The Happy Pilgrim

Practicing my blogging skills.
Publishing a new page (versus a new post)

It sounds corny but one of my inspirations was the movie "The Way" directed, produced and written by Emilio Estevz.

The story begins with the father, Tom Avery (Martin Sheen) who is required to head overseas to recover the body of his estranged son (Daniel) who died while walking the Camino. Tom wasn't aware of his son's pilgrimage and decides to take the journey himself.

Other stars include James Nesbitt, Deborah Unger and Yorick van Wageningen.
This is a remarkable movie that resonated with me. After watching it on Christmas Eve 2012 I seriously started considering walking the Camino and began researching.

I watched this movie about 3 or 4 days before Christmas 2013 and knew it was the walk I was meant to do. I spent the whole summer researching all about The Camino and about the wonderful connection Martin Sheen and his family have with Spain. It's still one of my favourite movies.

Updated 15 May 2020 (5 years since my Pilgrimage)







A treasured member of our family (Andrew Suzuki) walked the Camino in May 2014. Andrew is a very talented filmmaker, story teller and photographer and he also possesses a fabulous sense of humour. Above is the trailer to his documentary "Beyond the Way" The pilgrim's prayer is read so beautifully I had to include it on my blog. At the time of my departure in May 2015, Andrew's project was started,  but incomplete. He has since completed another Pilgrimage (The Portuguese Way), and added to his series. It is complete for now, but like most creatives I am sure he would say it is not quite complete!


Andrew also published a series called "Don't Stop Walking" A Practical Pilgrim's Guide to walking the Camino . These were also very useful for my own preparation.

In the years following his own Pilgrimage Andrew added to his documentary,  refined the videos and marketed them. They were and continue to be very popular.  All his work is extremely engaging and certainly resonated with me. I often thought while he was documenting the journey of other beautiful Pilgrims, it must have made it more challenging for him to enjoy his own personal experience. He worked tirelessly on making that work and came to his own conclusions. Well done Andrew.

Sadly, after some changes to my family structure (relationship status from married to single) Andrew chose not stay in touch with me. That's okay,  I am proud of how other members of our family have remained together, despite my decision to make those changes. One of my many life lessons the Camino taught me and I am truly blessed.

After returning home, I knew friends and family wouldn't be as interested in my epic journey as I was, but I am still filled with joy when The Camino comes up in conversations with friends or strangers. There is a very special connection between Pilgrims and many of us love to share or adventures and experiences. What a joy that continues to be.

Since returning some friends have decided to go their own way. They are unhappy with my life choices and while I struggled with this at first I am pleased to make room in my heart for more kindred souls. Some friends we have for life and others chose a different road for reasons beyond our control. We can't skip the hardest parts we have to walk through them and be grateful for the insights these experiences bring us.


What else has inspired me?

• Friends have inspired me (and you know who you are)
• Life changing events have inspired me (and those that know me well know what they are); 
• My little four-legged walking companion (Cymore) has inspired me; and
• To be perfectly honest, I have inspired myself!

Before I went on my Camino people would ask me "why on earth would you want to walk the Camino?" I found this difficult to explain (I knew in my heart but I had no words to express them), this was because I hadn't completed the walk.  I knew by the end I would have learned some important insights, and I did. But what I've found since returning is that I continue to learn about life through my experiences crossing Spain from west to east.  If I only have time for a short answer and I don't think the person is worthy of a deeper answer I reply very simply "why not"?  If I have more time, I could share the joy for hours on end.