Wild Geese and the Camino

I’m sure most of you who might land on this blog post will be familiar with Mary Oliver’s poem Wild Geese. My therapist recently, gently suggested that I might like to spend some time reflecting on it, especially the opening few lines…

“You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”

I think the second line about walking on knees for miles through the desert speaks to the idea of mortification. Of beating our bodies into submission, in order to truly repent, and get ourselves right with God. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines mortification as:

“the subjection and denial of bodily passions and appetites by abstinence or self-inflicted pain or discomfort.”

Among our small walking group there has been some lively discussion around the extent to which bodily suffering is a required element of walking the Camino. We don’t all agree.

At times, this walking of the Camino has felt a little like walking on my knees 100 miles through the desert... there is definitely physical pain involved every day.

But Mary’s poem goes on to encourage us to “let the soft animal of your body love what it loves”.

And here’s the conundrum…

My body loves the outside.

I love to walk.

I love a challenge.

Some days I love to push myself to do more than is comfortable.

This pilgrimage has definitely been a challenge. It has fulfilled a desire I’ve had to push myself into something a little extreme, a little beyond the norm.

It’s one thing to love the walk around Lake Junaluska with the beauty of the mountains, the birds, trees, flowers, the bald eagles fishing if I’m lucky.

It’s another to set out to walk 180 miles through an unknown land, up and down hills, over treacherous rocky paths, boardwalks, cobblestones, forest trails.

The balancing act has been to make sure this remains a healthy physical challenge (which I think is a great thing to do) and does not turn into some kind of unhealthy self-flagellation.

I think I’ve managed to keep this Camino a healthy challenge. Yes, there has been pain every day, but we’ve had shorter walking days when needed and rest days.

And now, as I write, there is only one walking day to go. By the end of tomorrow this Camino will be complete. And yes it has been hard, and yes I have loved it!