I’M GOING TO WALK THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO

I started planning for this journey over a year ago and posted this very first post last February. Since then many people have contacted and encouraged me along the way. The two questions I get all the time are:

1. How did you decide to do this?

2. Why are you doing this?

I’m reposting the answer to the first and as to the second, I’m still working on it.

🎒 🎒🎒🎒

I’m going to walk the Camino de Santiago. And today I’m starting my blog about it. Actually I started this blog in my head about six months ago, but today I am finally putting words to paper (screen?).

I saw the movie The Way when it first came out. That’s a prerequisite for walking the camino, right? I thought it was a great movie and while I got all the symbolism of the journey somehow I didn’t really understand that the Camino is a real thing. So I didn’t much think about it other than to recommend it as a good movie.

Then two years ago I was at a spiritual retreat in Georgia called The Five Day Academy for Spiritual Formation*. One of the guys in my covenant group told us he was going to walk the Camino and that’s when I learned it really is a thing people do. But I didn’t think about doing it.

Then six months ago I was at another spiritual retreat, The Two Year Academy for Spiritual Formation (because five days wasn’t enough) and over lunch the topic of the Camino came up and a little seed was planted.

At the end of that retreat I came home and told my husband about it and he said, “That’s a great idea. We should do that.” And I thought why doesn’t he ever say that when I suggest couple’s pedicures? So we talked about it. In fact it’s all we talked about for almost two weeks. What would we need? When would we go? How long would it take? How would we plan? It was “all camino, all the time”.

We slowed down a bit on the excited talking/planning but didn’t stop completely. Finally after two months of this I asked, “ Are we really going to do this?” And my husband said, “I think we are.”

*For more information about the Five Day & Two Year Academy for Spiritual go to academy.upperroom.org

Published by michelleperram

I am me, a person with love for others, a passion to be creative, and a desire to be a cheerleader for others. I’m a wife, a mommy, and a grandma (you can call me by my grandma name “Lady M”). I’m on a search to grow and connect more fully with God. I didn’t grow up particularly church, married a man who had, and we raised our three daughters in the church. I found a place to belong in the church and somehow discerned a call to go to seminary. I received a Masters of Arts and Religious Communication (MARC). I went on to become ordained as a deacon in the United Methodist Church and served in media ministry and Christian education. As clergy I found that I didn’t have a place to belong in the church so I left the United Methodist Church in 2010. I still believe and I’m still on a quest to draw closer to God. And I’m going to walk the Camino de Santiago. View more posts