What is this with this camino-ing???

[domigee]

I have only been back a short while, 10 days to be precise.... I promised myself - and everyone around me - I was done with 'pilgrimming'.... Oooooh yessss.
I have just suffered a bereavement and it is nice and reassuring to be in the cocoon of my family...
But oh no! I am here like a lion in a cage, watching the rain outside, rearing to be off again I can't say anything at home, honestly, I cannot!
My feet have healed, I am still fit with a 1000km behind me (well, minus the 70k or so in trains as my walking mate kept on reminding me ) ...
It's a disease, I tell you!
Enjoy your caminos, all of you who are off now or soon. I blame YOU!

 

[Bradypus]

Told you so!

 

[domigee]

Hmfffff! And you were sooooo right!

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

Until the next time .

Wish you well , Peter .

 

[amorfati1]

I have only been back a short while, 10 days to be precise.... I promised myself - and everyone around me - I was done with 'pilgrimming'.... Oooooh yessss.
I have just suffered a bereavement and it is nice and reassuring to be in the cocoon of my family...
But oh no! I am here like a lion in a cage, watching the rain outside, rearing to be off again I can't say anything at home, honestly, I cannot!
My feet have healed, I am still fit with a 1000km behind me (well, minus the 70k or so in trains as my walking mate kept on reminding me ) ...
It's a disease, I tell you!
Enjoy your caminos, all of you who are off now or soon. I blame YOU!

Miss - it's not a disease ... it's a Blessing.
and with certain 'things' in life - it's not if we are done with it, but is "it" done with us
as so very often, we flatter ourselves into believing that we are calling 'the shots'. - you just have noticed that it is indeed otherwise in many instances ....

hope the 'afterglow' of all the caminos will be with you one every step of your way/s.
bom caminho!

 

[Kiwi-family]

So which one next? And when?

 

[domigee]

Miss - it's not a disease ... it's a Blessing.
and with certain 'things' in life - it's not if we are done with it, but is "it" done with us
as so very often, we flatter ourselves into believing that we are calling 'the shots'. - you just have noticed that it is indeed otherwise in many instances ....

hope the 'afterglow' of all the caminos will be with you one every step of your way/s.
bom caminho!

Indeed, we are not calling the shots! Thank you so much for your kind words

 

[domigee]

So which one next? And when?

Tss... Ssshhhhhh....
I will find myself one day a very lonely pilgrim, very alone and very divorced lol and my children won't even speak to me... and my grandchildren will say of me'oh yeah, I remember her, vaguely.... She walked and she walked and... whatever'.

 

[Kiwi-family]

Tss... Ssshhhhhh....
I will find myself one day a very lonely pilgrim, very alone and very divorced lol and my children won't even speak to me... and my grandchildren will say of me'oh yeah, I remember her, vaguely.... She walked and she walked and... whatever'.

I share your ambition ;-)

 

[nycwalking]

Can not wait for your next camino posts. Until then keep posting here. Enjoy the read.

 

[VNwalking]

Well. This is pretty good. Just think of some of the alternatives:
Moldering in place, living for the next thing to get or buy or be?
Collecting holiday destinations like charms on a bracelet, and boring all the neighbors with stories of the divine coach tour to ______ (Fill in the blank)?
Climbing the career ladder to more and more recognition and ego enhancement?
And on and on.
As I see it, we've had a lucky escape.

It's a disease, I tell you!

Yeah but there are waaaay worse ones.

 

[Saint Mike II]

I have only been back a short while, 10 days to be precise.... I promised myself - and everyone around me - I was done with 'pilgrimming'.... Oooooh yessss.
I have just suffered a bereavement and it is nice and reassuring to be in the cocoon of my family...
But oh no! I am here like a lion in a cage, watching the rain outside, rearing to be off again I can't say anything at home, honestly, I cannot!
My feet have healed, I am still fit with a 1000km behind me (well, minus the 70k or so in trains as my walking mate kept on reminding me ) ...
It's a disease, I tell you!
Enjoy your caminos, all of you who are off now or soon. I blame YOU!

Hola @domigee , sorry to hear your unfortunate news. But you are going to be OK, you have been bitten by the Camino Bug (as opposed to bed bugs)! It will stay with you until you return to start a new Camino. Cheers!

 

[longwayhome]

Tss... Ssshhhhhh....
I will find myself one day a very lonely pilgrim, very alone and very divorced lol and my children won't even speak to me... and my grandchildren will say of me'oh yeah, I remember her, vaguely.... She walked and she walked and... whatever'.

Somehow I suspect the grandchildren will be so inspired they will be wheeling you along at 100+ !

