When I was a kid, I loved reading the children’s book series, Choose Your Own Adventure. The books are written in a format that, to quote Wikipedia, “are written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character’s actions and the plot’s outcome.” The first half of the book would set the scene and when you would reach the middle, you would have many options (some even have up to 42!) to choose from for how the book would end. Oh, it was always so much fun to read all the different ways a story would play out. I would read all of the options of course but I felt like I had some power to determine my own destiny in the story by choosing which ending I would read first. I really loved the mysteries but the travel was my favorite.
Well, thinking about these books got me thinking about life (or vice versa, I really don’t know which thought I had first) and how right now, it feels like doomsday when you read the headlines. Banks are failing, the awful Russian/Ukraine war is still carrying on, inflation, climate change, and in the US we are about to hit another Presidental campaign cycle in the not-so-distant future which means those awful political advertisements will be flooding every media, and social media outlet available. Good Lawd, someone please start a protest on Capital Hill about those things. I’ll join in with a homemade sign.
It appears the bad news isn’t going to stop anytime soon either. Ratings and advertising dollars apparently make the globe go round. So it can feel like the world is spinning out of control if you listen to the talking heads. It’s easy for me to get depressed over this stuff if I look at it for too long. So when I remembered these fun books from my childhood it made me think about our own personal choices within the bigger context. And how, even though I was a kid without much power in my own life (I mean, our parents and school dictated everything from our clothes to our bathroom breaks back then, jeez), I still got to choose how these books ended. That tiny bit of control made a big impact on me.
Storytime…
I have told this story before in a shortened version (click here), so I’m expanding on it. It’s an important story, especially in times like these, so I want to tell it again.
You all know by now that I absolutely love hiking the Camino. Well, here is a little story from my first El Camino de Santiago in 2018 about a woman I met during the final 100km (62 miles) walk into Santiago and how she changed my perspective on life.
It is a shared belief among many of the long-distance hikers that people who “only” walk the last 100km of the Camino, “are not real pilgrims.” 100km is the minimum required distance to receive a Compostela, certificate in Latin, from the Pilgrim Office that proves you have, in fact, walked the Camino.
Here is the reason why long-distance hikers, or thru-hikers as they are called on the trail, have this belief. The Pilgrims who hike “the full distance” of the original Way (Frances Camino), from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, walk approximately 800km (500 miles). By the time they get to the last 100km, their skin is leathered from the sun, their hiking boots are a permanent dust color and they stink – all the time. Their clothes will forever smell like disgusting body odor no matter how many times you wash them. And when these beaten up and battered pilgrims arrive at the point where the final 100km begins, Sarria, Spain, the pilgrims who are just beginning, are wearing clean (usually) white or some bright color sneaker, and matching t-shirts in hot pinks and blues so they color coordinate with their group, and oh, oh, they smell so good…like fresh laundry and perfume. I want to walk directly behind the new pilgrims all day just for the smell. Another downside that infuriates some of the “seasoned pilgrims” is that the new guys and gals are loud with a capital L. This is a hot button. The newbies are singing songs and chatting with each other as they walk – talking about God knows what. They don’t realize that the thru-hikers have been on a journey mostly of solitude (and suffering as they say) and walking into this chaos, is overwhelming and a shock to the nervous system. So there is a clash among the groups. Especially at the cafes when the masses are trying to get a morning coffee.
The thru-hikers don’t take the 100km pilgrims seriously at all and will usually tell them so when an opportunity presents itself.
Truthfully, I was a little annoyed and judgy (okay, maybe more than a little) at first as well. I even made a joke about arriving at the Disneyland Camino. Then I met a lovely woman from South America who changed my view.
I don’t remember her name or which country she was from – our encounter was brief – but I do remember the story she told me about her Camino.
She was a woman in her sixties. She had two grown daughters at the time I met her. She had been a single parent most of her life because her husband had been physically and emotionally abusive so she left him when the girls were young. She worked a couple of jobs and tried to give the girls everything they wanted when they were growing up. Secretly, she had a dream of her own – to hike the entire El Camino de Santiago. Sadly, it would have to wait until the girls were grown. She told me that every month she would stash a little extra money away if she had it with the hope of walking in Spain one day. She had been saving her whole life for this trip.
So when I asked her why she was only walking the final 100km and not the “whole thing,” she replied (paraphrasing), “Honey, I’ve been walking this Camino my entire life. My body is older and I only have enough money and time off for a short trip. This is just the final walk to the Cathedral to say, thank you.”
I felt like a jerk for being so judgemental, not only of her but of everyone. She even said it in such a kind and positive way. I was embarrassed as well. I don’t know these hikers’ stories. I don’t know the challenges and obstacles they’ve faced to get to this point. Truthfully, she walked much further on her Camino than I did on mine. She definitely taught me a lesson that day and one I’m grateful I learned.
I can only imagine what this woman’s life was like based on what she shared. So many of the circumstances she would have experienced were out of her control but she chose her own ending to this great, big adventure she long held in her heart. She raised the girls and saved the money to keep her dream alive and she did it. She got to write the final chapter on her own terms and I was lucky enough to walk a few steps with her along The Way. She was, is, and always will be a real hiker in my book.
Want to know the real kicker of this story? Not long after I met this woman who was “only” walking 100km, I met a young woman in her twenties who was in ahhh-mazing shape and carrying a huge backpack with camping equipment. I asked her how long she had been hiking. She nonchalantly replied, “oh, I’ve been hiking for eight months (8 MONTHS!!). I started at my front door in Russia.”
Who is the newbie hiker now, huh? Compared to her I was on a leisurely stroll through the park. ha.
These are the moments and experiences that taught me to never judge anyone’s Camino…or life for that matter (although I do slip from time to time – I’m still human).
Perspective is everything.
We are all on our own walk. When and how we arrive is our own choice.
Goodnight and much love from Australia! 🇦🇺
I love this photo of my squeaky clean shoes from my first day of the hike. A dear friend gave me the brass feathers so I would have wings on my feet. 🪶❤️
