Hiking the Camino: An Adventure Awaits

Why Do This?

I was following Tom on his YouTube vlog, What in The World, as he paddled his canoe across Canada.  Each day he had to make his way across the Great Lakes facing and meeting obstacles and adversity.  But he did it!  He reached his goal, met a lot of wonderful people and, no doubt became physically stronger.  Then he published his next vlog saying, why did I do this?  This was a reflective question, not a regret.  Reflecting on his life, he recalled the time that he realized that life does not go on forever.  Realizing he was going to die, eventually, he asked himself what am I going to do before then? 

Tom told about the one thing that set him off on an adventurous life; he walked the Camino.  I listened and thought about why he did this first adventure and began to ask the 71-year-old man inside of me, what are you going to do before you die?  I replied, “Good question!”  I had actually not thought of this before and just lived my life each day as it came accepting only the challenges that life brings daily.  Now I’m asking, “What am I going to do?”  I challenged myself to do the biggest thing I had ever done in my life, walk the 500-mile way to Santiago Compostela.  Of course, I started researching.

I became intrigued with this pilgrimage that has gone on for over 1,000 years.  This is the perfect thing for me to do at this time of my life.  As we age, allowing ourselves to tire, we forget that we are still alive!  Let’s get out and do something.  Let’s do something amazing!  I will walk the 500-mile pilgrimage to Santiago, The Road to Santiago, The Way.  This excited me and I started making plans.  I chose to do this walk with three things in mind:  my physical state, my mental state and my spiritual state.  So, what does all this mean?

At 71 years old, the physical challenge is obvious. For the mental approach, I have found through the years that there is no better way to clear your mind than to walk.  While walking, you experience the solitude that allows you to not only think, but to think through things.  Some of my best times were spent on my daily five mile walks when I lived in Florida. 

The same solitude and the clearing of the mind, makes way for the still small voice inside your heart to talk.  Probably more to listen to this voice that likely cannot always get my attention.  This pilgrimage has always been, since the early 800s, a journey to the tomb of the apostle Saint James.  This is actually to whom the name Santiago refers.  I may not look to the Saints exactly like those devoted Catholic pilgrims do, but I do have an awesome respect for the work that James did as one of the twelve disciples of Jesus.  So, I devote my walk to the leader of those disciples.