- Time of past OR future Camino
- April-May 2023
April-May 2025
Walking a Camino in 2025? I am starting my second in April 2025 and thinking about what intention to set. And also wondering if others set intentions for their Camino? Do you change your intention from Camino to Camino, or stick with the same one?
I discovered this Forum shortly before I began my first Camino, with the plan to walk the Norte to Oviedo, then the Primitivo and finishing with Finisterre and Muxia over the course of 42 days. I came across a post with an excerpt from Father Richard’s 1983 talks on pilgrimage, which I found incredibly meaningful because, while I’m not Catholic or particularly religious, it caused me to start thinking about walking my Camino with an “intent”. The thread was later shut down as it inspired a lot of angry responses on the now taboo topic of "pilgrim or tourist". However, this post is not intended as a violation of the new rule, but rather to ask, do you walk with intention?
I know people walk the Camino for many reasons, or for no reason, to just walk and see what happens along the way, so perhaps setting an intention isn’t necessarily helpful or applicable to everyone.
I hadn’t really given it much thought before I started, I was more caught up in packing (and repacking, and repacking again), and all the other pre-departure details. However, that post inspired me to examine why I was walking and what I hoped to accomplish. Before I read that post, I think I was mostly just hoping I would be able to finish! I was also hoping in some vague way for it to be a “spiritual” journey, not just a long trekking vacation. But I hadn’t really gone much further than in my thoughts than that, I wasn’t really thinking about how make a spiritual journey, it was just something I felt compelled to do.
My response to that post included this description of my intention:
“I feel that if I can wake every morning with gratitude in my heart, experience the beauty of where I am in each moment, let go of judging others, no matter how tired I feel or my feet ache, I will have accomplished what I set out to do, I will have approached the internal from the external.”
I kept thinking about this as my departure came closer, and once I started walking, I found myself articulating it slightly differently: that by waking each day with this kind of positive energy, I hoped it would create a kind of internal emotional “vibration” that I hoped I would be able to carry through to my day-to-day life off the Camino. Bringing that “best version of myself” that I often see others describe how they feel on Camino, back with me to my life at home. Looking back, I feel that setting that intention really made a difference in my pilgrimage; it became my polestar, and I did start to feel a kind of internal vibration.
I think I’ve been somewhat successful at maintaining that vibration, but I still see it as a practice, not something that you accomplish, rather something to keep working at. Somehow it seemed so much easier on the Camino where life is simplified into the basic components of walk, find food, be kind, find your destination, repeat. The Camino can be so powerful and a source of inspiration to keep improving our “best versions” – it’s definitely something to keep working on and going back to.
So, as I prepare for my next Camino in Spring 2025, I am thinking again about my intention, how should I walk? Do I need a new intention (and what would that be?), or continue with the one that worked so well for me on my first Camino? I’m leaning towards the latter, but I’ve modified it somewhat, encapsulating into fewer words so it can be a little like a mantra, but still with the hope of creating (or maybe deepening) that internal “vibration” and work towards that “better version”.
Wake in gratitude.
Be good, do good.
Open your heart to beauty.
Remember to smile.
So for now, that is my intention for my Camino.
I’m also hoping that by sharing mine, as the New Year approaches it will inspire you to think about it (as that post inspired me) to enhance your own Camino. And maybe give me other things to think about as I set mine.
I discovered this Forum shortly before I began my first Camino, with the plan to walk the Norte to Oviedo, then the Primitivo and finishing with Finisterre and Muxia over the course of 42 days. I came across a post with an excerpt from Father Richard’s 1983 talks on pilgrimage, which I found incredibly meaningful because, while I’m not Catholic or particularly religious, it caused me to start thinking about walking my Camino with an “intent”. The thread was later shut down as it inspired a lot of angry responses on the now taboo topic of "pilgrim or tourist". However, this post is not intended as a violation of the new rule, but rather to ask, do you walk with intention?
I know people walk the Camino for many reasons, or for no reason, to just walk and see what happens along the way, so perhaps setting an intention isn’t necessarily helpful or applicable to everyone.
I hadn’t really given it much thought before I started, I was more caught up in packing (and repacking, and repacking again), and all the other pre-departure details. However, that post inspired me to examine why I was walking and what I hoped to accomplish. Before I read that post, I think I was mostly just hoping I would be able to finish! I was also hoping in some vague way for it to be a “spiritual” journey, not just a long trekking vacation. But I hadn’t really gone much further than in my thoughts than that, I wasn’t really thinking about how make a spiritual journey, it was just something I felt compelled to do.
My response to that post included this description of my intention:
“I feel that if I can wake every morning with gratitude in my heart, experience the beauty of where I am in each moment, let go of judging others, no matter how tired I feel or my feet ache, I will have accomplished what I set out to do, I will have approached the internal from the external.”
I kept thinking about this as my departure came closer, and once I started walking, I found myself articulating it slightly differently: that by waking each day with this kind of positive energy, I hoped it would create a kind of internal emotional “vibration” that I hoped I would be able to carry through to my day-to-day life off the Camino. Bringing that “best version of myself” that I often see others describe how they feel on Camino, back with me to my life at home. Looking back, I feel that setting that intention really made a difference in my pilgrimage; it became my polestar, and I did start to feel a kind of internal vibration.
I think I’ve been somewhat successful at maintaining that vibration, but I still see it as a practice, not something that you accomplish, rather something to keep working at. Somehow it seemed so much easier on the Camino where life is simplified into the basic components of walk, find food, be kind, find your destination, repeat. The Camino can be so powerful and a source of inspiration to keep improving our “best versions” – it’s definitely something to keep working on and going back to.
So, as I prepare for my next Camino in Spring 2025, I am thinking again about my intention, how should I walk? Do I need a new intention (and what would that be?), or continue with the one that worked so well for me on my first Camino? I’m leaning towards the latter, but I’ve modified it somewhat, encapsulating into fewer words so it can be a little like a mantra, but still with the hope of creating (or maybe deepening) that internal “vibration” and work towards that “better version”.
Wake in gratitude.
Be good, do good.
Open your heart to beauty.
Remember to smile.
So for now, that is my intention for my Camino.
I’m also hoping that by sharing mine, as the New Year approaches it will inspire you to think about it (as that post inspired me) to enhance your own Camino. And maybe give me other things to think about as I set mine.
