Leon is about two-thirds in distance along the Camino, so I felt like it was a good time to take a look at my original intentions for my pilgrimage, and to make any adjustments from where I am now.
The biggest impact of my Camino pilgrimage, so far, has been my realization that my life is my spiritual practice. My spiritual practice isn’t something that I take time out to do, separate from living the everyday.
When I began my pilgrimage in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, I had the following intentions:
- To live life at a different rhythm and pace. I have always been aware that the rhythm and pace of my soul are different than the pace that I live my everyday life.
- To allow daily life to be governed by a different compass than the calendar and To Do list.
- To create more spaciousness in my life, so that there is plenty of room for heart, soul, and spirit to express fully. Related to rhythm and pace, and also related to eliminating clutter and distractions.
- To cultivate stamina: do the things that nourish me and support my fullest vitality.
I noticed that all of these would seem to nurture my fullest connection with spirit.
I also felt it was important that:
- My connection to spirit is strong.
- I live with gratitude, especially that I live with a vital sense of appreciation for the ordinary and the everyday.
- I live on a solid footing of grace and equanimity.
I felt like the first four intentions would occur naturally as a result of my being conscious of living my life as a pilgrimage.
I thought that I would fulfill the last three by strengthening my daily spiritual practice. My vision for strengthening my daily spiritual practice was to reinstate the early morning time that I used to devote to my spiritual practice. This was something that I would do.
I struggled with this, for various practical reasons, mainly related to the reality that we need to give our dog Bella a very long morning walk because she is a highly energetic dog. Long story short, we arise at 5:30 am, and by the time we do the morning routine, including that walk, it’s time for me to begin work at 8 am. My body doesn’t do well to get up earlier.
Of course when I broke my knee, I couldn’t walk. Then I reclaimed over an hour in the early morning, and I did my spiritual practice of meditation and reading and journaling. That practice really grounded me in spirit, to begin my day.
But now we are back to our full walk in the morning.
So I am asking myself if life is trying to show me something different, a new possibility for what my spiritual practice can be.
It was by asking that question that I realized that my life is my spiritual practice, and spiritual practice does not have to be something separate that I do.
These are spiritual practice, when I am wholly present to them:
- The joy that spontaneously overtakes me when a client has an important ah-ha moment.
- The immersion of pure love that I feel when I look at Bella and Nanuk, our dogs.
- The awe and wonder that overwhelms me when I look at a winter sunrise or sunset.
- The breathtaking beauty of something new in nature on one of our walks.
These are direct experiences of spirit. They aren’t a separate practice: they are me living my life, and being open to receive the graces that life is showering upon me. They are life as pilgrimage, and me being conscious and present to what is right here, right now.
But I always like to think about the both/and, rather than the either/or, and of course some space and time regularly devoted to spiritual activities that nourish me is a very good thing too. And, lately, I have found myself longing for some space, on a regular basis, to just sit and be an open vessel to receive the gifts of the moment.
So, I’m just being with the tension of not knowing the How/When of that kind of regular space, and we will see what is inspired in me.
As for all of those other specific intentions listed above, I may reflect on them and write about them in future posts.
What is your spiritual practice?
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