 

[Whistling]

Recognise the feeling Did the Français in 2014, had to go back for a week in 2015, did the Portugese in 2016 and now feeling restless because I can't go this year. Hope to do the Primitivo next year. For me it's an addiction, but a healthy one. Just love being alone, nothing more on my mind than walking, eating and finding a place to sleep. And see what the day brings me.

 

[t2andreo]

Tss... Ssshhhhhh....
I will find myself one day a very lonely pilgrim, very alone and very divorced lol and my children won't even speak to me... and my grandchildren will say of me'oh yeah, I remember her, vaguely.... She walked and she walked and... whatever'.

Ah, but YOU will have those memories (at least as long as your grey cells retain them). No one can ever take these experiences from you.

I find that my Camino experiences make be better able to take daily life, with all it's vicissitudes, in stride. Things that caused me stress or aggravation at one time no longer bother me.

It aggravates my family no end. They scurry about like proverbial 'headless chickens' at every issue. I just let it slide off my back, like water off a duck.

I KNOW what I am able to do. I am comfortable with the person the Camino has made me. I try to enjoy MY journey through life, both on and off Camino.

From your many posts, and over the years, I sense that you are in a very similar vein. Do not worry about the future. It will come soon enough.

Enjoy the journey, and do more Caminos...

 

[HeidiL]

Bring your partner. Walking is GOOD for your marriage, and should stave off that divorce.

 

[Bradypus]

Bring your partner. Walking is GOOD for your marriage, and should stave off that divorce.

I love walking. So does my wife. She is on her way to Japan right now to walk the Shikoku 88 temple circuit. But we walk at very different paces and like very different daily stages and walking together would probably end our 30-year marriage in no time flat So we make it possible to go to different places at different times and then tell the other all about it later!

 

[domigee]

Bring your partner. Walking is GOOD for your marriage, and should stave off that divorce.

Err.... Sounds good but sorry, HeidiL I am totally with Bradypus on that one. It wouldn't work for us.
We get on very well in everyday life (just as well really ) but we don't make good walking partners. I have however communicated my love of Caminos to him and he's walking the Norte in September.

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

Bring your partner. Walking is GOOD for your marriage, and should stave off that divorce.

We both love walking but we don't walk long distance's together .
When we "should" walk the Camino together Í don't know where it ends .
What we keep doing is living together and walk sepperate and that works fine.
Wish you well,Peter.

 

[intrepidtraveler]

Err.... Sounds good but sorry, HeidiL I am totally with Bradypus on that one. It wouldn't work for us.
We get on very well in everyday life (just as well really ) but we don't make good walking partners. I have however communicated my love of Caminos to him and he's walking the Norte in September.

Have to say that I agree with @domigee and @Bradypus on this topic.

If you're in a relationship and still not really clear on where your differences lie, spend time on the Camino together and things will likely become crystal clear.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

My first Camino was the Frances route in 2015 right after I retired. After returning home I thought I was done, but much to my own surprise, I soon started daydreaming about going again. So in 2016 I walked the Norte/Primitivo combo. 2017 brought me back to the Frances route again, and I have plans in 2018 to do a large portion of the Le Puy route with two Camino friends.

As you can see, my story is similar to many of us who participate on this forum. My hubby has no desire for long distance hiking although he loves the outdoors in other ways. He did meet me in Santiago this year and we walked a two day stretch from Muxia to Finesterre together. I'm glad he got to experience a tiny portion of the Camino for himself, but no such "bug" hit him as a result. Thankfully he has a pretty good attitude about my ongoing yearly walks, although he doesn't really appreciate hearing "that word" all the time at home....one of the reasons I enjoy participating on this forum!

 

[David]

oh dear ..... another addict .... doesn't it just show that modern life and its consumer fetishist mundane goals is unfulfilling? That it is an overly complicated construct that just isn't a fit for the human psyche?
Or is it that for millennia our ancestors were migrating peoples, following the migrating herds, and that model exists deep within our dna?

Who knows - over three hundred years ago Matsuo Basho (1644-94), a Zen Abbot, wrote this ...

"The moon & sun are eternal travellers. Even the years wander on.
A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
From the earliest times there have always been some who have perished along the road.
Still I have always been drawn by windblown clouds into dreams of a lifetime of wandering."

Domigee, you have made the 'mistake' of opening up that deeper part of your life and it is a door that cannot be closed - if I were you I would start planning the next Camino!!!

 

[HeidiL]

Have to say that I agree with @domigee and @Bradypus on this topic.

If you're in a relationship and still not really clear on where your differences lie, spend time on the Camino together and things will likely become crystal clear.

Every time we come home from a walk together, we miss each other desperately, and keep texting each other at work.

