I want to start off by saying that if you have walked The Way, you know you have been forever changed in a mysterious and hard-to-describe kind of way. It’s a good thing. It happens on its own and you don’t need to think about it. There is something about being given a break from daily life, feeling the reverence of communing with nature and God, combined with the rhythm of walking and sharing the path with other pilgrims that opens us to a natural place of being. Even after returning home, the experience lives on forever. You’ve been connected to something timeless and essential, more real.
Several months before I left for my Camino, I joined the local chapter of American Pilgrims. They provide an informal monthly coffee get-together where people who have walked the Camino and those who are considering or getting ready to walk the Camino can meet one another. Additionally, they conduct organized walks around the Seattle area. I was so busy with my own training schedule and work that I did not attend or meet anyone from this group before walking the Camino; but, I do receive their monthly email of events. This organization is also how I received my Pilgrim Passport which is needed to gather the required stamps along the way. Pilgrim Passports can be attained several places and on the Camino, but I received mine in the mail from the American Pilgrims’ organization.
Each year, the Seattle chapter holds a St. James Day walk through the Capital Hill area of Seattle ending at St. James Cathedral and I decided to attend it as part of keeping the Camino alive in my heart, mind and soul. Imagine my surprise when I find that there are over 100 ‘pilgrims’ on this walk and the Seattle chapter has over 600 people on their email list receiving the monthly newsletter. I also learned that the Seattle chapter was the first local group formed and was started in 2008. Since then 32 local chapters have formed across the United States. Additionally, the Puget Sound Chapter is participating in a pilot program as the first Albergue Partner project at the Albergue Parroquial de Santa Maria in Carrion de los Condes. This organization is committed! Who knew that there were so many local people interested in and walking the Camino, many of them doing it multiple times and on different paths leading to Santiago?! I loved having the shared experience once again in our short Camino reenactment right here in Seattle.
St. James Cathedral is beautiful. Just as in Santiago, not being Catholic, I wouldn’t have attended mass at either location without my new connection to St. James. Our priest talked about pilgrimage in his sermon and at the end of mass, noted our attendance at the mass as those who had walked The Way. I felt honored, renewed, and reinvigorated with the mysterious Camino.
After the mass, we all returned to the building where we had begun our walk and enjoyed a pot luck dinner together, during which there was more swapping of Camino stories and experiences of places we had stayed along The Way. I know I will walk the Camino again and have considered choosing the Del Norte (northern coast of Spain) route next time. Several attendees had either done that walk or would put me in touch with other pilgrims they knew who had. Those who will walk the Camino for the first time in the coming year were gifted a single shell on a string that will accompany them when that time arrives.
If you live anywhere near one of the American Pilgrim local chapters, I encourage you to reach out and participate. Pilgrims who have walked The Way are available to answer questions posed by soon to be pilgrims. Seasoned pilgrims gather and keep the Camino alive through their storytelling and sharing.
Pilgrims helping pilgrims.
It’s a good thing.
Best photo ever of St. James – He shines…for YOU!
Thank you, Donna 🙂
Hi Susan, I just discovered and have read your entire Camino blog. Nicely done!
May I ask how you whittled down your choices for what to carry in your backpack. And could you comment on rest room availability along the way. Thanks so much!
Hi Tina, I’m so glad you enjoyed my posts enough to read them all – thank you! I chose my backpack by going to my local REI store and being fitted for one. I found one that fit my body and also learned how to adjust the straps properly so the weight was on my hips, not my shoulders. There are no restrooms per se on the Camino. But when you arrive at villages with a ‘bar’ – which will serve coffee and alcohol, there will be a toilet and the protocol is to purchase something in exchange for using their facilities. Buen Camino!