Camino Gratitude Primitivo

What actually happens during weeks on the Camino? The answer is simple: total, unconstrained freedom for your brain.

When I’m at home, my day is full of “noise.” I drink coffee and read the paper, listen to podcasts while I exercise, talk with friends, and end the night with entertainment. My mind is always busy being informed or distracted. I am rarely still.

On the Camino, all that noise stops. I start walking in the dark and move in total silence for three hours until the sun comes up. After a quick coffee and torta break, I’m back on the path for another five hours of silence. Even if I spend part of the day talking to other pilgrims, I still have about six hours every single day where I do nothing but walk, look at beauty, and think. Over the course of the Camino, that is 100 to 200 hours of free, quiet thinking.

The Thinking Log

When you walk that much, your mind goes to strange and wonderful places. One moment, I might spend a few seconds wondering why moss grows on tree trunks but stays off the branches. Why is it green instead of blue? Most of these thoughts last only a few seconds, and they’re gone.

But sometimes, I hit on an idea that sticks. I’ll think about it for 15 or 30 minutes, and suddenly, everything clears. I stop walking to write these insights down. I call it my “Thinking Log,” a collection of all the important things my brain finally had the space to figure out.

The Source of Joy

The topic I find myself thinking about most is joy.

To me, joy is the act of loving and serving my family, the hungry, the homeless, the lonely, or those in prison. While I walk, I ask myself: Why does serving others make us feel so alive, so joyful?

I’ve realized that when I am loving and serving, I am most closely aligned with God. That is the real reason I walk the Camino. I go there to clear away the distractions of daily life so I can remember how blessed I am to be aware, to be joyful, to serve.

God is love and service. When I am in that space, I am exactly where I want to be.

Saint Teresa of Avila said: “God does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”

Buen Camino!