Reflections from the Walk and the Way

Experiences happen in real time and then again in our memories. One of the greatest challenges of being human, our minds take us to the past and so-called future. To keep each detail and feel fully alive in the moment requires being present. How else to imprint the experience, the sensations, smells, sights, sounds? 

 Here are memories of my walk with Walking Mentorship and Transformational Travel Council on the Camino de Santiago, from my perspective now, and with what I can recall from those sensations, feelings, memories. 

From the Walk and the Way

Walking the Camino.  Each day, waking to now.  To putting on a backpack. Each day, a new day, very different from the one before.  And Walking Mentorship carefully designs it to be so.

The very start of this trip, the group met in front of the Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. This would be our starting point, and our finish, where we first meet and then, after the week’s walk, the place we arrive.

It is a very lively place.  We arrive at about seven in the evening. Lots of people mingle about.  Some standing to look around, while many others, the pilgrims who have walked, are sitting and looking at the Cathedral or taking pictures to document the arrival. 

The Cathedral itself is so ornate, with history written into the detailed depictions of the life of Saint James and the apostles all in hand-carved stone. It changed over the years, with expansions and additions.  A marvel to look at and learn about its fascinating history. A place that marks a pilgrimage for those who travel at least 100 km to reach and then obtain the official pilgrim’s passport.

Throughout the old city streets of Santiago are people walking with backpacks, some have the famous scallop shell, a symbol of the pilgrim, attached to their packs.  Lots of people with hiking poles, dressed to be outdoors.  All shapes, sizes and nationalities.  Some do the Camino on bike, and others on horseback, but most people walk.  Some have traveled from France, and others from elsewhere. The scallop shell designed with its lines moving from a central point, represents the different routes, all landing here.

While we are walking the Camino, this Walking Mentorship program includes a distinct element.  It is a self-development program, utilizing walking and nature and mentorship as the basis to meet oneself, discover what is most important, then to develop an action plan to move forward to bring these insights to life.  The program, as founder João Perre Viana and his partner Nuno   Santos Fernandes say, really begins after the walk!  That is the real key to bring any type of lasting change.

Hello beautiful people João greets us and this becomes the way we are known.

We introduce ourselves to one another and listen to wonderful stories João and Nuno share about the Cathedral and its history.  Noticing the lively activity.  The feeling of this whole city exudes pilgrim.

The first part of the walking Mentorship journal, known as the Survival Kit, asks to begin with noting how do you feel and what is important, what is calling, and other questions to help determine one’s personal focus for the walk. 

This beginning requires checking in.  Walking is the way to slow down enough to do so.  The act of walking itself has the power to find and be with oneself.  The speed, the movement, the presence of the surroundings.  And the focus of the Survival Kit, and what is being asked, all contribute. 

We leave the Cathedral grounds and head to our first group dinner.  Already the group is connecting, there is laughter wine, the famous Galicia crusted bread dipped in olive oil. Multiple courses we enjoy and savor the flavors – little did we know that these feast-like well-prepared meals with fresh local ingredients would be part of all our next days. 

Back to the hotel for sleep and prepare for the early pre-dawn start.

We began to walk early the next day, the sun yet to rise.  Once gathered in the lobby, we left the hotel, to walk in the pre-dawn light turning left toward the train station. The 30-minute train ride from Santiago de Compostela to Orense, where we start our walk.

It would be a week of walking to bring us back to that starting point at the Cathedral. 

What would it feel like to return, how would we be then? How would we feel and how would we be once we return in 8 days? 

Embracing the journey.