At dinner last night, a friend suggested: “Transformation can only happen if you pull yourself outside your area of comfort, and stay there long enough to become permanent”. True.

Nonetheless my experience has taught me, that in most cases, not necessarily anyone needs to “pull” oneself out there: it is the area of comfort that inevitably shrinks or modifies under the effects of the external changes in the environment, in the work and career life, even in the family or the outer circle of the loved ones. The aggravating component is the pace of change in these external factors. As human beings we manage change at the frequency of our heart beat, or our breathing cycles. The external change agents are now vibrating at gigahertz frequencies, in the name of modernity which apparently privileges speed against time.

How to prepare the personal “toolbox” for the changes to come, and their increasing pace?

My parents have taught me that serenity and happiness are children of sacrifice and commitment. I believe I have lived to this predicament. Actually these are ingredients that most of the times generate excellent outcomes. My personal experience has taught me how acceptance and let go of any attempt of control of the external agents, are even more fundamental predicaments. These are not always easy to follow in the daily burdens, but it’s already good to be aware and to keep the mind well open. A third set of “tools” is the rediscovery of the basics capabilities of the human being, which are hands that know how to make, legs that are able to take you wherever you want to be, a mind that is able to conceive vision and direction, and a spirit to glue all together and provide the essence of an universal belonging.

Whether it is now the case to “pull” myself into the unknown and likely uncomfortable zone, or to be “pushed” by external factors, being prepared is fundamental. I will try with sacrifice and commitment to stay away from reacting to the external changes and rely more on the basics of the existence; I will try with acceptance and letting go to focus on my vision and purpose; I will try to let God to indicate me the direction.

“God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the Courage to change the things I can,

and the Wisdom to know the difference”

While I keep myself occupied with the charting of the itinerary of my Camino via Google Maps and other media, it occurred to me that the planned breaks on my physical itinerary would probably coincide with the achievement of some inner journey breaks. I came up with the idea of charting also the following roadmap of the inner travel companions I will shall have to deal with along the way at personal level:  the Body, the Mind and the Spirit.

On this type of non-geographical maps, my engineering approach is stumbling with the choice of the targets to assign at each stage and it may well be that some of these definitions will need to me modified many times along the way.   The process of learning by heart the names of the many villages, towns and other landmarks to help my orientation seems to be a much easier task than preparing for the many varieties of feelings I will travel through in my inner road…..Anyway I want to give it a try for the time being.

The total itinerary of 43 days is now split in three phases:

• From Lourdes to St. Jean P-d-P (6 days)
• From St. Jean to Leon (20 days)
• From Leon to Finisterre (17 days)

I envision that in phase one the concentration will remain pretty much at physical level, as I have to deal with the inadequacies of my Body: small and big pains, blisters, sore knees and the likes will keep me occupied. As I move into the second stage the attention is expected to be shifted on the Mind to maintain the balance and the determination to continue. Finally in the third phase, the  Spirit will eventually be fully unleashed to reach a new elevation and balance. More or less……

After so much worrying, pondering and struggling, the resolution of searching for a human contact with the Camino, was the right thing to do. In the comfort of my keyboard and screen, the quest for where and how to find a bed to rest, has been restless but not yielding any appreciable results. Hostel booking sites were returning discouraging messages of the likes of “server down due to heavy traffic”, or “fully booked, sorry”, or again “try later, thank you”. Rowing against the bitter current of my natural adversion for the telephone, I finally dialed in. She answered in English with a cheer in her voice. “Are you the hostess?”, I asked, “Actually I am a volunteer, and am more than happy to deal with your fears. We have a bed for you, so you just need to concentrate on the true purpose of your Camino”. The relief was immediate and finally the peace if mind started to take possession of me. Now I know pretty much what my first 6 days will be like. These will serve my purpose as conditioners for my physical and mental training. No plans for the days beyond. I will learn the prayers of the contented spirit in appreciation of the simple blessings and the fulfillment of the few bare necessities.

One may have issues with understanding foreign languages; some other with the physical pain or sore feet. There will be discomfort from wearing not perfectly laundered clothes, or for sure the lack of multiple showers every day, or again the lack of privacy in using common dorms. I think I can live with it.

What terrifies me is the absence of knowledge about the road, where are the turning points, where to stop to rest for the night. Particularly so for the extra piece of walk from Lourdes to St. Jean PdP which is almost an uncharted trail.

I am fighting against the discomfort of not being already a seasoned walker, who has done all this before and already been to all places. I fear the humility of asking for directions, or knocking at unknown doors in search for an arranged accommodation. Will I be able to learn forbearance?

