The Body on Pilgrimage

Camino Day Five

“The body is the place where pilgrimage happens.” Sara Therreault

It seems that some readers/friends were worried about me after my last post. Probably due to the use of words like arduous, exhausting, long, hard, etc. So I wanted to clarify some things.

A pilgrimage requires a movement through time and across space in the body. Its central theme is that it has to do with movement and physical exertion.

There is a common parlance about mind/body connection that actually prioritizes the mind - as in the idea that how we think will determine how we feel physically. Or that a spiritual attitude will be emotionally rewarding.

But pilgrimage requires a different kind of dedication - the dedication to undergo difficult physical challenges as a way of incorporating the totality of our being in a quest toward wholeness.

Today I walked 23.8 kilometers (14.8 miles) which included going up and down a mountain. Was it hard? Yes. But ultimately a pilgrimage is about a basic desire to transcend the ordinary - to fully enter into a movement toward a holy place - inner and outer - that requires our whole being: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

Being in the physical challenges of it pushes up all of the self chatter and worries - but I am already beginning to feel a new kind of understanding - how the inch by inch journey with all of its challenges allows something that we don’t know to become known. I am still at the beginning of this Camino - yet feeling blessed and accompanied.

Peace and Love from Puente la Reina, Spain

Peeka