DAY 38 ‘The Trip Home’ from the Camino de Santiago

DAY 38 ‘The trip home’ and the first day at home after the Camino de Santiago. I’m very quiet - the contrast of home is bringing up more realizations about the Camino. It’s wonderful to be with family, friends and my pets. I can tell, however, that the re-acclimation process is going to take a while, and part of my heart is still in Spain. What a rich life I am living. I am so grateful for all parts of it. My family has been wonderful and so loving, and I must admit that a change of clothes, my bed and my couch are a wonderful sight. So much still to process, including trying to understand how to integrate what I have learned into my life at home. This is compounded by the fact that new ah-ha moments continue to happen. Today’s question has been, ‘How can I spend more time being present and being ‘me’, versus spending the majority of my time fulfilling the many roles I play in life?’ This also begs the question, ‘Who are you, aside from the roles you play?’ So many of us identify ourselves by the roles we have taken on (mother, Realtor, baseball mom, home owner, friend, hard worker, achiever, spiritual, intuitive, teacher, leader, daughter, sister, wife, etc.). I learned on the Camino something I knew from spiritual practice - we are so much more than that. Yet even though I knew this concept before, the Camino allowed me to actually live it and practice ‘being’. We are significant even without all those roles. So if you weren’t all of those things you identify yourself as, who are you? Hmmmmm.....? You are a rich, complicated, fascinating being, even without all of those identities. I promise.