Walking The Way: Camino de Santiago

For over 1200 years, people have walked Spain’s ancient pilgrimage path, the Camino de Santiago. There are many ways to Santiago. The nearly 500 mile (800 km) Camino Frances is the most famous of all the routes to Santiago de Compostela in Northwest Spain and begins at St Jean Pied de Port, France. The Way of St. James is said to have originated in France, where it is called Le Chemin de St. Jacques de Compostelle. This is the reason that the Spanish themselves refer to the Way of St. James as “the French road“, since most of the pilgrims they saw were French.  In Latin, Compostela comes from: campo being ‘ field’ and stella meaning ‘star’: The field of stars.  Anyone walking the camino will see stars in the sky, field after field, and mountain paths well traveled.

Symbol of the Camino

The scallop shell has long been the symbol of the Camino de Santiago. The shell is seen on posts and signs along the Camino in order to guide pilgrims along the way. The shell is even more commonly seen on the pilgrims themselves. Wearing a shell denotes that one is a traveler on the Camino de Santiago. Most pilgrims receive a shell at the beginning of their journey and either attach it to them by sewing it onto their clothes or wearing it around their neck or by simply keeping it in their backpack.

The scallop shell also served practical purposes for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. The shell was the right size for gathering water to drink or for eating out of as a makeshift bowl.

The scallop shell also acts as a metaphor. The grooves in the shell, which come together at a single point, represent the various routes pilgrims traveled, eventually arriving at a single destination: the tomb of James in Santiago de Compostela.

Synchronicities and Seed Planting

I first ‘heard’ about the Camino when I read Shirley MacLaine’s book in 2002. A few years before that I had taken a three week trip through the UK that included Southern Scotland, the Lake District in England, Southern England and Wales before returning my little Rover with over 2000 km to Heathrow airport. While I had covered far more ground than the Camino, I had done day hikes through the meadows and mountains. It seemed daunting to move a fourth of that distance from point A to point B motored only by my legs and the pack on my back. A few years after my trip to the UK, I took another motor car trip from Northern Italy, south and west into France with a gal friend of mine. She is English born and had an English artist friend named Jo who we visited for a couple of days before heading north to Paris.  Jo lived in a restored 12th century building outside Montpellier with her companion, Andre.  She  explained that the home had been extensively restored having been a 12th century ‘hospital’ that was on the Le Puy-en-Velay route to Santiago.  I loved hearing that history especially as Andre was a doctor. These hospitals provided food and lodging to the pilgrims as they headed south. She explained that they carried a shell designating they were a pilgrim and were to be given food and shelter. Jo even pointed out a stone carved shell on the outside of the building which let the pilgrims know that would have a safe haven for rest on their journey. When I read MacLaine’s book, Jo’s story clicked for me. Little did I know that the camino seed had been planted prior to reading about it.

When I fell and badly fractured my right shoulder in 2005, the never fully healed and damaged tendons reaching up into the back of my neck and down the right side of my back caused me significant chronic pain – partially because I tried to get back to regular activities too soon and partially because it had been a very bad break. My right shoulder discomfort appeared to be an injury I would carry for the rest of my life. The thought of placing a heavy backpack over my shoulder and across my back, let alone carry it for 5 – 6 weeks, was now out of the question.

In 2011, the movie The Way with Martin Sheen hit the theaters to a luke warm response.  Not many people knew about the Camino de Santiago – it is not a mainstream movie.  I saw it available for rental on Netflix and while it is a Hollywood version of the camino (he never gets blisters, wears blue jeans, etc), I lived vicariously with him during the historical pilgrimage.

Many of you know that my work is in digital marketing, with a specialty of working with authors. In 2012, an author by the name of Bill Walker was referred to me to assist him with his website. He had written a book on walking the Pacific Crest Trail and the Camino. When I expressed my curiosity about walking the Camino, he sent me an autographed copy which said, “Susan, You are a great candidate for the Camino.  Bill”.

