. I would classify walking between 25 and 35 kilometers every day for a whole month as 'overwork'. So in preparation I am now doing strengthening exercises for the feet, ankles, calves and hips, as these all support the shins.

On the Road Again

I have my transatlantic flight booked to the UK for April 23rd and, sometime thereafter, will walk again the Camino.

Am not sure whether I will walk the same route - 800 kilometres from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago - or take the Via de la Plata from Seville to Santiago. The latter is another 200 kilometers or approximately an extra 7 days. There are pros and cons for each.

"Bless me father for I have sinned. It is five years since my last Camino....." I am just worried about the time constraints for making the 1000 kilometre journey although the weather might be warmer from starting in the south. Maybe I'll sprint it. The foolhardy person is alive and well. If I decide to walk the same route as last time, well, it's not really the same route - the route has changed and I have changed. I am not the same person that travelled five years ago. Same fears come up for me. Am I up to the physical challenges? After all, I am now officially classified as a senior, with all the attendant rights and benefits. Today I am feeling strong and resilient.

Meanwhile, dilemma is the order of the day. 

Walking through Life - Making sense of the Camino

It is now 30 months since walking the Camino from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela. I think about this journey every day. It may not be like an addiction in the conventional meaning of the word. Perhaps it is more accurate to describe it as something that has helped me engage in life. I am towards completion of a book on the Camino. I have entitled it for now as "Walking through Life - making sense of the Camino - a journey- a life journey - a life" I consider that the journey itself is not separable from life. The whole title may be too long. However, I will listen to the advice of a publisher. It is spiritual autobiography, pilgrimage, reflection and voyage of self-exploration. As a significant part of what I do as a profession, it is also a book about health, well-being, shiatsu, massage therapy, alternative or complementary therapy and about the hospice work that I do with those who are dying. I love the many metaphors of a journey such as this. We carry baggage through life. If it is too heavy it breaks us both physically and mentally. Our early formative years as babies, we learn to hold on. As we get towards the end of our life, we have to learn how to let go. Confusing isn't it?

Intensity of the Camino experience

It is three weeks since my arrival in Santiago de Compostela and I am still finding moments when I look back at my experience of El Camino with moments of great disbelief. Even at the time, I felt that aspects of the journey were surreal. It seems like such a contrast with my present reality and the sensory overload of living in a major metropolis, such as Toronto. Why is that? Trying to make sense of it will probably be an on going process for some time to come.

When I was walking the Camino Frances, the walk was the central activity. That was all that I had to do. From this perspective there existed no Toronto and no outside world. Even better, there was no news, good or bad, unless one happened to glance at a television monitor in a restaurant. So the 'world' had become smaller and more intimate. There was the walk, there was nature, human interaction with whoever you might encounter on the path and there was mealtimes. These experiences took on a greater intensity. One could emotionally be moved by a story in someone's life that in the 'normal' world would have no impact.

Mealtimes would take on a greater importance. This was partly due to the appetite that one would build up after a long day's walk. However, there was the added importance of breaking bread with fellow story tellers. Can I believe that the white wine that I downed with such relish along with three plates of boiled octopus, seasoned with cayenne, sea salt and olive oil was the most delicious culinary experience in my life? It was certainly good, but in the context of the Camino it was excellent.

For me an encounter with a group of school children in Ponferrada took on greater emotional charge. With their natural curiosity for all things, they explored the cathedral, tried desperately hard to behave within the parameters laid down by their teachers, and were fascinated by their meeting with this strange, possibly mad, pilgrim on an eight hundred kilometer walk. Would I have been equally affected by an encounter of a group of school kids visiting a significant monument in my own own home town?

I believe others were affected equally deeply by their experiences of the Camino. In the same city of Ponferrada, I met a pilgrim to whom I described my experiences at the Cruz de Ferro. He was visibly moved by my description of this visit.

El Camino works in a special way to sensitize us in a world that lacks sensitivity and connection.

Determination

Thinking back over the last four months ever since I committed to walking the Camino, I am astounded by my resolve, which flew in the face of what in retrospect might seem reasonable.

Two days after buying my transatlantic air ticket, I started having bad left knee pain. The cause is unknown. Perhaps it was a repetitive strain injury from practicing seventeen years of shiatsu therapy on a mat. I was more inclined to think that this ailment was sent to test me. Walking was painful and, after one disastrous trial 15 kilometer walk along Toronto's lake front, not something which I wished to repeat. My back and other leg went into protective spasm. I was advised that for now I should limit physical activity to strengthening my quads and developing cardio vascular capability.

Friends advised me to postpone my walk for a year or, at least, to wait until I had some degree of comfort and could walk without a pronounced limp. By the time I reached London, just six days prior to the start of my camino, I could still barely walk for more than a mile without pronounced discomfort. My brother suggested that for my first day I, at least, choose an alternative to the more arduous Napoleonic route over the Pyrenees.

During all this time, never did I doubt my ability to undertake this journey. Never did I consider a more gentle route over the first mountain range. This was to be my camino and I would succeed.

What happened on the Camino?

Now comes the hard part: making sense of El Camino. That may take a lifetime. I suspect it may take a lifetime because it is actually quite simple. What may be a better exercise for me is to examine my own reactions to what happened on my journey. After all the camino is a personal voyage of discovery.

It is twelve days since my arrival in Santiago de Compostela. So much has happened since that time. I spent two days in that city, flew to London for four days before returning to Canada. I have been exposed once more to the stresses and strains of "normal" daily life, along with murder and mayhem, an oil spill of disastrously spectacular proportions, a pending G20 summit in my home town that threatens to bring the City to a standstill, and Justin Bieber is still the heartthrob for countless young teenage girls.

Enroute to the airport on my way for the two hour flight to London, I passed other pilgrims making their entry into the City. Is there a look of joy or achievement as they wend their way towards the cathedral? Actually, they take on more the demeanor of automated Fritz Lang characters as in the movie Metropolis. They have a job to do, and that is walk. At this point there is no awkward news to detract from their path. Emotion will come later. Life lacks complication. At the same time, what we describe in the "real world" as ordinary takes on a almost surreal intensity.

More on this later,