It’s a funny thing. Because, in general, it is difficult to precisely  explain and name, the reasons that push people along this path. And yet, in the 21st century, hundreds of thousands of people, completely individually, independently, against adversities, limitations and in the absence of significant media promotion, a multi-week – often lonely – journey to Santiago de Compostela.

Why do they do that? What drives them? Or else – what’s more important – what they find on it and why they want to come back so much? How is it that the constant effort, the lack of guaranteed accommodation, two weeks, three weeks, a month, and sometimes a long march, attracts people? What does it give them? What do people find on the Camino de Santiago? This text is dedicated to this question.

To find the answer, I simply asked the pilgrims a question. Polish and American. Because of a bit different cultures and societies. “If you could take one thing from Camino to everyday life. What would it be?” I asked. I got far more than a hundred answers. Spontaneous. Real. They can be arranged in a colorful mosaic, which makes its own sense and meaning, which somehow describes all of us – pilgrims. So what did the pilgrims experience and what they would like to take from Camino into an everyday, ordinary life? Here are the 11 most frequently mentioned answers:

1. Set off without expectations.

What’s striking is the fact that pilgrims emphasize that they would gladly take home the feeling of starting a new day (or a journey) without expectations. To react on things, conditions or problems just as they appear. Experiences, impressions and events come. But we do not expect them all. When they appear, we do not say – “That’s what it was waited for, what I wanted to get, achieve, have, – that was my wish.”

The opposite is true. People are setting off, being driven by kind of feeling, vague premonition instead of knowledge or clear concept of what they expect. This lack of expectations, this acceptance on what their journey will bring to them, is perhaps the first interesting aspect of Camino.

2. Here and now.

Pilgrims emphasize how good and important is to be “here and now“. “Living in the moment” – Americans write. And it probably is. Pilgrim, going through “here and now”, experiences everything much more vividly and in a deeper way. At the same time, we lose something. What are we losing? All the baggage of thoughts and references to the uncertain future or bitter past we carry with ourselves on daily basis.

Pilgrim does not expect anything, he comes face to face with what comes along on the way. And these are not psychological and philosophical discussions, but simple experience of the vast majority of those walked Camino. Perhaps for this reason, because of being “here and now”, the experiences of pilgrims are so intense, so “colorful”, so moving.

3. Peace.

“My peace I give unto you.” Jesus said to the Apostles, probably also to Saint. Jacob. But do we really find peace in our lives? Do we experience peace or do we try very hard hard, believe strongly and yet… are left with just a constant more or less stress.

The truth is that this path brings a profound experience of peace into consciousness. Experience which comes not from religious practices and rites, but from practice of simple life and conduct, practice of the walking the road to Santiago. One who walks Camino experiences peace. It’s common and undeniable feeling. One of these we lack so bad in everyday reality.

4. Trust.

There’s some trouble with “trust”, but it has also been mentioned many times. Well, what does it mean – trust? When I asked, answers has been given. So trust means that one feels to be a “part of the way”, feels that everything is okay, that one will find what he needs, that he will reach the goal, that pilgrim is in some kind of area of care of other people, God circumstances. That whatever “it will be”, “it will be good” at the end. This is trust.

5. The Goal.

The experience of having a goal takes us from existential or mystical issues to those very practical ones. “Goal” – combines both categories.“This is extremely important” – emphasize pilgrims – “that you get up and … you have a goal. That you have it at any moment. You have a goal in the morning, you have it when you fall asleep, you have it in a cafe, when you drink coffee or wine, you have it – always.” On the Camino the goal is constantly present to a pilgrim. There is no a single moment in time of pilgrimage, lacking of that Goal.

The goal then becomes the “substance” of the road, it’s “essence”. Without it, there would be completely different journey. This Goal creates The Way, organizes our effort, straightens our thoughts.

There are arrows near the road aimed towards Goal. These little yellow signs on trees, electric poles, walls, asphalt, buildings, sometimes even on rubbish bins become pilgrims’ companions. When he comes back home, the eyes are involuntarily looking for these arrows. “There it is!” one would like to say with joy.

These arrows are the connection between the road and the Goal. They are it’s clues that we’re walking the right direction. That we don’t wander, we don’t go astray, we don’t move in the opposite direction – it would be stressfull. So we need these tips, these reassurances and they become – we can say – our cheerful companions in the pursuit of the Goal.

6. Freedom.

It’s strange, in fact, that pilgrims have the experience of immense freedom walking Camino de Santiago. Strange, because for a month (sometimes more, sometimes less) they follow a specific route, leading to specific goal. So where it is, that freedom? If you could go west today and tomorrow to the east. If you could change your mind any time, and start pursuing different goal, walking towards different city, and tomorrow just stop and start to come back. That would be a freedom.

Meanwhile, Camino means a lot of a discipline. There’s one goal. Path is set out. We are just forced to make some repeated things every day, day by day. We have to go, we have to organize food, we have to wash our clothes, we have to do a lot to move forward. And yet it is accompanied by an authentic and profound experience of freedom.

Perhaps this experience comes out of absence. Absence of all these references to the past and the future we usually keep in our heart. Maybe it’s – partially at last – because of lack of knowledge what the day will bring to us? Because of living “here and now”, because of the freedom to choose how fast we will go, where we’ll stay, where we’ll rest. It’s an experience of the present moment, combined with the lack of expectations and the freedom to choose our “small steps” (which we always have), what evokes this profound feeling of freedom to pilgrims on Camino.

