I was sitting with some friends last weekend and the Camino, which I had walked in 2011, came up. Someone asked if I had experienced anything religious or spiritual. Those were not their exact words, but I knew what they meant. The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage route and there are many books by people describing how it transformed their lives. They may have heard God speak, connected to a spiritual being, or found peace in some other way. I have avoided answering this question because I did not have any of these epiphanies. No higher power spoke to me on the trail. I was not spiritually transformed or connected or suddenly at peace with myself and life. Nothing spectacular or dramatic happened.
But then I thought again. Maybe God did not talk to me (or I failed to hear her/him/it/they) but something about the Camino changed me. Nothing dramatic or miraculous, but the experience of the Camino impacted me at the time and does to this day.
I committed to writing something weekly for this blog, and so I will publish this short post, which has now become an introduction to a series of stories about the Camino. Not just the walk but getting to the walk - the way to the way. That starts at a business dinner in the Fall of 2010 where the speaker started by saying, “last year I walked the Camino de Santiago”. Little did I know that one year later, I would too.
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