Two Gifts of the Camino de Santiago: Letting go and seeking simplicity.
One of the many huge vistas on the Ruta de La Lana, Guadalajara.
Gifts of the Camino de Santiago: Letting go and seeking simplicity.
Two great benefits of walking the Camino de Santiago are the experience of letting go of obsessions, addictions, anxieties, beliefs, resentments and all those niggling insecurities which inhabit our minds; and also the experience of how wonderful it is to find that living very simply can be a joy.
Simple lodging, no heating or hot water, but welcome on a very wet day.
Quintanarraya, Ruta de La Lana
This year, 2015, I have started two Caminos and in neither did I make it as far as I had intended. It was not my arthritic ankle which stopped me but my moderately benign heart arrhythmia quite common in men of my age. Often my average speed drops to 1 km per hour because I need to stop and wait for my heart to calm down.
A challenging descent to Antequera, Camino Mozarabe from Malaga.
On returning from a 10 day walk from Seville to Zafra, on the Via de La Plata, my doctor said that the only solution is to exert myself much less. Caminos do not seem too much exertion to me, but my heart obviously feels it is. So I have been faced with accepting that my lifestyle must adjust to this reality.
The Camino is our teacher.
What I have learned is that fundamental, paradigm shifts in perspective come more frequently with age. My experiences of five years walking Caminos is that personal change is not to be avoided but embraced and welcomed. So I am sure that whether I walk more slowly and much shorter distances, or not walk Caminos at all, the pilgrimage will continue. Some day I will no longer be able to walk it: I will let it go.
New directions.
Learning from Simplicity.
I am sure that the necessary simplicity of life on the Camino has helped me to learn to “let go.” Pilgrims let go of keeping up appearances, they ditch the surplus attire or accessories they set out with, they let go of privacy and luxury and all will say how good it is to live more simply, at least for a while. Very few complain of these privations and I often hear people say that on the Camino they feel a lightening of the burdens they have been carrying in life.
Albergue municipal, Murias de Rechevaldo, simple and welcoming, run by Pedro.
On the Camino pilgrims largely make do with only what is necessary. This simplicity can be, in itself, a revelation. So much of what we have and what we want is unnecessary. Moreover, a long pilgrimage on foot exposes many hidden, inner treasures; usually when bits of the ego get worn away like the soles of our shoes. Walking, contemplation, prayer, space and silence strip us bare and we find we are just fine, naked. At least, so it seems to me. This is the secret of wealth, openly declared by the world’s great spiritual traditions: walk in the direction of material wealth and you have a serious risk of living in financial insecurity no matter how much you acquire. Go trustingly in the opposite direction and you will be filled with gratitude for all you have.
The Canal de Castilla, near Fromista.
But I will miss the Camino if I find I can’t walk it.