Quotes Which Can Relate to Walking a Camino

[davebugg]

I'll start


I find that the three truly great times for thinking thoughts are when I am standing in the shower, sitting on the john, or walking. And the greatest of these, by far, is walking.
----Colin Fletcher

I had better admit right away that walking can in the end become an addiction ... even in this final stage it remains a delectable madness, very good for sanity, and I recommend it with passion.
----Colin Fletcher

We don’t stop hiking because we grow old – we grow old because we stop hiking.
– Finis Mitchel

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.”
-- James Michener

Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking; you have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits.
— Cindy Ross

 

[Cathy G]

Here's a couple that inspired me with my first times on The Way:

An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
-Henry David Thoreau

One I relied on daily from Scripture:

"But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint."
Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)

And these from a book given to me by a friend before we left for Spain: "The Sacred Journey" by Charles Foster.

1. On the road there are important lessons to be learned, important things to be lost and important things to be won.

2. Humans have never forgotten that they were designed as walkers. When things go wrong, they go for a walk...that seems to make things better.

3. In the freedom the road gives, you can be yourself, probably for the first time since you were a child.

4. The first words of Jesus to his disciples were "Follow me." He said some other things too, but as a summary of the four Gospels, "Let's go for a walk together" is not bad.

5. With pilgrimage, nothing is ever as it once was. Beware.

 

[Robo]

“But walking causes absorption. Walking interminably, taking in through your pores the height of the mountains when you are confronting them at length, breathing in the shape of the hills for hours at a time during a slow descent. The body becomes steeped in the earth it treads. And thus, gradually, it stops being in the landscape: it becomes the landscape. ”
― Frédéric Gros,

This one really resonates with me.

This might sound weird, I don't know.

Perhaps it only happens on a longer Camino, maybe after 2-3 weeks, but I've often felt one of the most rewarding aspects of a Camino is the way we can become lost in, or 'at one' with the landscape.

I feel myself become more 'grounded' and almost part of the landscape itself. When walking alone, even on remote stretches, I never feel lonely. I feel surrounded by life. The birds, the animals, the trees. Yes, particularly the trees.

Some must have stood there for centuries, like guardians of the way, watching Pilgrims pass by. Some I think deserve names, like dear Tomas a couple of days out from Santiago. He resembles an 'Ent'.

That connection to the Landscape, to it's energy if you like, was very strong one day.

Pat and I were walking between Villa Franca del Bierzo and Vega de Valcarce. So I think it would have been a couple of kms before La Portela perhaps?

I was slightly ahead of Pat, and I had stopped to take some photos as we passed along a small country road in quite a wooded area in that valley.

I had stopped and was just looking at a tree.

Pat may have felt my mood as she stopped beside me.

"Oh No"!, she said. "That's so sad".....

At the side of the tree, was a pile of recently felled logs.
Judging by the diameter of the logs, these were not old trees.

And next to the pile of 'young logs' an ancient tree was standing.
Almost stooped over the pile, as if in pain.
Pat wept......

There were many such piles along that road, and then a saw mill.
And stacks of planks.

I called that section, the 'Valley of the Fallen'.

Maybe the longer we spend in nature, we come to understand it more, and become part of it?

Do you find yourself talking to the trees, the birds, the animals?

 

[Robo]

I'll start


I find that the three truly great times for thinking thoughts are when I am standing in the shower, sitting on the john, or walking. And the greatest of these, by far, is walking.
----Colin Fletcher

I had better admit right away that walking can in the end become an addiction ... even in this final stage it remains a delectable madness, very good for sanity, and I recommend it with passion.
----Colin Fletcher

We don’t stop hiking because we grow old – we grow old because we stop hiking.
– Finis Mitchel

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.”
-- James Michener

Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking; you have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits.
— Cindy Ross

Love that last one @davebugg

 

[Tassie Kaz]

Great topic @davebugg; a small contribution from me...

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"
Lao Tzu

"Everywhere is within walking distance, if you have the time."
Steven Wright

"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking."
Friedrich Nietzsche

And my personal favourite which I live by..

“Not all those who wander are lost.” JRR Tolkien

Happy trails everyone. For those who are able to be back 'out there', good for you. For those of us still living with border closures, etc...our turn will come.

Sempre Avanti!

 

[mspath]

Remember

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much....

Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Country Life, 1858

 

[Joergen]

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”

Soren Kierkegaard (1847)

 

[OTH86]

You'll never walk alone...
~ Oscar Hammerstein

 

[WGroleau]

More than once, I've read something like “the journey is the destination” (or “… the goal”). Which makes this cartoon pertinent: