My Facebook feed can be really quite distressing.  Recently it has been reminding me that it has been ten years since my family and I concluded our walk along the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrim route across northern Spain.  And I really miss that special time.

In bringing this up with people I have been asked many times over the past few weeks how the trip was.  My answer is generally something like, ‘Magnificent, like living in a dream.’  And it was.  And it was a long dream.  And I didn’t want to wake up!

For the record, the time I spent with my family in 2013 walking the last 300km of the Camino de Santiago and the ensuing 7 weeks abroad travelling around Europe were, without exception, the best weeks of my entire life.  I cannot put into words the very deep joy and satisfaction that I experienced, I cannot convey with my most heartfelt attempts the completeness of how wonderful it was.  Even now as I sit and type the memories flood back and a weight seems to lift from me, I get short of breath, my lip quivers and tears well in my eyes. 

I may need to see a doctor.

Seriously though the trip was great.  If you are interested in getting a sense of The Camino see if you can dig out a copy of a film titled, The Way, starring Martin Sheen, it is brilliant and set along that pilgrim route.

But that’s not really what I want to pick up on here.  One of the things that keeps popping into my mind when I reflect on that amazing time overseas all those years ago is how normal life is when you get back from something like that.  You come home, you unpack your bags, you pat the dog and open the mail, you sit down and think, ‘Okay, now what?’

But we get that all the time, don’t we?  50^th is done, mess is cleaned up, friends have all gone home, now what?  Wedding was beautiful, honeymoon was fun, now what?  Worked hard, paid all the bills, kids are grown, now what?  It is easy, and common, to feel directionless after a significant event once that event is over.  We wander wondering perhaps.

The word camino is Spanish for ‘the way’.  And on the Camino de Santiago you don’t wander wondering.  All along the 800 km of that ancient pilgrim routethere are deliberately placed yellow arrows showing folks where to go, which fork in the road to take, which alley to walk through, which bush track to choose.  It is quite amazing.

Psalm 119 tells us, ‘Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path’.

As children of the King we don’t need to wander wondering.  All along the paths of our life there is a deliberately placed guide showing us where to go, which fork in the road to take, which alley to walk through, which bush track to choose.

Imagine

Shane Altmann

Principal