They are free because they go where they want. Because they chose the goal and the way. Because they decide on a current basis what to do. Because they are not worried about the past, have no expectations about the future. They are free because they go where they want in a way they want. They are free because of the journey they started.

7. Coffee, getting up early and going to bed early.

A funny thing, but many people would like to take home the taste of coffee. At Camino, everything seems to taste differently, so not only coffee is mentioned among these “flavors”. Maybe it’s because the the mornings on Camino. Because the fresh air. Because coffee in Spain is usually really good. Because everything is experienced more vivid than in everyday life.

Early wake up is another “funny” element that repeats itself as something that pilgrims find valuable and what would be worth taking home. Pilgrim starts new day at early dawn. Anyway, it’s sometimes a necessity, because public albergues can fill up really early. Additionally at the end of the day a number of duties needs to be done and the dinner with fellow pilgrims awaits. So pilgrim is sometimes “forced” (and feels freedom!) to get up early, sometimes before sunrise. And then the sun rises above the road. Unforgettable impressions.

8 Joy.

When one feel  peace and experiences freedom, joy and gratitude appear naturally. Both were mentioned almost equally often. It would not be easy to precisely indicate: what is this joy for and for what exactly pilgrims are grateful. At first one can mentioned a weather or anything else, but ultimately one will come to conclusion, that it is because of everything, because of all one experience on this Way, including even pain, problems and difficult moments.

9 Simplicity.

In many responses, pilgrims emphasize the experience of simplicity and the role of minimalism. It is a common feeling for those who went this way. They write about amazing discovery of how little it takes to be happy. Maybe it’s  just that “much” doesn’t bring happiness, against promises of the world and desires to have more, more experience, nice feelings, more control, guarantees, etc. Many people mentioned how good it feels to have so little to live simple life. What a fantastic feeling. Interesting.

10. People.

This tenth point is perhaps the most important one. Many people answered that they would like to take home some friends they met at Camino. They would like to experience such meetings and relationships with people that are happening during pilgrimage. Americans and Poles describe it in almost identical words:  “There is some connection between people.” We can count on others. We discover that we share the same dreams, values, desires. Openness. “You can honestly talk to a stranger like never before” – wrote pilgrims.

I think that the essence of Camino is the experience of community and kind of oneness with other people we previously never met. I was astonished myself when in Sain Jean Pied de Port my jokes were welcomed with laughing by the the Brazilian and Italian, Dutch and Spanish people. Than I talked to the Germans and … wow- there was really something between us. We are very similar people after all, so Americans understood my motivations and I understood their how they feel.

Maybe at Camino, we can experience Christianity, that is – the community of people. Something that unites us. We sometimes call it “bond.” And maybe this is what humanity is all about: good, positive, supportive relationships between people. And maybe we dream somehow about life like that, not about a rat race, in which the owners of the rats release them from cages of artificial reality to another internecine race.

11 Religion.

References to God were not so frequent. Maybe it is that Camino is kind of form of religiousness, only but different from that proposed by “specialists”. Maybe this approach become forgotten and yet found again, and is the real one.”Bear ye one another’s burdens” “By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” “My peace I give unto you.” This peace, it’s mutual bearing (mutual help), this mutual love (openness, warmth, bond, friendship) seem to be intrinsic parts of Camino Way.

We’ve been taught that religious celebrations attendance will be the sign that we’re good Christians. And this may be too little or not what it originally meant to be. Regardless, Camino is the way to the tomb of Saint. James the Apostle. The elder brother John. Those two were so hot-headed that Jesus himself said about them “Sons of thunder”. Maybe with a smile – who knows

Camino is for everyone.

Camino is for everyone. One American woman wrote that, she didn’t meet anyone who would reach the destination and would regret walking too long. So thousands of people from all over the world spend their free time and resources to go on. To get blisters and stamps, to walk while the dust of the road settles on their bodies and clothes. And … yes, yes … “blisters” and “dust” were also mentioned as what people would like to take home from that journey. And maybe because through these strange wishes one can see, what that Road means to pilgrims.

It leads them out of the reality prepared by the state, the media manufactured culture, to the reality of the way and people. To the reality of no expectation, no need to pretend anybody, where everyone can find joy, peace and human relationships like nowhere else. It brings the experience of humanity, shows what it can be and this is why, we all can be grateful to Camino, to Saint Jacob, to God himself, who probably looks from above (or from any other direction:) at the small profiles of pilgrims walking towards Santiago and cherishes everyone, because everyone is the most valuable to Him, for everyone He wants the same: peace, freedom, life and joy.

My book on Camino – translation of the first six days {HERE} and next three {HERE} – just take and read.

Annex – actual answers of pilgrims.

I quote (not all, but most) the pilgrims’ answers to my question. The reading is amazing in my opinion. I think it is worth sharing. Conclusions and opinions are welcomed

If you could take one “thing” with Camino into everyday life.

What would it be?

