The research begins

Reading up on the Camino is a startling experience. The curious thing is that I am discovering that the Camino starts working within you long before you decide to Walk.  Yesterday, I learned that there are a few paths to walk the Camino, and most interesting was that one of the paths is through Portugal .... and this one passes through a town called Porto.

I knew immediately that that was the route that was meant for me.  And the realization dawned on me as to how mysteriously my journey to the Camino had started in April 2016.  My awakening began in Porto with my body revolting against me. About how I live my life and what I'm doing in my life. My physical being came crashing down and I fell terribly sick in Porto that time in 2016. My kidney stones were leaving my body all at the same time.  9mm, 8mm, 5mm and 4mm they were.  Besides that pain, I was peeing, shitting and puking blood. It was excruciating to make the car ride to Lisbon and the flight back home. My kidneys had got infected, I was told by the doctor at the emergency room at the hospital here back home in Canada. He said he's got the right treatment for me and luckily I was going to survive. He informed me that I would be healthy again soon, however, the recovery time was anything between 3 to 6 months. I was so sick, but I was just so happy inside. It gave me time to contemplate. Time to view how I impacted my world.  Time to view how I'm treated in my world.  And to ask my Divine Creator to help me. 

After 4 months in bed, a Leadership programme found me. I took it on beginning my journey in September 2016. One of the hardest things I've done in my life, it has been the helpful tool in the learning of and owning my authentic self and to find my vulnerability and my strengths. The forgiving of my past.

I vaguely remember the host at the Airbnb in Porto telling us about the old pilgrim lady who is walking with her donkey and who stayed with them for a couple of days. I paid very little attention to that story at that time, not knowing that I'm being prepared for such a journey myself, even as the story is being relayed to me. 

When I asked my son what he thinks about the choices we have in the route we take, he picked the one that starts in Porto. Why, I asked him? Because, he said, it passes along the water and that is going to be magnificent. 

Of course it will be.  How else is life supposed to be? 

To Walk or Not To Walk

For many years now I have been contemplating long distance walking.
As I age, I am now 54 years old, I can feel my body needing more and more rests and  there are days when stretching does not fix most pains.
And somehow, in this body, in the head that is part of it, and the heart that is the other part of it, I am yearning to walk. Walk and walk and walk and walk.
So for the longest time, I thought that the walking was around the area where I lived, yet in the silence of my thoughts, I heard the call to walk, a long walk. And so I felt that a Walkabout in Australia was called for. But when I spoke to a friend the other day, and I told her how strong the urge to walk is coming to me, she mentioned The Camino to me and advised me to take such a walk where the resources were available to help me and soothe me when I needed.
And there began the sprouting of a seed in my heart into a fresh possibility.
Since that day, almost every day, I am hearing people speak to me about their Walk, or who know of people who have walked this path.
Lets see where this takes me, I am in the meantime, excited and preparing for a Walk on The Camino.