In Search of the Good Life...: Bonus Camino Post

In this blog's 16 (!!) year history, I've never had guest contributors, but I figured it was time to give you all a break from me and turn the reins over to Jeff and Deya!

This first piece from Jeff is a reflection on his three Camino experiences, in 2009, 2022, and 2024.

This is my third Camino de Santiago, all with Deyanira. We walked the first time in 2009 with Elvira Nelson, a Westminster alumna who had already walked the Camino a couple of times. I signed on mostly out of curiosity and for the experience. Although I spent a few weeks in Madrid as a high school student, and two summers near Cádiz shepherding Navy ROTC cadets, I didn’t know much about the Camino. As we walked I was fascinated by many things: the varied house styles, the glorious cathedrals, the stories of Charles V, El Cid Campeador, Isabella la Católica, and Roldán. I especially loved walking through small villages with their winding streets, stone walls, cobblestone streets, painted doors, and skittish cats. But the best part are the pilgrims – los pereginos – the thousands of others walking the Camino for thousands of reasons spiritual, physical, educational, or emotional. Some pilgrims walk along and live their Camino in their own minds. Others open up and share at the drop of a hat. Collectively there is a small city of people moving down this ancient trail every year.

Our own little Westminster group bonded quickly and tightly. The walking pace over a month or so makes the experience ideal for a class. Students can do a little cultural and historical research on the trail or reflect on broad prompts in the journal. Some focused on unfamiliar plants, birds, or insects; others made a point of meeting as many strangers as possible. Everyone practiced their Spanish and (almost) everyone we met was patient and kind. My favorite days included walking out into the morning, the last of our group, through rippling fields of wheat or grapevines lined with red poppies and ruined castles on the surrounding hills. If I walked fast I caught up with each person and talked for awhile before catching up the next, and so on. While those students have moved on with their lives, when we see each other we know that we shared something unique and unforgettable.

I didn’t walk the Camino again until Deyanira invited me to lead the group with her and Chris Cline in 2022. While we had our challenges with COVID-19, we formed another close pilgrim knot, sharing inside jokes and memorable encounters with a new river of peregrinos slowly walking west, all of us enduring blisters, tired legs, and the occasional case of the albergue cough. And it was so worth it.

And now we’re about halfway into our 2024 Camino, and it’s the same and also different and it’s wonderful all over again. Maybe the best thing that the walk offers is time: time to think on your own, time to have long, involved conversations about the deepest and most personal things, time to reflect on the past and speculate on the future. It’s one of the best things Westminster does, and I hope that everyone gets the chance to be a peregrino.