 

Answers of polish pilgrims:

• Clear direction and camino marks (arrows)
• experience how little man need to feel happy
• liberty, equality, fraternity
• Kindness
• peace
• Gratitude
• Trust
• Freedom
• Aura „
• experience how little is needed to feel happy and fulfilled regardless troubles on the road
• Humility
• Ability to not own so many things.
• Little I have more I get
• Delicious CAFÉ CON LECH
• Kindness all around
• I trusted Jesus through Marry
• Simplicity
• Freedom. I was free in every possible aspect on Camino.
• Moderation and humility
• From practical point of view: getting up early and going to sleep not too late
• Trust
• Openness for anything what day and the road will bring on
• The goal, specific and clear.
• Blisters on feet
• People I met
• Eucalitpus smell and kind people
• Freedom, minimalism in the rucksack, joy because of beautiful nature
• Ability to differentiate things that are important and those that are not,
• Minimalism
• Detachment to problems left in home.
• Discovery how little we need for life
• Taking everything with trust, that this is how it’s supposed to be
• Simplicity of every day:)
• Getting to know new people
• JOY! I didn’t understand why ppl complaining around while everything is so wonderful!
• This feeling how little is needed to walk forward and live on.
• Awareness what day brings on. Here and now.
• Experience how little we need to be happy.
• TIME FOR MYSELF
• Inner quiet.
• Experience of God presence
• Smiling ppl all around us.
• Joy from little things
• These little faucets in villiges. They’re amazing!
• Quiet
• Freedom
• Time. I’ve never had time to be with myself. The best holiday ever!
• Peace, joy, quiet
• peace
• Kindness, goodness and smile all around us
• Inner calm
• Freedom
• To be a pilgrim in communion with God, means perceiving the whole way as life, as events of future are effects of present and past.
• Quiet
• Ability to differentiate greediness from need
• people
• Gratitude
• Dust
• ability to be with oneself
• Room for reflexion which I lack in daily life
• Freedom of daily choices
• High Spirits
• Human smile
• simplicity and kindness
• „”perceptivity”, ability to note signs,
• Absolute faith in success. Lack of doubts
• believe that I can reach every goal:)
• Joy!
• Yellow Arrow
• Little needs
• Cierpliwość
• Peace
• People
• That conviction that Heaven knows what we need and when
• Experience of life simple but very full
• The truth how little we need for happiness
• That you can come and talk to anyone. And this is not odd.
• Trust…
• Getting early boost all day!
• Beauty of simple day
• Humility
• Trust, inner peace and conviction that everything is as it should be
• Openess
• „open eyes”
• Revealing the truth about ourselves and others.
• Feeling of gratitude for simplest and smallest things
• Joy of beeing alive. Of being a part of nature and history.
• Trust.
• Trust and simplicity
• Trust. Owe. Simplicity.
• Amaaaazing experience of happiness
• Nature
• Freedom and feeling that only “here and now” counts. Absolute freedom.
• Inner peace, trust to the future and conviction that „everything is written down”….
• Peace of mind
• Joy, tranquility, feeling that the earth I enjoy belongs to me…
• Clarity of the goal and the way that lead to it
• Selflessness in relationships
• Feeling of tranquility and freedom
• Freedom
• Openness to other pilgrim and no worries about material things 
• KINDNESS OF ANOTHER HUMAN
• Kindness,
• Inner joy and feeling community
• Communion (touch) with God.
• Feeling I must nothing and I can everything. I slow life, not hurry anymore.
• Belife that I can do anything
• Tapas
• The one thing? In that case – minimalism, which brings us feeling of freedom.
• Freedom
• Dinner in albergue with other pilgrims
• Money don’t matter. What matters are relationships with other ppl.
• Humility
• feeling of being on a journey
• Closeness of nature
• quiet and peace of mind
• Joy on Obradoiro after arriving
• Simplicity of Camino life
• I say this, I wish life would be like Camino.
• Gratitude what I experience and saw.
• gratitude for ability to look at life in a different way
• feeling of freedom, sunsets and sundowns
• acceptance of reality and feeling that anything happens will ends well cause God cares
• Meetings on Camino. Cafe con leche in Los Arcos
• Peace of mind. Feeling close to God.
• I would take peace of mind.

Now there are answers of English speaker respondents:

