Last night over dinner Rand and I were reminiscing about one of the first conversations we had with our friends Jeff from North Dakota and Aloys from Holland last year.
We were discussing the fact that we all had come to the Camino alone, and that we would recommend this to anyone considering walking. We worried that coming with friends or loved ones would change the experience and inhibit the intention for walking.
"Would you still recommend walking alone?" I asked Rand, wondering if our coming here together the second time around would change his opinion.
"Absolutely," he said.
The few pilgrims we have met this year have all told us about their "Camino families", not people they came with but the people they began their walk with and still connect with along the way. Jeff and Aloys were that to us last year, along with Sophie from France, Romy from New Zealand, and several others.
One of the sayings on the Camino is "The Camino Provides."
Rand and I talked about how coming alone makes you lonely and in need of a Camino family to encourage you, to be part of your experience, and simply to connect with along the Way. If you bring your family with you, perhaps the Camino would not provide a family of pilgrims for you because you wouldn't be so much in need. We certainly haven't found, or needed, a family during our short time here this year.
Even so, we still get excited when we recognize pilgrims we have met a day or even hours before. We greet one another, chat about where we have been and where we are headed, and wish each other a Buen Camino!
Today we saw only one other pilgrim, while we were stopped in Trabadelo for lunch. But she didn't stay long. She was simply looking for stamps.
Trabadelo was where I spent my last night before going to the hospital last year. Elly, the hostess, was still there. I remembered that she had come to Spain from the Netherlands for love. The love didn't last, but she stayed in Spain anyway.
We told her our story and she said, "You see that a lot. People falling in love on the Camino."
"Does it last?" Rand asked.
"I don't know," she said. She simply sees the couples as they pass through en route to Santiago.
"You can't say anything will last forever," she added. "Which is why you have to appreciate every day. I think the couples who meet on the Camino will last longer than most, though. Because you get to know someone different here than if you met in the discoteque." We processed this for a moment before she continued, "The most important thing in a relationship is talking."
"Katie likes to talk," Rand chimed in.
"Talking AND listening," Elly said pointedly. "Which is different than hearing."
It's always fun to get relationship advice from your bartender!
So it seems that we still believe in coming alone to the Camino. But not necessarily leaving the same way!
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