((Keeping to my pledge to write thirty-four blogs, one every Monday, on how the Camino continues to affect my life– the same number as the days I walked the 500-mile pilgrimage)

It was a rare sunny day yesterday when I presented a book talk and short walk at the Eagle River Nature Center. It was a lovely gathering of old friends who came to hear more, and of new people who were interested in walking the Camino themselves. Some had read my book and some had not. So I was speaking to an interesting crowd.

These blogposts are oriented around how the Camino continues to inform my life, and now that I am talking about the journey with so many, I’m surprised how often people make a correlation with their own lives as well. I asked the question, “What has been your Camino? In that, I mean, when have you had a journey that may have been challenging, but changed you? Was there a sense of longing in that journey?

And everyone did. It wasn’t a 500-mile trip, but each could name one or several experiences that had been significant. There was some satisfaction in that for those that shared. It was as if they were understanding their own Camino in a new way as I have.

Although I had gone out to the Nature Center the day before and checked that there were the right connections for my computer, there hadn’t been time to actually turn on the projector. So twenty minutes before the talk began, we realized I would need to export 96 photos to another program for it to work. I could feel my old anxiety arise and some self blame for not fully checking it out. And then….the Camino came to me. Trust in what is unfolding. I took a breath, felt my feet on the floor and knew it would work out. I could probably talk for the hour without the slides, but it added so much to see the places I was describing. I had resigned myself to letting go when my computer-savvy son arrived. As I talked for 45 minutes, he created the new program, and I was able to show all the slides. I have become willing to let things be a bit messy.

I have written a lot of how my basic trust in life grew on the Camino and in the years that followed. But it isn’t as if I “get it” or most anyone can live into fully. But yesterday, I learned I have changed, and my trust is quicker to have the louder voice when things go wrong. A basic trust that no matter what happens, I’ll be okay.

It’s such a good way to live. And so I ask you? What has been your Camino? How have you changed? Perhaps a physical journey, but perhaps an emotional or mental one. What happened to your ability to trust?

I’m beginning to trust we are all linked with a story like mine. We all have that book we could write.