• Whatever you need will be provided
• Joy
• That you can do anything.
• Just put one foot in front of the other….and keep going
• Keep life simple…..be in the moment….x
• Peace
• The laughters I shared
• Remembering that there is nothing I can’t do if I break it down to a single step at a time.
• Be kind. We may walk together but we all take a different path.
• Never ever stop walking…
• A much better version of me…
• The willingness is people to help you
• you don’t need as much stuff as you think you do and you are stronger than you think
• Early to rise
• The quietness of the forest in the early morning.
• your pace is your pace (it’s not a race)
• Definetly THE FRESH AIR !!!
• Live in the present.
• Keep putting one foot in front of the other
• That sense of „inner peace” I found when walking alone.
• freedom
• Is it wrong that the first thing I thought was Cola Cao, Danone lemon yogurt, Roncesvalles chocolate, and tortilla con patatas?
• Your own way is the best way.
• Nobody reaches the end and wishes they’d gone faster
• Being able to get up each day with nothing on my schedule other than walking long distances and socializing
• Letting each day unfold without expectations.
• Taking one day at a time, being present in the moment and not fretting about how far the journey is to reach that goal.
• Not being concerned about things that don’t matter: What will I wear today? How’s my hair look? Makeup? What will I eat today?
  Where will I spend the night? Cares disappeared. That and the joy of being part of a group of folks so interested in the journey.
• God is with you every step of the way. Have no fear!
• For me it was about letting go – valuing relationships but not mourning when we parted, of expectations and just letting things
  unfold, etc.
• Letting myself belong.
• Feeling that I am a part of this beautiful world without fear …only tranquility …nice company and nature
• To be more open on a daily basis . . .
• That you don’t always need a plan. Just go with it!
• Let it go!
• the feeling of spirit, of awe something so much bigger then me, the oneness with God
• Allowing and flow.
• Simplicity
• Positivity. Quiet
• Purpose
• Forgetting about days, weeks, and time in general. My daily life is packed from dawn to dusk.
• Trust that everything you will NEED will be provided. Life will work out providing you give thanks and gratitude
• The pace
• Quiet and being self paced
• The understanding and respect between people.
• My experience with the Camino is that it’s not what you find on your journey, it’s what your journey finds in you.
• The routine of getting up and walking every morning.
• Slowdown
• Simplicity
• I learned the God is always there for us.
• Calm
• Talk less, listen more..
• Silence
• Serenity
• Simplicity of it all.
• Everything in life happens just as it needs to-for you to follow your true path & find your purpose!
• Simplicity
• Siesta
• Hospitality
• Doing things slowly without time pressure – quite difficult in our fast time
• Connections, connections with people, with nature, with myself, and especially with God.
• Self confidence!
• Get out, walk, explore enjoy life!
• Stay in the moment
• Being completely in tune with every signal from my body and soul.
• Simplify
• Simplicity
• The freedom of focusing on just the very next thing…
• Beauty….
• Patience
• Stillness
• Friendship
• Spirituality
• We all have our way to find
• No judgment
• Simplicity
• Taking in the bird songs, the smells and the feeling of walking through a cathedral of trees when walking alone. Just being there
  taking it all in.
• Faith
• doing without overthinking
• The peace
• peace
• the simplicity
• To be more in the moment, the feeling of freedom and the overall wellbeing. Never felt so good physically and mentally than when I was walking the Camino, pure happiness and joy.
• I have. I adopted the saying, „Well, let’s see what happens,” about the ability to walk another bunch of kms when I was tired, or what the next village would hold in terms of lodging, or what the weather would be like in the morning, etc.
• The coffee. Canada does not appreciate good simple coffee
• That when you let go, new people and things will come.
• The friends you meet
• That every day is a gift and to be taken with gratitude no matter what lies ahead – we have only one thing to do walk and be open
  to life lessons along the way or just enjoy the solitude of being alive.
• No encounter is by chance
• Birdsongs
• The lifestyle
• How little we need when we uncomplicate our lives.
• more walking every day
• Random acts of kindness!
• Definitely the fellowship of the pilgrims
• The feeling of freedom. I don’t think I can quite express it in any other words but I just had most amazing feeling of being free from so many of the issues that bind us in every day life
• Gratitude !
• Realizing I don’t need so much “stuff”..
• The feeling of being truly unencumbered.. by things, people, timelines etc..
• Carpe diem
• Yes! All the stuff we have. To much. Houses, cars, buildings, cupboards full of stuff, to much of everything. All we require can be
  packed into one backpack.
• Living life at 5km hour…gives one the ability to appreciate all that the way has to offer
• Empathy
• Feeling of peace
• Gratitude: to the people of France and Spain, who helped me on my Way
• The way my heart feels so full that I melt
• Presence
• Inner peace.
• Self reflection time.
• Knowing that we are all more alike than different!
• The openness to each other and the moment at hand, and the gratitude to embrace it all: the magic is always there to those who are open to it
• Joy, the sense of being fully alive!

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The last three rules of the pilgrim are fundamental matters. Today’s can be – controversial. Well, that’s: “THE GOAL is the most important for a pilgrim on the road”. The journey itself, along with its many charms, distress, suffering and moments of happiness, is only for the purpose of the GOAL.

One don’t undertake a pilgrimage because of the way, because of the journey itself. Such a walking, taveling – to experience the way – is not a pilgrimage, although it is still a tour, a bit of travel as well. Such an undertaking – traveling because of the journey – is an effort to enrich oneselves, bring oneself beautiful experiences, valuable memories, something – you will not forget for a lifetime and such approach is also worth doing. However, this approach to a pilgrimage is a mistake.

This mistake is expressed in the conviction that “The way is the goal“. That your goal is to experience the way. That experience and that way are to become – in our intention – our wealth, which we gain thanks to “traveling”.

Meanwhile, we can’t add anything to our true self. We can put nothing into the bag labeled with the word “I“, because … we are not a sack. We are the source from which life flows (in this metaphor: water), which has its own destination. The GOAL of the source in metaphor will be the ocean, in reality …  our destination and goal … we can feel it.

Well, but what about those who go to Santiago de Compostela not because of St. Jacob, not because of Jesus, whom Jacob was an Apostle or not because God himself?

Some day in the Spain, when the stars were still in the sky and the blackness around and under my feet, I marched Camino pathway with a German. “For me, Camino, it’s a way of spending holidays,” he said. For him it had nothing to do with faith, cause he seemed not to be a religious man.

