Pilgrimages

Pilgrimage:         a journey of the soul and the body, a unique combination of inner and outer experience fusing together step by step, mile by mile, through thirst and hunger, pain and exhaustion, joyfulness and determination.

Pilgrimage:         you hear a call that cannot be denied – perhaps it began as whisper twenty years earlier, perhaps it began as an ear-splitting shout a week before.  Soon or later, you feel compelled to respond.  You make plans to go on pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage:         a setting forth, a leave-taking from the familiar, from familiarity.  A trip into the unknown, both interior and exterior.  A moving away from what is known into what is unknown but longed for.¹

These were the first words I read in fellow pilgrim Elyn Aviva’s book, Following the Milky Way: A Pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.  Re-reading them after completing my portion of the Camino in early June, I am struck by the resounding truth of these “definitions” of a pilgrimage.

Are you a pilgrim?

Are you being called to take a pilgrimage?

I am a pilgrim.

I walked the last 170 kilometers of the El Camino de Santiago, through Galicia, the Celtic area of Spain.

And at home, I am a pilgrim.  I walk the classical labyrinth that my husband, Steve, created in our back yard last summer as my sacred pilgrimage.  For those few brief moments daily, I set out on my pilgrimage and I get to “throw down a challenge to everyday life” as I live my life here at home with my family, responsibilities, children,work, bills.  The labyrinth reconnects me with the sacred path of the El Camino, the Celtic Camino (La Camina), and essentially, with the sacred path that we each are on, every day of our lives, no matter where we are, what we are doing, who we are being. Every step is a sacred, blessed step – for we are alive on this beautiful planet.

I responded to the call that first got my attention just over 7 years ago when I was in a used bookstore.  Shirley MacLaine’s book, Camino, dropped off the shelf into my hands.  As soon as I started to read this book, I knew that I too wanted to walk the Camino.

I was blessed to walk with Sue Kenney, a pilgrim and author of My Camino and Confessions of a Pilgrim.  From Sue, I learned how to lead without leading.  A paradox, isn’t it? Sue is a master at leading, and yet always calling on each of us to find our own inner leader.  We each had to walk our own Camino, even while being part of a group.

And now…I want to walk the whole thing…the entire 798.5 kilometers (496.1 miles) from St. Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago in Spain.

I want to be one of those pilgrims whose calf muscles were tan, sinewy, and muscular.  You could tell by looking at people’s legs which pilgrims had 300 plus kilometers under their feet, and which like us started somewhere in the middle.  Those pilgrims had a quiet presence and determination, a surety to their step, and a connection to the Camino that can only come with walking, day after day, on a sacred pilgrimage.

As it turned out, the Camino, a pilgrimage in and of itself, was for me a sacred preparation for the Celtic Camino, a pilgrimage that was taken by train from Santiago to Scotland.  A different kind of pilgrimage, but a pilgrimage all the same.  It required different aspects of myself to show up.  I had to show up even more internally.  I could have gotten lost in the train schedules, the hotel reservations, the externals.  On the Camino, all I had to do was walk.  Follow the yellow arrows and walk.  This, in and of itself, was the journey.

Here, I had to consciously choose to engage with my internal journey, choose to journal, choose to pay attention to the underground stream, choose to stay connected to the pilgrimage.    I invite you to visit my blog  to read about my journey.

Actually, I want to walk more than  El Camino.  I know now that I want to walk La Camina – from Santiago up through France to Rosslyn, Scotland.  How?  Quite honestly, I don’t know.  But I know I am to start this extensive journey with the first leg from Santiago to Toulouse, France.

This is the sacred pilgrimage that I am now being called to make.

Would you like to join me?

Go to the Offerings Page and scroll down to “The Art of Pilgrimages” to find out more information or email me at sarah@weavingyourdreams.com.