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The Camino Frances is traditionally departing from St. Jean Pied-de-Port and totals 863.5 Km from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to Cape Finisterre.  It is a recent tradition for pilgrims to burn their clothes or boots at the end of their journey at Cape Finisterre: I am not sure I want to do this. If I shall feel the urge of burning something, I hope it is not going to be something material, but rather obsoleted habits or ways of thinking.

After further consideration from the late reply from Singapore Airlines to grant me a seat of the flight to Paris, I have tried other flight options to reach the starting point. In addition to the waitlisted flight to Paris, I also tried Milan which was also on waiting list, and called SQ to solicit a resolution on either option. A stop over in Milan actually would allow Raffaella to travel with me and to celebrate her birthday with the all our friends over there. A few days later, SQ confirmed my seat on the flight to Milan, therefore giving a definite hint to which itinerary was destiny for me.

Found out that Ryan Air offers a connection from Milano Bergamo to Lourdes. Then from Lourdes to St. Jean PdP it’s another complicated train connection taking a long time. But then:  “Heck, I thought, I am there to walk, so let’s walk from Lourdes instead! ”  It adds only some 145Km to the total, bringing it to a hefty 1,009Km. Now that’s a serious walk! The connection between Lourdes and St. Jean PdP is mapped in the pilgrimage chronicles and is known as the Chemin du Piemont Pyrenees.  Hope God will bless my new itinerary and provide me with the little essentials I shall need.

I shall therefore leave from Singapore on Saturday,  Sep 1st and then continue to Lourdes on September 4 arriving at about midday.

Including in and out flights it is a total of 44 days of which 33 on the walking path and 11 days of rest. In average, that is 26.2Km per day. The plan is still indicative, and will depend a lot from the weather and my physical conditions.

The itinerary I am plannign so far is the following:

Now that I think of it, all my life seems to be a whole walk through milestones, deadlines, target dates, things to complete before then, concatenations of delays, and responsibilities of todays actions to tomorrow’s results, and so on.

Planning for this trip, is no less. When the coundown widget showed more that 5 months were to pass before the planned walk start date, it seemed an exaggeration, an overy cautionary and an excessive planning approach. However it may not be that way necessarily. Whether we like it or not, and unless we live like hermits, we have current engagements and responsibilities we cannot simply ignore. We cannot walk away from our current life and from the lives of whoever is interdependent with us, family, friends, business relationships, work colleagues, with no sufficient advance notice and to provide with the necessary assurance of support before, during and after my absence.

Last week I have contacted ny insurance agent to study what policy could grant me a safe repartiation in case of an accident. It may take another month to review and subscribe to the one that really fits my needs. The signoff of the Letter of Undertaking for the Leave of Absence from the company I work for, will take also some time, and so will the delivery of the books and other documentation I have ordered through Amazon. I have also waitlisted me on a mileage reward flight to Paris on Septemeber 1st….the release of the booking will need some time to be hopefully cleared. Oh, and I have yet to book my return flight from Santiago to Singapore through Milano.

Needless to say, the topic of conversation in the family is now mostly concentrated on the Camino, and the sharing is not only about facts but mostly in letting the positive influences of my project to sink in the minds of the people I care the most and helping them to go beyond passive acceptance into a full active support. I will start to hang maps of the Camino all around the house and will prepare the pins for them to track my daily progresses. I will have movies and other documentaries of the surroundings of the Camino for them to see what I shall see. 

I need to inform all my groups of Friends, in Singapore and in Italy, and respond to their comments, emails and blog postings, suggestions, contacts (there is always someone’s friend who has walked the Camino already…). I have also to organize the charity initiative to allow my personal sponsors to pledge for the kilometers I will eventually walk……

All this takes time. And this is also all about the Camino: breeding a steady mind towards a project which uses time as a central theme, and develops through the appreciation of time as the best companion of our life journey.

I also want to go through and document my thoughts, enthusiasm and fears while I prepare mentally for the trip. The spirit is already at an all-times high since a few days, that is since the projects is taking a concrete shape. On the physical side, I am not sure how to train so much in advance: maybe a few Sundays runs, maybe losing a few Kg, maybe controlling my diet to build up some long ago lost muscles…. this suggests the idea (alas, the engineer inside never sleeps!) to design a mood-o-meter to report the % of the development and attainance of the KPI. (Key Preparation Indices).

On the next post, perhaps.

I am not sure whether this has been a good move, but I have been busy reading as many websites and blogs on the Camino I could find. In a short time, my favorites folder is filled up with information. Not satisfied, I even placed an order with Amazon on maps, books, guides, movies….

What am I thinking? Why do I want to suffocate my emotions under a layer of knowledge and shield myself from the exhilaration of a surprise or the excitement of a personal discovery?