And I found it good, to walk with him and talk to him. And I was happy that he and I were going to Compostela. And there was nothing that I could think negative about him or about his pilgrimage. Why? Because we both walked towards Santiago.

Atheists and believers, Catholics and Buddhists, Protestants and everyone else, going to Santiago, all are people on THE SAME way. And the way is THE SAME due to it’s goal. We’re not going to the headquarters of the World Bank in Basel. We do not go to Sphinx in Egypt or to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Such walking would not make us this unique community in the world. Because again – it’s the GOAL which builds and creates the WAY, and not the other way around.

And even if someone does not realize it, even if he consciously rejects or denies it, going to Santiago he actually goes to the same goal as the believer. Because this GOAL is written in this way. It “seeps through” the consciousness of the walking man, somewhere deeper. To the place, where there’s the very truth about the man and the GOAL shines in that truth.

So it’s good that Poles and Asians go to this cathedral in Galicia, Catholics and agnostics, atheists and Buddhists. In each of them, a real pilgrim finds a good companion. The GOAL – invisible to the eyes –  remains a “sheet music”, which from – seemingly – completely different “notes” creates a unique “melody”. With seemingly different people, it creates a family in which one can count on another, in which everyone feels good, which – repetition comes – has its own GOAL.

It’s good to enjoy the road too. With all that many impressions and a long range of experiences. It is worth to enjoy the road because it’s a gift. Because we receive this gift due to the goal which we set out for. Those doesn’t enjoy a gift – ungrateful! ?

So it’s worth to experience and to value experiences. The bottom line is not to “dwell” in those experiences, not to make them our “home”, not to put our heart and soul in them, because … “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Can we make source a better one? Can we “add” something to it? Not at all. We can only stop throwing “things” into it: a cell phone. a sense of acceptance, these most beautiful impressions that we have had. The source is still new, still full, not needing anything, creating a stream running through the world, which – connecting with others and creating an amazing network of life – will reach its goal somewhere there. And yes, the GOAL is not the end, because when the river “achieves” the ocean at last, it doesn’t stop running. It still remains, that amazing path between its source and the its GOAL. That’s what life is, an experience on the road to GOAL.

And ultimately the road becomes not important. It can be long, hard and full of toil, like a work of laborer, who started in the morning and sweat under the scorching sun all day long. It can be comfortable, pleasant and short, as for whom which was hired in the late afternoon, when the sun is low, shines up nicely and the work lasts only a moment.

People will argue. That the two of them had a different path. That the way is important. But it’s not like that. Both, reaching the GOAL, receive the same payment. So what is the value of their journey?

We’re trying. To live for ourselves. To build and strengthen ourselves. To make ourselves valuable or invincible. To improve and enrich ourselves. To set up journey because of the road. But it…

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” This promise of Jesus looks really strange. He says that it is worth losing everything you have, everything you are, because of Him. He is “something” that exceeds everything we can want, desire and imagine. He is the life that shines and shimmers, that flows, that is not limited … by anything. We receive everything from Him. What hurts us and what we enjoy. We walk in Him if we want it to. He is the wealth of every experience. He is “the content” of our life. The content that can not be taken away from us, that does not pass away, which is still and always new. He is the GOAL of our pilgrimage. And in this GOAL, all our experiences find their meaning. And this GOAL indeed, creates for us and with us  … THE WAY.

————————
The previous of the 10 pilgrim rules:
#10 – It’s not too late
# 9 – Trust God
# 8 – Rely on yourself
# 7 – Be a good road companion
# 6 – Do not take too much
# 5 – Talk to God
# 4 – Enjoy and smile!

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“Road” – my book about pilgrimage.

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Sometimes I have an impression that a conspiracy was created against people. Everything becomes gray or black, dark, painful, menacing, serious, dangerous, critical, necessary, scary etc.

Politicians, priests, the media, ladies of #meToo, archbishops, sometimes our loved ones, all are deadly serious, because life is a matter of “life and death”. They all want us to be serious. “Do not dare!” – they seem to speak, to prevent us to take life lightly. “Beware! There are so terrible threats.”

When a man dives in a thousands or hundreds of kilometers of journey and the loneliness becomes his friend – which is sometimes (to be lonely) can be a little difficult on the Spanish camino – then all this seriousness of the world stays behind. It slowly goes out, blurs like the morning mist or previous day. Reality becomes real, pain in feet, hunger, the sun which burns the skin, but also joy, which is in a sip of water, seeing the mountains early morning, swimming in the ocean.

In this detachment from stern seriousness of everyday life, we meet people. I think that on Camino we meet people somehow “much more” than in everyday life. A strange thing, there’re so many people in daily life and sometimes we don’t meet each other at all. How is this possible?

Well, when we meet on camino, we eat salt with each other, everyone carries his own “cross” and somehow a smile appears. And it is hard to find a greater reason for joy than being with people. Simple, spontaneous contact without bias or assumptions. We are created for each other and we are created to experience joy, laughter, happiness.

I know that the bishop rarely talks jokes, the leaders … you know it, you’d better grit your teeth then smile freely. It’s just that the world and life, and the backpack with these clenched teeth attitude is getting heavier and heavier. The communities of hate, fears and sadness offered to us by the world are only more overwhelming.