But yes, perhaps walking together isn't for everyone. WE love it, though, having all that time together when the only obligations are putting one foot in front of the other, and the occasional communal laundry...

 

[t2andreo]

Every person is different. Not everyone who walks is affected by the Camino in the same way.

Some are not affected at all. Others are all in...can't stop walking...

The majority of us fall somewhere in-between. Domigee will find her and her partner's level. We remain here to provide support and useful advice.

I hope this helps.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Tss... Ssshhhhhh....
I will find myself one day a very lonely pilgrim, very alone and very divorced lol and my children won't even speak to me... and my grandchildren will say of me'oh yeah, I remember her, vaguely.... She walked and she walked and... whatever'.

You say that like it's a bad thing . . .

 

[Jeff Crawley]

I finished my fifth and last ever camino last September.

I remember telling the clerk at the Pilgrim Office this.

I also remember him saying "See you soon!" rather than "Adios!"

Smug begger (the clerk, not me).

 

[t2andreo]

Actually, I believe it was the Pilgrim Office clerk's way of wishing you well, and a positive return again. Our experience is that, unless you have gone permanently horizontal, you WILL find a way to return. You may return as a tourist, a short-route tourigrino, or even a volunteer, but you will return...

He was not being smug, rather it was a positive send off, until next time...

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Actually, I believe it was the Pilgrim Office clerk's way of wishing you well, and a positive return again. Our experience is that, unless you have gone permanently horizontal, you WILL find a way to return. You may return as a tourist, a short-route tourigrino, or even a volunteer, but you will return...

He was not being smug, rather it was a positive send off, until next time...

Apologies . . . that was a rather lame attempt at humour!

He said it with a twinkle in his eye.

He knew I'd be back and, whatsmore, he knew I knew I'd be back!

 

[NualaOC]

I have only been back a short while, 10 days to be precise.... I promised myself - and everyone around me - I was done with 'pilgrimming'.... Oooooh yessss.
I have just suffered a bereavement and it is nice and reassuring to be in the cocoon of my family...
But oh no! I am here like a lion in a cage, watching the rain outside, rearing to be off again I can't say anything at home, honestly, I cannot!
My feet have healed, I am still fit with a 1000km behind me (well, minus the 70k or so in trains as my walking mate kept on reminding me ) ...
It's a disease, I tell you!
Enjoy your caminos, all of you who are off now or soon. I blame YOU!

Great post @domigee, I can relate to all of those sentiments!

Have you read The Great Westward Walk, recently translated from Spanish by @Rebekah Scott? It isn't really a cure for the post-Camino blues, as it will probably make you want to go back tomorrow - but it's a wonderful read.
When I saw your post, I remembered this extract:
"I’m tired of turning over the questions in my mind: Do I really achieve anything, spending my days in this ritual initiation for lunatics? Will whatever I gain ever be worth this effort? Why can’t I set aside this bizarre fascination with recreating the past, and find myself a hobby that’s a little less demanding? Something normal people can relate to?"

It seems that our Camino addiction is an incurable disease, and one only understood by fellow sufferers. But as others have said, there are far worse afflictions in life!

 

[domigee]

Great post @domigee, I can relate to all of those sentiments!

Have you read The Great Westward Walk, recently translated from Spanish by @Rebekah Scott? It isn't really a cure for the post-Camino blues, as it will probably make you want to go back tomorrow - but it's a wonderful read.:!

Thanks Nuala! I haven't yet as I am hoping to find a copy in the original Spanish when I go back to Spain. I looked but it doesn't seem available here...

 

[NualaOC]

Thanks Nuala! I haven't yet as I am hoping to find a copy in the original Spanish when I go back to Spain. I looked but it doesn't seem available here...

A good reason to go back to Spain

 

[Bob from L.A. !]

I have only been back a short while, 10 days to be precise.... I promised myself - and everyone around me - I was done with 'pilgrimming'.... Oooooh yessss.
I have just suffered a bereavement and it is nice and reassuring to be in the cocoon of my family...
But oh no! I am here like a lion in a cage, watching the rain outside, rearing to be off again I can't say anything at home, honestly, I cannot!
My feet have healed, I am still fit with a 1000km behind me (well, minus the 70k or so in trains as my walking mate kept on reminding me ) ...
It's a disease, I tell you!
Enjoy your caminos, all of you who are off now or soon. I blame YOU!

Ahhhh!!!!!
For once I do not feel guilty about being blamed for something good !!!

Bueno Camino !

 

[t2andreo]

My copy of The Great Westward Walk, arrived in the post from Amazon yesterday...yippee!

I am looking forward to reading it.

 

[Addicted]

I think about walking every day I am not walking .
Addicted