Please join me in congratulating Yaz Rooney at “Free Your Mind ¦ An Alternative Look at the World” in completing her pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago. It’s quite a quest as you will see in her introductory post of this journey.

The Camino is something I’ve been drawn to since I first read Shirley MacLaine’s book, “The Camino – A Journey of the Spirit”, over a decade ago. I have a personal friend who is training to be in the best mental, physical and spiritual shape she can be before her scheduled trip on the Camino.

I have another internet friend, Randall St. Germain at “Camino My Way”, who has also completed the pilgrimage, written a book and writes posts about it.

I’m looking forward to reading more stories of Yaz’s experiences, spiritual insights and what she learned along the way. I especially liked when she said, “The camino determines what you will accomplish, based on the human story that lies in your soul.”

Below is her post called “I Made It! Camino de Santiago 2013” reblogged here on my site: 

Hello my blogging friends! As you can see from my photos, I completed my pilgrimage from St. Jean Pied de Port in France,to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. An 800 km walk, it took me 7 weeks to complete, and with immense gratitude in my heart, I am also able to say that I walked every step of the way without serious injury. I walked into Santiago de Compostela on the 21st June, an immense sense of peace settling around my heart. Every day, it terrified me that I would not be able to finish. Not once did I take it for granted that I would. The camino determines what you will accomplish, based on the human story that lies in your soul. Sometimes we start out and cannot finish, and sometimes we complete what we were meant to do. All that occurs speaks to us about who we are and what our priorities in life are. I took each step aware of my human weaknesses, and with a prayer that somehow I would overcome them and that I would make the journey to Santiago. I will feel forever blessed that I walked this path, and I intend to honour its lessons all the days that I walk this earth.

For me, a physical pilgrimage is a transformational journey into the soul. Along the way, one gets to confront the truth about oneself, and in so doing, are able to move into a different relationship with the world, and with the True Self (some call this aspect God)). Walking the Way of St. James was one of the hardest journeys I’ve ever had to make. It was also one of the most spiritually beautiful. It was an intense experience, one in which the focus was on the Divine aspects of the self, and the purpose of human life. It changed everything for me, and I now walk with a light in my heart that did not exist before.

Over time, I will share different facets of the journey. It is one in which for me, the reverberations will be felt all the days of my life, and one I will relive through my various forms of writing.

Though I am tempted to recommend this journey to you, it is not my place to do so. It is the task of the camino to call on you. Talking to many others along the way, people who were aware of the deeper movements of the spirit, it became obvious that the camino is so much more than the physical journey that many think it is. Once that call is heard, you will have no power to resist it. Though I heard the call long ago, it took thirteen years for the camino to prepare me to receive its lessons, and for me to embark on its journey. I heard similar stories along the way, one man being prepared for forty years before his chance to actually walk arose. Others walked only weeks after the call. Many walk without being aware that they were called at all. Even the most spiritually unaware walkers spoke about the spirit of the camino and how it got under their skin. The camino takes you from your every day life and places you in a dimension of experience that has its own set of rules. It takes you into a heaven of natural outer beauty, and into the hells of your own inner world. The camino takes no prisoners, and people who walk it emerge transformed.

Currently, I am in Italy, having taken a holiday with my family after completing my walk. I will be home next week, at which point I will write a series of blogs relating to the insights I received on the camino. I hope you will enjoy them.

Its great to be back with you, my blogging friends. I will be over to your blog sites soon to catch up with your news. Ciao for now from Rome!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I did. Maybe, you’ll go over to her site and see what else she’s been writing.

Pat from the ol’ kitchen table

Related articles

• Entering the Praza do Obradoiro, Santiago de Compostela, A Pilgrim’s View
• The Camino de Santiago: Journey of the Soul
• The Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, Views From The Interior
• The Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, Views From The Praza do Obradoiro
• On The Camino Finisterre in Spain, Santiago de Compostela to Carballal
• On The Camino De Santiago in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Monte Do Gozo to the Old City
• On The Camino Finisterre in Ponte Maceira, Spain
• On The Camino De Santiago in Santiago de Compostela Spain, The Old City
• Views Around The Praza do Obradoiro, Santiago de Compostela
• What is the Camino de Santiago?

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