That is why it’s sometimes worth going out. From this life, from these streets, from these repetitive patterns of behavior, to discover, experience and be affected by – the joy that comes from ordinary existence, from real contact with other people, from the simplest experiences. Joy of life, which is still and waiting in the voices of birds, in the noise of the wind, in the faces of those whom we meet on the road, in the smile of Saint. Jacob, who, from the high, looks at the Obradoiro Square from the cathedral in Santiago, again after hundreds of years, filled with crowds of pilgrims. What he sees on their faces and enjoys it the most, it’s just … their smile.

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The previous of the 10 pilgrim rules:
# 10- It’s not too late
# 9 – Trust God
# 8 – Rely on yourself
# 7 – Be a good road companion
# 6 – Do not take too much
# 5 – Talk to God

————————
“Road” – my book about pilgrimage.

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God doesn’t answer. Usually. Maybe there were or there are some people, whom God answers to in understandable way. So it may went like this:
“Hello, Lord God.”
“Hello Mark/Anna/Eve  … what’s up?”  God answers.
You speak and hear the answer, as in the case of another human being. Well, as a rule – this not happens.

I remember the priest’s sermon on my parish. The priest clearly and loudly expressed that one shouldn’t speak to God in reckless manner. You cannot speak to Him without proper attitude. “Do not even think about talking to him while lying down! Once” – as he admitted – “he had such ideas, but he rejected them.”

I think he did wrong. I think that it’s worth to talk to God, especially on a personal, individual pilgrimage, whenever we feel like it. Such a pilgrimage can be an immersion in loneliness. Finally, we get time for ourselves, time to stay with each other, with nature … However, the pilgrimage is a religious act. It’s not trekking endeavour or an attractive journey, although these elements are part of the pilgrimage. It’s not a journey “deep inside yourself”, though this dimension is in every pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is really the way to God and that’s why it’s worth talk to Him.

It is worth talk to God, even though He doesn’t use the language we speak. It’s also worth talk to him, because “It’s not good for a man to be alone”. These words direct us towards marriage and and being friend, express the truth about us, that we become ourselves only in relationship to someone else. And if there’s none else, maybe God can be the other side of this relationship.

It is worth talk to God in the most ordinary way. Of course it’s good that we have and use prayers, these specific statements learned by heart and mind. But maybe we can speak to Him, in our “own way”, with our own words, sometimes being far from dignified or special.

It is worth to speak to him especially when we try to avoid Him. When we want to be alone, when we’re tired of life. When we want to throw grudges and even accusations right into His face. Even, while it can be risky, when we get angry with Him. There’s a figure in the Bible – surprisingly another James/Jacob – who fought with God and “won”. And due to this conflict and struggle, Jacob got a prize from God, not a punishment: “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

It’s not about victory. It’s about relationship. Such a relationship in which everything can be spoken.

Therefore, talk to God when you walk, talk when you’re in bed, wake up or fall asleep. Speak, when you feel admiration and gratitude, speak when a wave of sadness, anger or bitterness fills you up. Speak. Because that way, you’ll express in words what you’re doing by your feet. You’ll show that way, that your pilgrimage has a purpose. That you are pursuing of this “I AM” and your steps and words will become the path to Him. In this way you’ll create a “camino”, the road to happiness, to Love, to be a true human being.

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The remaining of the 10 pilgrim rules:
# 10- It’s not too late
# 9 – Trust God
# 8 – Rely on yourself
# 7 – Be a good road companion
# 6 – Do not take too much

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“Road” – my book about pilgrimage.

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The knife was the most useful. Small pocketknife. Light, razor-sharp. It opened cans, cut melons, spread butter. Then, of course, a cell phone and a cup, I got from the priest in Poland, when I stayed at his parish for a night.

Given something, I felt happy. A moment later, I treated it as something oridnary, natural, mine. What I was refused, especially in need, I carried much longer. At least a few days. Maybe sometimes even longer, especially if that lack of help caused a constant pain, every time I buckled up my backpack belt.

Generally, my backpack was heavier than the prescribed 10 percent of body weight. Well, the road was longer than the standard one. So no wonder. Sleeping mat and sleeping bag. Three pairs of underwear and some light shirts. Spare shoes. Other things.

Thing that is rare mentioned is definitely vitamin C. I wouldn’t leave my home without it. It weighs a little, and helps not only the owner. The compass proved to be unnecessary, because even if I had a map, I often couldn’t determine my position on that map.

Gloves came in handy just once. Scarf virtually never. I didn’t have earplugs and only once I paid the price of a sleepless night for that omission. But it was even a little funny, to get up in the morning, with red eyes and headache, to greet others, to packs and starts to walk again half-conscious. Such events teach us what are we able to, if we really want. We can endure a lot and life doesn’t have to be nice, to make us feel good and move forward.

What’s interesting on pilgrimage, and what we can’t discern in daily life is the fact, that everything we have, we need to carry. It weighs. Every single thing, step by step, kilometer after kilometer, moving up and down, takes out our strength, bends us stronger to the ground, intensifies pain, fatigue, probability of injuries.

So before my pilgrimage, I was wondering what else could be useful to me, what else to put in my backpack. During the journey, I asked myself what can I remove from my rucksack, what I could spare.

