There are a lot of reasons why they do it, probably the simpler one is that the shadow, for who walks alone, it is the only companion.
In these situation your life get simpler, everything is about to walk, putting the right foot in front of the left one, and keep walking… day after day. In these kind of situations we lose all the frou-frous of the ordinary life. We feel the nature around; we feel our body (oh yeah!!!! you definitive feel the body). We connect with our past and our future, but we are so very much concentrate on the present: on putting that right foot in front of the left one. And so, maybe, that’s why our body grow a thickness that doesn’t have in the ordinary life. And maybe this is why here is where we notice that we have a shadow; here our body has a presence that ordinarily it doesn’t have it. And this is why our shadow becomes a friend: because it is not anymore the symbol of fears or baggage, but instead it is the real picture of who we are.
Spoleto, Italy - 2009
Los Arcos, Spain 2007
So me too I have several pictures of my own shadow walking along with me in my different travels. The funny thing is that once back in Boston... I forget about her, and I don’t look for her when I walk in the city. Why this?
In our culture the shadow is charged with so many symbolisms: so often is the heavy baggage and it represents our fears, the ones we carry along all our life. So many times we are unable to confront these fears and so we keep carry them around, trying to forget that they are on our shoulders.
Cathedral of Burgos, Spain - 2007
Many people comment: “he/she went on a 800 Km walk to run away from something…” And probably this is true: many pilgrims walk as response to a need to get away, for a while at least, from the ordinary life. They put themselves in a situation so extreme that it will give them time and space to think or… not to think.
But Pilgrimage is not about thinking, it is instead about feeling.
Here, in this extreme situation, one has the time and the space to confront the fears and to revaluate the baggage. And funny enough the shadow becomes a friend, a companion. Pilgrimage is a journey, not an escape, it is a dialogue with yourself long due.
Not every pilgrim has shadows to confront… some have dreams. And some just feel that this is a privileged way to reconnect with their soul.
I was in one of my walk when I started to consider why I love so much to do these kind of journey. Why do I prefer to spend my Christmas vacation all alone and far away from home? Why instead of resting in front of the fireplace do I prefer to walk six or eight hours each day in the cold, and many times under the rain? Me... that I do not like the cold weather?!?! Why don't I spend my vacation in a Caribbean island instead?
Do I run away from something? What are the fears and the baggage that I carry along with me? And why do I love to walk alone?
The true is that I’ve never felt alone on a Pilgrimage. When I walk along these paths I feel part of a community. People have walked the same path before me, they left marks and signs behind themselves. I follow them.. and I feel reconnected with my traditions and culture. I feel that I pay respect to who I am and to whom I belong to. Here... I follow the footprints of my roots, my soul and... my people.
I cannot really express why I like to do it. But it is a need, a deep pleasure. I wait, I train and I prepare for months for these moments.
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