Pilgrimage: when and where?

For three days now airports in Europe have been closed due to the activity of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. And so for the last two days we've been watching, wondering, and simply witnessing the havoc in the very places we have been planning to travel to for many weeks.

We are booked to travel on Monday morning early. Since we made the decision to walk we have been preparing. We've been preparing our gear; preparing our bodies; preparing our lives to be able to be away for 40 days; preparing our minds and hearts for the experience.

In so many ways we have already covered a lot of ground - it just happens that none of it is in France or Spain.

I thought that the hardest part of the pilgrimage may be the close proximity of other pilgrims in the albergues and hostels. I have wondered if my knees, or feet, or back would suffer the most. I have wondered if I would be able to maintain the walking distance required to arrive in Santiago in the time frame we've got. I have wondered how I will keep grounded in the present, and do the soul work I want to be doing.

I see now that the spiritual work of letting go will likely be the most challenging. I was planning on writing each day on the Camino about the experience of my burnout and gradual healing. And especially about the real day-to-day emotional, spiritual, even physical work of letting go. Today I am facing the possibility of letting go of the Camino itself.

So today and tomorrow we wait;
continue to witness the earth boiling up into the sky;
continue to witness the realities of stranded travelers;
continue our own pilgrimage preparations.

We may depart for Spain soon. or later.
In either case, the pilgrimage continues.