I was precautious, so there weren’t many things to get rid of. I sent home a French camino-guide, a rather thick book no longer useful in Spain. A rain poncho – I also had a rain jacket which was much more comfortable. Unfortunately sending poncho home turned out to be a bad idea. Going later to Negreira, I walked in a white squall (unique, powerful storm). I was so wet, that I lost my cell-phone. I also sent home a spare cell battery. It weighed some 1/3 kg and saved me several times when I was walking through Europe because I was sleeping under the open sky or there was no place to plug in my cell to recharge.

So we realize on the pilgrimage and feel to its all extent that everything we have has to be carried. That it costs. That it’s hard. We don’t see it in life. We don’t think it’s harder for us to have more, because we can put it all in drawers, wardrobes and so on.

There is some tendency in us to gather. To have … more. As if all that we have, all we’ve experienced could become our real property, our kingdom, due to which we could be somehow bigger, stronger…

But maybe life is a bit like a pilgrimage, maybe having more doesn’t mean to be better. Maybe we have to pay for everything we own. Maybe having less – it’s better, it’s easier. Maybe as on the road, it is worth taking out of the backpack (titled: “I have it”) everything that’s not necessary. Because life isn’t a supervising the treasury of our wealth. Not even in physical meaning. If we try to do this, we won’t be able to stop and all our effort will end as a failure and and with a sense of tragedy.

Life is a pilgrimage, so every next day we take with us just enough to go ahead. Because it’s our destiny and nature – to move forward, constantly, every day until we reach our destination. We are a movement, a flowing stream, not standing water. We learn things, experience life events and move ahead, we don’t dwell in a castle created by our greed and desire to have more of… everything. In a sense, we’re  nomads, because our home is not of this world, because the paths we follow – lead beyond the world we know. Because we’re something more than a storehouse, we’re a source and a stream, constantly bringing something new to life, constantly exploring, constantly running towards its unknown destination.

Previous rule: 10 Rules of the pilgrim: #7 Be a good companion
All “Rules of the pilgrim” {HERE}

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Actually, one get it on Camino instantly – good company. People greet each other, smile, help each other. You can simply count on other pilgrims. One, although often walk alone, is not alone at all.

Quite the opposite than everyday life, when we’re surrounded by people and sometimes we have a sense of … loneliness. Because there is none to talk to freely and honestly. Because all people are interested in their own affairs, because if they listen, then unconsciously look for what’s there useful for them.

With a good companion you can have fun, a very important thing in life. You can go through difficult times and places, uphill, the mud, the rain and so on. As in life. But the most important thing in a good companion is that he can listen to you.

The conversations that sometimes happen on Camino are unmatched. People talk about things they might not have said otherwise. And so … we share with each other, along this path, with our lives, with our hearts, with emotions, with something deep inside ourselves, which, sometimes, we are afraid to touch in ordinary conditions, in daily life.

Being a good companion is to notice another person. That’s right – to notice a man. Because everyone needs it, because everyone wants – to be noticed, acknowledged. Maybe such seeing and listening instead of taking one’s own stories is some form of love?

But there are usually two persons for whom we’re not such a good companion at all. The first is God. We learn He’s a person, we’re talking about Him – Father. We worship Him. We know a lot of prayers. We go to the church. But do we notice Him on daily basis? Are we talking to Him as a friend?

Not necessarily. Because now we need to buy a sandwich, there is a nice church over there, one needs to do the laundry, then … to the city. Or it hurts again, heart or leg, and we force ourselves to walk through that pain. He lives in the church. So when we reach it, we’ll pray. To treat Him like a friend? Tell Him in our words how it really is? It’s unseemly! Don’t even think about it! – the priest warned us against such behavior taking the sermon.

So we don’t think about it. We walk. Through life. Because He’s a judge or a king, but not a normal friend who we could accompany. This is how our religion is. Dignified, unreal, sometimes artificial or maybe even incorrect.

This other person, whom sometimes we don’t really want to know and listen to, is … we ourselves. Everyday life, a constant run, is very helpful to break-up this relationships to ourselves, one’s own emotions, to who we really are – deep down out there.

We try to feel, what “dignified” and “excellencies” teaches us. We try to do, what “should be done”. We try so hard, that sometimes it becomes impossible to hear ourselves. Inappropriate. Not in this world.

Camino seems to throw this lack of intimacy in our face. It shows us, what we have forgotten about ourselves, what we “sold” it in exchange for benefits, acceptance, out of fear … On the Camino we can start to see ourselves again, the way we are. Because the forest, because the road, because we are alone on it, among all these sounds, movements of leaves, steps of the pilgrim moving through space and time.

There is something strange about this “accompanying” to other people, God and oneself. Something intangible, but very real. Something that everyone feels and misses out. As if we would start to know, that this is something that we’re meant to be part of, because maybe we’ve used to be “there” “before”, because “now” we are experiencing it, because “there” after all – we are heading to.

Other rules of the pilgrim {LINK}
The first six days of my pilgrimage {LINK}
Map of my pilgrimage {LINK}

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Leaving home, I was counting on people. I’ve counted on people and a bit on God. After all, He won’t let pilgrim dye. After all, people will help. After all … After all … We often rely on others in our pilgrimage and life. Sometimes on fate or God’s intervention. “I bought a backpack of 15 liters, but I’ll go full Camino – 800 km. It’ll work out somehow. God will take care of me“- I’ve seen such confessions somewhere. “I have no money, but people will support me, after all it’s God’s way” – that’s somewhere else again.

