Tuesday, I received an email from my friend Nigel. We met almost 3 years ago in a bar in Estella as we cooled down after a long hot day that started in Puente la Reina. My friendship with Nigel and Bernie, like so many others, sprang from my long journey across Spain on the French route of the Camino de Santiago.
Since our first meeting, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting them in Dublin, they live near Belfast and travelling across the island to the Dingle Peninsula where they acted as very gracious guides and good friends. We cannot thank them enough.
We stay in touch by email mostly although we did have an opportunity during my Virtual Camino Reunion to see each other as well and to let 15 others reunite, see, meet, share and laugh during these tough times.
In Nigel’s email, he wrote about hikes he and Bernie take there in Northern Ireland, their own neighborhood and right outside their door. I must admit, I was a bit jealous, my neighborhood doesn’t look anything like theirs. If Nigel will allow me to, I’ll post his pictures for everyone to enjoy.
What struck me though was the subject line of his email, Having a Camino on your doorstep. I’d written just recently on the Casa Ivar blog in response to a post that “the Camino is wherever you find it” and Nigel’s email just epitomized that for me.
While Spain, Italy, Germany and really all of Europe have long established and sanctioned pilgrimage routes, really, we can just step outside and begin to walk and we’re on the Camino because it’s about what’s happening in your heart that matters. Yes, the physical aspect is particularly important, and the mental release is vital, and both contribute to the whole of the experience but for me, it’s wholly emotional and spiritual however you define that word.
I introduced a friend to the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy learned that she did not have to travel anywhere to find what she was looking for; it was right outside her door and all around her. Nigel’s email reminded me of that, and it reminded me of what my Grandmother told me as a child, you “don’t have to look far from home to find happiness”.
Thanks to my friend Nigel and really to all my friends. They remind me of this simple truth every day. In these tough days and the tough ones to come, I will keep these wise words at the top of my consciousness.
Thanks Nigel!