Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[sillydoll]

Fo camino book collectors, look out for this one:

All the Good Pilgrims - Tales of the Camino de Santiago by Robert Ward
May 2007

The engaging and personal story of one man’s secular pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.
Robert Ward has always enjoyed travelling, especially on foot. When he discovered the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago in Spain, he felt compelled to walk and experience this historic road.
From his first journey along the Camino de Santiago, Ward fell in love with the pace, landscape, history, art, and romance of this old pilgrimage path. Above all, Ward fell in love with the people of the Camino – both the welcoming Spaniards and the pilgrims who come from all over the world to find out what it means to travel five hundred miles, one step at a time.
In All the Good Pilgrims, Ward returns to Spain to walk the Camino for the fifth time. He thinks he knows what he’s getting into but, as his many Camino journeys have taught him, the Camino never runs out of surprises. Each day brings new lessons, friendships, questions, memories, gifts and challenges, reminding Ward that it isn’t the pilgrim who walks the Camino – it’s the Camino that walks the pilgrim.

ROBERT WARD is the author of Virgin Trails: A Secular Pilgrimage, an agnostic’s guide to the worship of the Virgin Mary. His writing has appeared in newspapers and journals including the Globe and Mail, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Queen’s Quarterly. He has lived in Japan, traveled widely in Europe and Asia, and can muddle along in several languages. When he isn’t on pilgrimage, he lives quietly in Toronto with his wife, Michiko.

[Eleanor]

Thanks Sil for the interesting review. Sounds like a book to enjoy reading. For when I get home!
Eleanor

[Chev.Jerry]

Sil,
You always amaze me. You find the most interesting information, and lovingly share it with us all.
Thank you.
Ultrea,
Jerry

[robtward99]

And now it's out! If you'd like to read some excerpts, look at photos, listen to mp3's and check out my pilgrims-and-pilgrimages blog, go to http://www.robertward.ca

[lillypond]

Robert:
I am pleased to have found news of your book and website etc......and I look forward to reading your blog and articles.

as a senior and I am considering travelling the Camino BUT
my initial enthusiam has worn off ......... it currently sounds like a very muddy wet trek ........ As a former RC who left the church in the usual disillusionment !!! I still go to church and have a spiritual path but
I can't figure out why so many folks walk. Obviously as a physical challenge (the young and robust and competitive (usually males)) a cheap enough holiday-of-sorts, (students etc...), the curious, adventurous, those looking for answers to the quandary of life etc.... Still I can quandar (is that a word ? ) at home, surrounded by home comforts and warmth. I can appreciate that being taken out of my comfort zone can lead to more openness and awareness towards new solutions/ways of being in the world.

however, being soaking wet and standing in puddles is more likely to have me question my sanity. I have five adult'ish children so I have well and truly developed the qualities of perserverance etc. etc.

is it still considered a 'pilgrimage' if when the rain sets in one stays in dry shelter awaiting finer weather. And do people these days still believe they receive 'grace' from their sins by subjecting themselves to hardships etc. etc. I know it all comes down to the 'intentions of the heart' and there are no hard and fast answers.

some folk casually say "Well, why so much preparation etc. etc..... boots, paks, poles......" usually those with no intent on walking !! "The REAL pilgrims just walked out their door in their sandals !! with the clothes on their back and their knapsack over their shoulder". I can only muse along the lines "Well they had fewer expectations and were more use to hardships. They weren't comparing their Camino experience to their recent Club Med vacation

I still feel keen towards walking in 2008 and ordering "un café con leche por favor". I expect the walk itself (and your book/blog ) will help to clear my head.

lilypond.

a reason to walk could perhaps be summed up in this way :-

INSTINCT

It is only by following your deepest instinct
that you can lead a rich life,
and if you let your fear of consequence
prevent you from following your deepest instinct,
then your life will be safe, expedient and thin.

- Katharine Butler Hathaway

[lynnejohn]

I read Robert Ward's book ALL THE GOOD PILRIMS - TALES OF THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO in one sitting. While listening to Luar Na Lubre - Cabo do Mundo. And drinking a lovely Rioja. It was a compelling read.

Robert knows how to bring his colorful characters to life and how to weave the physical, emotional, spiritual and social elements of a Camino through his writing in a way that just draws in the reader! Veteran peregrinos will relive their Caminos and new peregrinos will long to experience it for the first time.

I look forward to more Camino stories from Robert.

I recommend that you go out and get this book and give it a read (with the accompanying music and wine, of course).

Peace.

lynne

[robtward99]

I can't figure out why so many folks walk. Obviously as a physical challenge (the young and robust and competitive (usually males)) a cheap enough holiday-of-sorts, (students etc...), the curious, adventurous, those looking for answers to the quandary of life etc.... however, being soaking wet and standing in puddles is more likely to have me question my sanity.
is it still considered a 'pilgrimage' if when the rain sets in one stays in dry shelter awaiting finer weather.

Hi Lilly,
Loved your musings. The best reason I can think of for walking the Camino is the sheer pleasure of it. If you like walking, meeting people, being in nature, seeing beautiful places from close up, having a little adventure in your life, having some time to yourself, enjoying (and I mean really enjoying) that cafe con leche and red wine, and pork and beef (I hope you're not vegetarian) and pimientos and fruit that are tastier and fresher at least than what I'm used to living in a Canadian city... Well then you should like the Camino. Because once you sweep away all the moaning about rainy Galicia, and the snorers in the albergues, and the blisters, and this and that and the other thing, the bedrock fact is that most people are doing the Camino because they love it and there's nothing else they'd sooner be doing.
I'd only urge you to avoid summer like the plague and walk instead from early May or mid-Sepember so that you miss the heaviest crowds and the hottest heat. As to whether your pilgrimage must be a penance, that's up to you. If you prefer it to be a pilgrimage of joy and celebration, make it one. And if that means hunkering down when the weather's bad and waiting for the skies to clear and the mud to dry, then you have this pilgrim's blessing, for what little that's worth.
Buen camino!