Finding Our Way

A few weeks ago, on his blog ‘Sabbath Moment’  terryhershey.com  Terry Hershey  wrote about  Phil’s Camino  http://philscamino.com.   The story prompted me to look through my images from five years ago in the season of autumn, when I embarked on an similar pilgrimage.  

My intention was to  walk the Camino De Santiago with my daughter and a few other ‘pilgrims’ to see what I would encounter.  Some of the Walk was planned with the help of others who had walked before us, so much of it was decided before we started.  We were ready.  We doubled checked everything, our travel plans, passports, backpacking gear, maps, contacts, and more.  With such careful planning it was thought that little could go wrong.  And for the most part it went as planned (let’s not talk about the trip coming home). We only needed to look for signs for what to do or where to go.  ‘Only’ does not mean it was easy. 

When walking the Camino you are always looking for signs.  If you look only for written signs, you will be lost.  And if you look only for clearly displayed signs you will be lost.  A sign can be the image of a shell, the image of walking stick, images of worn boots, or actual worn boots, worn paths and so on.  When you come to a fork in the road or where one path leads to others, you look for a sign.  And when it’s not clear,  you pause and then go where you feel lead.  Doesn’t that sound a lot like everyday life?  When the way isn’t clear, you pause, look, pray, seek guidance and go.

We often depended on the help of those we encountered along the way.  Four of us spoke Spanish as our first language, and though of different dialects, it made for easier going through Portugal and Spain. Occasionally though, the different dialects made for comical interpretations leaving us to think .. huh?  In Portugal I struggled with the language, found it easier to understand written than spoken directions. Even with this advantage of common language, we’d get conflicting directions.  At first it was stressful… and then we saw humor and meaning in having to ‘find our way’.  We thought we’d stepped away from the daily decision making back home, and yet here we were having to make decisions on the spur of the moment. We saw that we couldn’t plan it all, we simply had to embrace it and live it.  

This shell is the one I wore during my pilgrimage, it is similar to those worn by many pilgrims walking the Camino. It represents the many different paths along The Way.   When looking for direction we learned the symbol of the shell was one thing to look for when we needed direction.  

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 This sign shows several symbols used to designate a route along The Way. 

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Here you can see a pile of stones on this type of marker … the stones represent prayers.  

And this?  This was confusing at first.  We learned to ‘read’ this type of sign.  It’s points to nearby lodging for pilgrims and also the direction to continue the pilgrimage for those not stopping.  

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We learned very quickly not to guess which way to go when we came to a crossroads.   We’d stop, turn in all directions till we found a clue.  I remember thinking that it reminded me of praying in the four directions at dawn. The painted arrows were tricky.  They could be on a curb, a post, a building, a large stone, anything.  At times local mischief would result in painted arrows pointing in opposite directions. We learned that if we weren’t sure, a few of us would go up a certain way while the others waited.  We found that other walkers who’d followed the wrong way would have left an X on a road to indicate it was wrong.  We trusted it wasn’t more mischief and turned around.  When the day’s plan is for 20 miles till the next lodging, extra miles and time along the wrong path was the last thing needed.  

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Of this we weren’t sure … was it just a manhole cover or was it an actual directional sign? Having no other idea we went with it and found a sign nearby. 

No sign, but near a neighborhood?  Look at the houses and you may find a clue you are on the right path.  

Or look for a place of business.

And just when we thought we had it all figured out.  We found some like this… 

Finally, near our destination we encountered this.   

If the signs along the way had been this large our walk may have been quicker.  However, having to stop and look for clues, talk to people on the way, opened up opportunities for exploration and interaction, taught us to embrace each moment and everything we encountered.   These were important lessons we bought home with us.   Lessons were learned about Presence and Pathways …