Yesterday I read a post that I have to share with anyone who will take the time to read it. The author, John Brierly, is well known along the caminos and has multiple guidebooks published.  Most pilgrims carry one of his books with them as an essential item.  He is wise, thorough in his writing and guiding, and asks that we all manifest goodwill in all our thoughts, words and actions.

Before I get to my “share”, I need to explain that my travel experiences the past 6 years include three pilgrimages. Beginning in 2014, there was a 5-week pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago from Pamplona to Santiago de Compostela, Spain; a 3-week pilgrimage through Portugal, ending in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and a 3-week pilgrimage in Italy from Lucca to Vatican City.  And last but not least, a trip to do a partial Camino Norte in March 2020 that was cancelled.

Although I was raised Catholic, I’m not religous. I would say if anything I am spiritual,   enjoy the outdoors and historical architecture and stories.  Pilgrimages for some involve religion and history of the same. For others like myself  it might involve a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance and a love of history.  One definition I liked was “A journey into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about the self, others, nature, or a higher good.  Through the experience, it can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life.”

Before my first Camino, I was newly retired, trying to figure out how to make the most of my retirement years. I needed time for reflection…

Most people who decide to walk a pilgrimage (anywhere in the world – there are many), are initially filled with uncertainty. Where will I sleep, how does this work, is it safe, etc. What people discover is that it is most often a life-changing experience, and the simplicity of every day becomes the discovery.

I did discover how a simple daily routine is fulfilling and brings daily smiles. It doesn’t hurt that simply being outdoors is my favorite kind of day.

That said, after nearly 5 weeks following our simple daily routine,  we arrived in Santiago de Compostela and put our backpacks in our hotel room.  Almost immediately we began shopping for souvenirs, clothing, trinkets we didn’t need, and lingering over meals.  The peacefulness of those simple days quickly began to fade. Along the trail people were friendly and inquisitive. Once finished they were less so.  You could feel the mood change. It was strange and unexpected, and it made me sad.

The letter/post below spoke to me when I first read it as shared on Facebook. Long distance or through hiking as it is often called, is an amazing way to spend time to get to know yourself again. The coronavirus has given the world a similar opportunity to renew, however this time it is not our choice. And there is illness and death and poverty in far too many cases.

Please read:

“LETTER FROM JOHN BRIERLEY
CORNAVIRUS AND THE CAMINO, OUR LAST WAKE UP CALL

Two years ago I asked members of the group to send me questions that I would put to John Brierley in the second interview with him I’ve published. I’ll re-post the questions and answer soon. We keep in touch with each other and I asked him for his thoughts on our current situation. This is his reply. He invites us to engage in a useful and loving dialogue about the issues he raises.

Dear John

You sound well and lock-down seems to be proving a creative time for you! So here is a response that might, or might not, stimulate some creative thinking amongst our pilgrim family.

… I trust that once the world comes out of this pandemic we will, collectively, want to do things differently – but there is much talk of getting back to ‘normal’ which would be a travesty. Consensus reality and the status quo is literally now killing many of us and the earth support systems on which we depend. At best we are looking at a severely diminished quality of life over the near horizon. We have to find a ‘new normal’ by way of an elevated consciousness — not only for us but crucially for the generations that follow. These are portentous, perhaps pompous and certainly presumptive statements. Even if you see them as holding some truth you might legitimately ask, what has any of this to do with the caminos de Santiago.

I have always believed that the camino holds a key to a fundamental re-appraisal of how and why we live our lives. It was this conviction that created caminoGuides and this remains its only raison d’être, it has no other purpose nor ever will. Providing my publisher doesn’t go bankrupt (many may) a new guidebook to the Camino Invierno will go to print later this year. (It) offers a reflection on the positive potential of the Coronavirus to help bring about the change that is needed if we are to learn to cooperate to face the challenges that are now on a global scale.

The real challenge is just around the corner and it is not coronavirus! I see this pandemic as just a wake up call that we may, or may not, heed. All the signs at the moment are that we are going to miss this opportunity just like we missed previous wakeup calls. We bailed out the banks in 2008 and now look set to bail out the oil and aviation industries with vast sums of public monies while offering paltry sums to small sustainable energy and business enterprises. As Greta Thunberg asks, ‘where are the adults?’ Our collective thinking is juvenile at best and often infantile. Eldership is nowhere to be seen but we need to find it urgently and perhaps it lies closer than we think… in ourselves. Rabbinic sage Hillel the Elder asked the rhetorical question, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”

I was a little concerned at the severity of the draft (mentioned above) until I listened to an interview with David Attenborough yesterday where, for the first time, he says this is it — no further chance to kick the can down the road.

Coronavirus is our last gentle wake up call, the real threat to our collective survival is just around the corner. Pass on what you think might be useful to generate useful and loving dialogue so that we might better forge a new path going forward.

The Coronavirus brought with it much grief and its impact on many levels will be felt for years to come. This is no less true for the camino as in any other sphere of life. Pilgrim infrastructure and albergues that took decades to put in place are struggling to survive, some have already closed permanently and others will follow. The virus was named by the World Health Organisation as, ‘…an enemy against humanity’. This is an unfortunate epithet because, from Gaia’s perspective, humanity itself has become the most destructive force on the planet.

If the devastation that arose from this pandemic brings about a paradigm shift in human consciousness it may yet contain a blessing in disguise. For at least a generation we have, collectively, lived beyond the means of the planet to sustain us and all of life that surrounds us. We are not the only sentient beings that occupy the earth and we have wilfully and woefully ignored the plight of nature herself.

Now, today, we can change the way we think and act. We can move from fear to love. We can choose to respect each other and the natural world that is our home. We can… but will we? Each of us is part of the whole we call humankind and artificial borders can separate us no more. Indeed they never have but only in our deluded and limited understanding of the nature of reality. Coronavirus taught us that we are all part of the same delicate balance of life on earth. Will we heed its warning or revert to business as usual … until the next crisis strikes again?  “We have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.” Martin Luther King Jr.

The great insight of the First Nations has always been to remind us that, Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself… we may yet find we are brothers after all.

Blessings…

John Brierley”

So my proposal to you is this: Will you take any lessons you have learned about yourself during this time of quarantine and make a change in how you live your life going forward? Will you take a few extra moments to say hi to a neighbor, will you stop working when its time to go home to your family, will you appreciate your loved ones more than you did before?  There are so many questions you can ask yourself, and any one of them counts… what are you willing to do to make not only your life better but at least one other person? What one thing will you do for our planet? What one thing will bring a smile to you and maybe one other? So many possibilities, and if every one of us makes one small change towards the positive, this world will be a better place!

#coronavirus  #thedelicatebalance