I once read that after making the pilgrimage, you look at your life “before the Camino” and your life “after the Camino.” Someone recently asked me what my expectations were. “Do I expect a life changing experience?” Indeed! “Will I be the same person after having gone through it? ” Of course not – I’m changed daily.
I expect to encounter a variety of trials: Facing unknowns, physical discomforts, emotional challenges, and new and different social situations. My dear “adventurer/missionary friend” shared a movie with me: walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago. There, a wise gentleman describes that those unknowns, in large part, are the burdens that I know that I will carry – not necessarily the weight on my back. As a Pilgrim describes in the movie – in our everyday life, our day is pretty much planned out for us. We know what we are going to do, what we will eat, where we will sleep. These are completely unknown to the Pilgrim on the Camino. Every day is entirely different, and there is only so much that you can plan ahead. And I am a planner! I think it will be a challenge to take every day for what it offers, respond to every new, unexpected situation, and put my trust and confidence in God I know that there will be aches and pains. Everywhere, but especially my feet. I know that I will miss my family – but I know that they will be praying for me every step of the way. I know that we’ll be walking with hundreds of pilgrims from all over the world, and I know I will need to seek out the comfort that I find in silence.
I have my pilgrim shell with the cross of Saint James, beautifully painted for me by one of my students. To explain the symbolism of the scallops shell, I will include the following taken from a popular Camino Forum found online: www.theroadtosantiago.com
“Having been a fisherman in Galilee, and having taken the road that helped him discover his spirit, this Scallop Shell is the emblem of Saint James and its symbolism relates to 2 layers of the human condition: the physical and spiritual. Saint James was an ordinary person – a pilgrim like the rest of us. He walked a long and difficult road with Jesus: he was imprisoned by his raging emotions, and he went through metaphoric fires to free himself and discover the vastness of his spirit. He learned how to live an authentic, peaceful life and he shared his personal lessons with others. Today, we make the same journey as such people as Saint James. On a physical level, we pilgrims come from all walks of life, departing from different points and making different types of pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela. Some of us walk slowly, others challenge ourselves by walking fast and giving ourselves goals. Some of us ride bicycles, Some go on horseback. There are those of us who walk the Camino in stages and others will walk a little and bus a little.
On the spiritual level, we are all undertaking our own unique journey, governed by the lessons that we need to learn, and the people that we are evolving into. No two pilgrims are alike, and though we walk the same roads on the outside, our inner pathways wind through very different emotional landscapes. The scallop shell has many grooved lines that lead from the outer rim to a meeting point at the base. The shell itself represents the many different spiritual/religious/humanist pathways that lead to the same place, to the universal centre of all life forms, the spirit, the soul. When pilgrims carry the scallop shell, it represents our personal journey, the sacred path that we must take within. We are all on the outer rim of the spirit, struggling to find our way back to our centre. This the scallop shell reminds us why we are walking, especially at the point when the journey feels too hard and we want to give up. It reminds us to focus on our journey only, and that each person has their own story that is unfolding. It reminds us that we are all ultimately one sacred soul, and that each of our roads are leaving back to each other.”
I anticipate growth through this pilgrimage, and as I face the unknowns, I expect that I will grow in deep trust and confidence in my Heavenly Father.