Day 106

Many who have traveled the Camino de Santiago before me say that when you make the choice to walk the ancient path, that is the moment your Camino begins. There is no doubt my Camino has begun. In fact, it began a few months before I even knew I had decided to walk it.

As I learn more and more about this thing I've decided to do, I realize how really powerful it is. It's so much more than just a long backpacking trek across Spain to see the sights. I always knew that was the case, but I don't think I understood the true importance of it. As I continue in my preparation, many things are appearing in my path, seemingly out of nowhere. Some of these have helped me with questions such as what to bring, where to stay and how to navigate the long trail. But others serve a much deeper purpose. They are helping me to tune in to the energy of the Camino. To teach me valuable lessons that will open me to the true reason I have begun this journey.

There is a belief that the Camino actually follows ley lines, energetic pathways that crisscross the earth. The energy along a ley line is thought to be quite powerful and, if you are open to it, healing in its properties. But some wounds are buried so deep that, in order to heal them, they must first be revealed. Several reports I have read of those who have undertaken "The Way" say that it exposed them to their deepest fears, their greatest physical limitations or their most firmly held obstacles to peace, then allowed them the opportunity to walk through those fears, those limitations and those obstacles. When faced with these challenges, some quit. There is no shame in that. They simply weren't ready to trust themselves enough to face the fear and find the love waiting on the other side. Because at the root of it all, that's all there is. Fear and love. At each moment, it is my choice to accept one or the other, but never both. Those are the only true polar opposites. Everything else is shades of grey.

When I say that I am walking the Camino, just know, I AM walking the Camino. Right now. And at the symbolic end of that portion of this lifelong journey, as I stand in the shadow of St. James, when they ask me, "Where did you begin your Camino?", I will know the answer. And it will not have anything to do with the trailhead in St. Jean Pied-du-Port, France.