Camino teaches responsibility. It’s a therapy for relying too much on others, often such attitude, that turns into a set of demands or in a grudge against people, when one meet a refusal. Such relying may easily become a childish usurpation, that I am entitled to this or that, because … I am a pilgrim.

I know such irresponsible and demanding approach from my own experience, because… I was such a person to some extent. “How could this priest sent me out? How could these people…?” –  Hastily I formed negative remarks and opinions in my mind.

And yet – we are entitled to nothing. And yet – by presenting such attitudes, i.e. not relying on ourselves, but on others or on the world – we become, in fact, a burden to the people. A burden that shows up on the road to Santiago or somewhere in life.

So it’s ok to ask for help and enjoy receiving it. But we need to do everything, to be able to continue our pilgrimage without such help. Through the next day, week… Through the rain. Through sadness and hardship.

Then, we won’t be disturbed by people’s behavior. Because “we can do it” ourselves. Because we no longer hold others responsible for our fate, our “way”. Because we’re relying on ourselves. Only then we can fully see and appreciate gifts we receive. From God, from people, from the world. Because everything we get in life, is an unearned gift.

Then our pilgrimage starts to make sense, because it’s we, who setting it up, creating it, building it out from our pain, effort, resources. Then… we ourselves can become a gift for the others, that’s mean sometimes a helping hand, gesture, advice, something material that will help other people in their own struggle. And maybe it is the essence of the Camino, that precious gifts that pilgrims become for each other on the way to Saint. Jacob.

Counting on ourselves in connection with trusting God changes a man, because it changes the world. The world from the “world of taking” becomes the “world of giving“. Because in order to give, you have to give up – sacrifice to some extend – yourself. What for? To reach? What exactly? On Camino – Santiago de Compostela. In life… what we want to achieve, what we miss so much. Unless we head on only to the next bar, i.e. the date on the calendar with the inscription “tomorrow“. Pilgrims know, however, that this is only a temporary stop, a means to their goal, ultimately … to eternity.

Previous rules of the pilgrim:
#10 It’s never to late
#9 Trust God

First six days of my pilgrimage:
Link do download

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Trusting God is on one hand widely disputed and well rehearsed subject, but on the other it’s sometimes very difficult to practice.

First let’s notice that on Camino one can meet people of almost every denomination and religion even atheists and agnostics. All these people walking on st. Jacobs paths create that phenomenon called Camino de Santiago.

More and more often, it’s stressed that atheists are also doing that pilgrimage, that Camino is for everyone. The religious dimension of pilgrimage becomes therefore overlooked and all turns into kind of traveling, getting to know others, seeking self-development and self-fulfillment.

It happens that taking a religious position in the context of Camino may be treated as an inappropriate or something quirk that “insults” unbelievers and atheists. But I think that there is more to this wide attendance on Camino by people from “beyond” christian faith. I suppose these “atheists” are dreaming about God. They miss Him, like a dry land starved of water. They just not interested in “God” which one or another Christian congregation has “on offer”.

So, how we can trust God? It can’t be done against ourselves, in spite what we think and feel. We can’t force ourselves to it. We can make us walk, but we can’t make us really trust. Just as we can’t really forgive simply by a decision and sheer will. We can make beautiful statements about it, but will it really change us?

It is difficult to trust a Judge, who has a long list of possible offenses, looks at a man from above, who can really condemn one to eternal death or torment. Fear? – Yes. Awe? – Yes. Reverence and worship? – Yes. But trust?

We trust those who somehow love us, who won’t do us anything bad no matter what. Who will always stand behind us, no matter what. Meanwhile, sins, conditions, terrible threats, our guilt, judgment …

Maybe we can trust God easier when we “see” Him as a friend, as someone who walks next to us along the Camino Frances, offering a helping hand on the muddy slopes of Camino del Norte. Who sits with us in the evening, enjoys our very presence, our voice, the unique expression of our eyes. And when we sleep, He looks at us with a thousand stars and has only one wish – us to be happy.

If this is how the God really is, then in such a God we can trust. Simply. Without effort. Naturally.

We need to trust God when other sources of trust fail. When alberga is full, when white squall, when our legs refuse to obey us, when… we are alone and there’s no hope. It is good to trust Him, when we look to the future and what we see, brings us fear or anxiety. It’s exactly then, when we can trust Friend and believe that it’ll be good. Because He is. With us.

This Friend, however, does not intend us to simply “use” Him, to say “hocus pocus” or a prayer and “somehow” it’ll be, as we want to. He’s not going to do too much for us. He wants us to blossom, yes with Him and his help. He wants our effort, faith and foresight. Trust does not mean ignoring difficulties, omitting your own reasoning or lack of responsibility. Confidence, that comes from trust, means willingness to act, the ability to make an effort and take reasonable risk.

Trust God, means to look more brightly to the future. To discern some good, that we’ve not seen yet. To find out the courage that exists despite the fears. To go and make pilgrimage, because then there’s is strength in us, kind of warmth, some kind of brightness which – through what we do and wherever we go – creates new and wonderful things. Like Camino ways…

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