Fast forward to 2014 when an email from James Twyman arrived into my Inbox. I’m not sure when I signed up to receive his newsletters, but I think it might have been at the Awakened World conference in Palm Springs in 2000. For fourteen years, I had seen his newsletter go into my spam filter, or left it unread. But this one’s subject line said: Walking the Path of Mary Magdalene seemed to jump out and say, Open Me!.  When I did, it asked, “Will you join me as the first pilgrim of thousands to walk the Camino of Mary Magdalene?” This pilgrimage was different from Santiago not only by location – France only; but, also visited places of great interest to me like Rennes les Bains, Montsegur, and Rennes-Le-Chateau. It also was a point A to point B style of hiking with one exception – there would be a small bus that would move our luggage meaning we only had to carry what we needed for the day. And, should the need arise due to being overly tired or an injury, could be used to take any of us rather than do the walk. I signed up and did that journey in May of 2014, meeting 24 other pilgrims who have become lifelong friends. I considered that trip my replacement trip for the Camino de Santiago.  Ironically, it was another seed that was planted for a future camino.

I met people who had done the last 100 miles of the Camino de Santiago (the minimum requirement to receive your certificate of completion – Pilgrim’s Compostela). Last year, one of my dearest pilgrim sisters did the Camino de Santiago by herself and shared her journey with us. Then I met a much younger woman on a hiking trip to Mt. Shasta with some of my pilgrim sister friends this past September. One of them invited her sister, Kim and new husband Arnaud to join us on the last evening together. It turns out that Kim and Arnaud had met when they did the Camino de Santiago earlier that year. She filled me in on details that would make the camino more doable for me, and the seed began to grow. Over the next few months, new individuals appeared to me that, Oh, by the Way, had done some or all of the Camino de Santiago until it occurred to me – I am obviously being called to do this!

Decisions and Preparations

There were several big considerations in making the decision to walk the camino: my business, my physical stamina, my animals.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I while I am single, I do not live alone. My home is shared with five little dogs (my mental health consultants) and my family includes two horses and four chickens. It is not easy to leave my business for an extended period of time, let alone my home where I work in my office that is in remodeled upstairs of my barn. We are together constantly. Finding someone who can replace me and care for as many animals as I have AND for an extended period of time is not easy.

When I traveled with client and friend Robert DeLaurentis last year during the European portion of his self-piloted Around-the-World trip, I was gone for almost a month and hired a local pet sitter, Anna. Things went well, and she has house sat for me several times since for weekends getaways and short trips. Once I made up my mind that 2016 was the Year of the Camino, I contacted her only to find out that the AmeriCorp job she had applied for had come through – she would no longer be dog sitting. Now what?

I had to believe that if I was called to do this trip, surely the solution would be provided. My new camino friend said that she had considered house sitting for people awhile back and that there were websites created to put the right people together with the right situation. I looked online and found House Sitters of America , then started to reach out to some hand picked individuals from the website. I was surprised to see retired college professors, writers, etc and realized this was a good situation for everyone concerned. They got an extended amount of time in a geographical area of interest, and the home owner had someone to look after their pet and house. No one I contacted directly were available and one of them suggested I place an ad. Now I have to say – the idea of listing my dates of travel (even without the address being viewable) in an advertisement to strangers was discomforting at best. Then, I realized again, that I needed to put this out there in order for my guardian angels to bring the right person to me. I have to tell you – one hour after my ad went live, I had the absolutely PERFECT person apply. I didn’t want to jump the gun, and waited until the next day at which time about a dozen more had replied to the ad, before I set up a time for us to speak. During the telephone conversation, where I had written out a list of questions to ask her, I found Sharon was answering them before I had even asked. Not one red flag popped up for me. By the end of the call, I felt like I had a new best friend. I did go through the checking of references as well as a cooling off period, and spoke with a couple other applicants, before telling Sharon, she was the one.

Now I could start working towards making sure the business ran smoothly during my absence and begin my training of long walks; as well as, getting my necessary equipment and gear ready.

Let the Camino Begin

My new camino friend Ann-Marie was headed to Belize for the month of March. Several of us got together at a local restaurant to give her a loving send off. While we were chatting away, Ann-Marie pulled something out of her bag. It was a shell. Her shell. She reached across the table saying, “Take it, it’s yours now. It was gifted to me by someone who carried it before me and brings with it the camino already walked.”

I tell you this because my camino angels, here and above, continue to surround and surprise me with new and unexpected gifts. The next day when I thanked her once again, she said, “Your camino has already begun.”

I will be writing more about the camino itself, my preparations for the trip, and I plan to continue making posts during the walking of the camino. If you would like to be notified of these posts, please sign up below. I’d like to take you all with me on this magical journey.