I hope to write more about the camino soon, but Rome has taken me up in a whirlwind of heat and grime and beauty and good food and wine. It's all about crossing to the other side of the street for a little patch of shade, standing in line to see ruins and museums, and wandering into churches and staying because a coolness emanates up from the marble or mosaic floors. We recover in bars and cafes and osterias.
I feel more tired here than I did on the camino, and there's less time and space to think. I would do it differently next time--not rush from the Camino to another blockbuster experience.
I have a lot of notes for more camino-related entries but I don't know if any of them will address the big questions: Did I walk far enough? What did I get out of it? I do know that once the plane wisked me from Santiago to Rome the focus did scatter.
Maybe once I'm home the walk will take shape in retrospect and I can try to describe that shape. I hope I haven't left hanging those who shared the camino with me. I just need some time to regroup and think what I want to say about the experience. Maybe what I already wrote about--the day-to-day reality of walking--is what I'll end up having to say about it. I don't want to force a neat ending.
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9 comments:
Don't worry about getting the big picture down on paper too soon. It's my experience that writing an experience freezes it in a certain form. So I deliberately refrain from writing about some experiences until I'm ready to let them, as it were, stop brewing. Sometimes that takes days, sometimes years. The mistake would be to rush it.
I've enjoyed your travels. They've been an interesting counterpoint to my own activities, which have been focused on fixing my house. As you've trekked from town to town, I've repaired from room to room. Thanks for giving me something grander to think about than lathe and plaster and plumbing.
I agree with lauraj. We've enjoyed all you've written. Lovely posts. I was so completely taken by your effort you could have written about wasps, rose petals, rain, and boots for days and I would have been enchanted. But I'm know I'm selfish. You did the work. All that matters at the end of the day. Write what you can, when you can.
God's speed.
Your entrance into Rome, after the intensity and focus of the pilgrimage, reminds me of the dilemma that faces spiritual practitioners after a marathon retreat - like the 'sesshins' in Zen training centers... extensive periods of concentrated meditation, usually lasting at least a week.
The students at the San Francisco Zen Center - after a physically / emotionally cathartic week of day-and-night meditation, would immediately spill over into the Mission district for beers and burritos and partying... And then we would inevitably regret frittering away all that hard-earned, focused energy.
But what can you do? - you almost can't stay in that extremely focused state, it's not a habitable abode, you can't pitch a tent there, you have to move on into the next cycle and put some of those insights into practice and draw upon those new reservoirs of strength - a strength you can clearly see etched into your face in the recent photo!
very helpful comments from all of you. How nice to have this community.
Belated congratulations from SK.
Looking forward to seeing you in the near future.
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