My heart has asked it of me

This week I also finished reading Paulo Coehlo’s The Pilgrimage, which is his novel about walking the Camino de Santiago. Here’s an excerpt:

‘The Road you are travelling is the Road of power... the journey, which prior to this was torture because all you anted to do is get there, is now beginning to become a pleasure. It is the pleasure of an adventure. You are nourishing something that’s very important – your dreams.

‘We must never stop dreaming. Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body. Many times in our life we see our dreams shattered and our desires frustrated, but we have to continue dreaming. If we don’t our soul dies, and agape cannot reach it. A lot of blood has been shed in those fields out there; some of the cruellest battles of Spain’s war to expel the Moors were fought on them. Who was in the right or who knew the truth does not matter; what’s important is knowing that both sides were fighting the good fight.

‘The good fight is the one we fight because our heart asks it of us. In the heroic ages – at the time of the knights in armour – this was easy. There were lands to conquer and much to do. Today, though, the world has changed a lot, and the good fight has shifted from the battlefields to the fields within ourselves.’

The reason I have decided to walk the Road is because my heart has asked it of me.

Step 1 - Camino de Santiago de Compostela

Last year I set my mind on walking the Camino De Santiago; step one in the approximately 4 week journey of about 780km has been taken: On Wednesday I bought a guidebook: Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino De Santiago http://t.co/eSH4R0O

"The Camino de Santiago de Compostela, also known in English as The Way of St James, is a collection of old pilgrimage routes which cover all Europe. They all have Santiago de Compostela in north west Spain as their final destination. For more than 1000 years pilgrims have been walking along the Camino de Santiago.

The main Camino route is the Camino Frances. This part of the Camino de Santiago traditionally starts in St Jean Pied de Port and finishes in Santiago de Compostela about 780km later, after travelling the breadth of Northern Spain, (In Santiago you can collect your Compostela).  However you can start anywhere and even continue past Santiago to the sea at Finisterre. Finisterre was thought to be the end of the world in medieval times."