“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am typically an open book type person. People in my life tend to know exactly what’s going on with me – good, bad, or ugly. I have found that the bad and ugly things make for the best stories, especially when told with a good dose of humor. There are very few things that I refuse to talk about. I think learning more about each other and our struggles makes us better people, generally, and helps us to know that we’re all in this together.
That being said, I think I’ll keep my whole Camino conversation confined to this blog and the Camino de Santiago forum. There’s a strange feeling I have about it — I want to talk about it ALL THE TIME, but it’s also intensely personal to me, and I have difficulty when folks are less than supportive, or don’t understand it. Last night at trivia I spoke to one of my regulars about it, and about halfway through, I could tell by the look on his face that he either a) thought it was a terrible idea, or b) figured this was a silly phase I was going through, and I’d be over it in a few days. My reaction about sharing this with him:
Lesson learned. I’ll talk to family and very close friends about it, who understand this strange calling/compulsion I have to take this journey. That will be good enough. I’ll fight the urge to make my whole camino about my ego and proving the naysayers wrong. Struggle alert! See y’all later. 🙂
PS If any other Camino folks are reading this, and can identify, pop a comment down there. I’d appreciate it. ❤
Sha-pow! 
Oh yeah I think my family and friends didn’t understand the Camino compulsion. I started lending them my copy of the movie, “The Way”, so they could get some idea of what it was about. Also, I mentioned that hundreds of thousands of people do this safely every year.
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I can absolutely relate to this. I just returned from completing the Camino Frances, and while I want to talk about it ALL THE TIME, I’m finding that I can’t really get into it with most people, or I don’t want to. Because while just about all of my family and friends were extremely supportive and happy for me, most don’t really “get it”. And that’s okay, but I’ve found that with most people, I keep my stories basic and on some sort of level that they can access. But this is also the beauty of the Camino: it’s magical to the people who believe in it’s magic. Not everyone gets that, but for those who do, it’s a powerful thing. 🙂
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Thank you both for the comments! Nadine, I’m finding more and more magic the more I learn about the Camino! What a great community. 🙂
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Yes i can relate – my friends look at me loke i was crazy when i told them what i was going to do.
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I can totally relate! Some people think I’m crazy, but family and close friends are starting to get it. I had to find a creative outlet for my Camino discovery so I started the blog at caminoprovides.com.
Have you seen Life in a Walk yet? A father-son Camino. Good for you and your dad! Have a buen Camino!
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