Camino dreams

Hi Adrian!
It sounds to me like you're a perfectly normal chap!
Yes, the camino can become a 'thing of dreams'.... but the wonder of it never seems to go away. There is a strange longing that affects so many people who have walked the Camino just once: they long to go back and try it again - or choose another of the many, many routes that make up our glorious Camino de Santiago.
It seems you've started dreaming about it already .... so be it, and know that, once you've walked it for the first time, you'll probably keep dreaming and have to return, one day, to walk it again!
But to my mind, that's a GOOD dream!
I'm already 'dreaming' of May and being back in Galicia ....
Buen camino, Adrian!

Presently, seven months since my first Camino, and about three months before my second, I still find myself lulling myself to sleep each night, not counting sheep or some such thing. Oh no! I am mentally packing my rucksack for the forthcoming Camino.

I already have everything I need. So as I lay there waiting for sleep to come. I am recounting the weight and questioning the multiple utility of each item as I mentally determine how best to pack it (folded, compressed, stuffed), what sort of container the contents should go into (ziploc bag, nylon sack, mesh bag, etc.) where in or on the rucksack the particular item should ride to minimize having to completely unpack and repack each day.

Finally, I question myself again and again. What did I take last time that I did not use? What did I NOT take last time that I wished I had brought? What did I have to buy along the way that I needed and can better obtain here, before I leave?

Aside from packing and "stuff" issues, I rehash things like, when to have my eyes examined and new glasses obtained, when to schedule the dental checkup, physical examination and get updated prescriptions to bring with me, and a foot doctor appointment? The latter is something I neglected to do (overlooked). I will NOT make that mistake again. I WILL see the podiatrist well in advance of my next Camino instead of having to find a podiatrist at Burgos. It worked out well but was an inconvenience I did not need.

All this said, other people, who have not done a Camino usually fail to understand. Some long-distance through hikers can relate. But usually, you just learn to change the subject. I suppose the Camino, writ large, is sort of a "benevolent madness" to those of us who have done at least one and long to do another, or more. I have days when I wish I could just wander the many Camino routes all over Europe, permanently. But alas, reality, or sleep intrudes...

Its in your head now Adrian, you will never get it out. Happy planning and Buen Camino.

Adrian961 said:

Since I decided to walk the Camino Frances in May 2014 I've thought about it almost every day at some point but generally it's just something I'm doing this year. People ask what I'm up to so I tell them I'm going for a long walk in Spain or I tell them about other stuff. We all have lives full of stuff we're doing and my stuff is no more significant than other people's stuff. It's really not a big deal and I am not at all anxious about it. I've travelled quite alot, been to Spain many times (La Tomatina festival last year and if you can survive that you can survive anything). I have the kit and will be prepared for the trip. But last night the Camino came into my sleep.

I bumped into a couple of friends and a few random strangers, as you do. We walked, walked all day and towards the end ran a few miles feeling elated. A man said 'You're almost there' and so we were. I didn't know where 'there' was so I went to get the Rother guide from my pack at which point I realised I'd picked up my other pack, the one with just a few books in it that I'd been meaning to take to a charity shop (oddly, including a copy of 'Spy Catcher' by Peter Wright which I've never read). The horror, the horror. Then I noticed I was wearing ordinary clothes, jeans, shirt and top. At this point I woke up, slightly annoyed I didn't get to find out how things worked out. I suspect they worked out just fine.

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Without going into anything too profound, your dream does have a meaning or, at least, it makes much sense to me. Usually the most important details in our dreams are our feelings. More often than not our brains supply pictures to feelings when we dream, not vice versa.
You write about two feelings "elation" and "horror". The picture you associate with "elation" is the camino and random strangers whom you meet. "Horror" is the mundane of every day life, although this "mundane" in your dream is quite fascinating in itself. But leaving that aside the declaration you make consciously in the light of day that "We all have lives full of stuff we're doing and my stuff is no more significant than other people's stuff. It's really not a big deal and I am not at all anxious about it." seems to me like a denial of a real inner excitement about doing the Camino this year and you even say you think about it almost every day. You seem to have a bit of anxiety that it will just be ordinary "stuff", maybe as boring as "Spycatcher".
Well, Adrian, I hope that your desire that it be full of "elation" be fulfilled beyond anything you can imagine, as I'm sure it will. Be excited as a child is for Christmas. I am for mine this year, probably in the autumn, and this will not be my first.