You CAN get there from here!

Every time I hear a great guitarist, I KNOW that should have been me.  If only I had been born with his talent.  If only I had as nice a guitar.  If only my fingers were as long as his.  If only, if only ... if only.

But I know I'm just kidding myself.  He/she is a great guitarist because they payed the price to get there,while I tried to find "work arounds", or shortcuts.  He spent hours doing the "do, re, me", burning callouses into his fingers, while I discovered two or three "licks" and pretended I was already great.  

I wanted to "be" there.  He took the time to "get" there. 

I've always known this, but one of the lessons the Camino has cemented is just that.  You can use a thousand things to illustrate the point.  Want to have a million dollars?  There are steps (other than robbing a bank, or relying on blind luck.). Want to be a great athlete? Start with the basics.  

Tonight at supper, I met a new friend - Jacques from Quebec, Quebec.  Together we coined the phrase, "Everyone wants to 'be' there.  Very few want to 'get' there."  Jacque, at 65 knows what he is talking about. He is just finishing his fourth Camino.  He did the French way 9 years ago,then the Portugese Way, then some other way, and this year the Norte Way.  He was talking about his many friends who often say they want to "do" a Camino.  

But here's what we've learned.  You don't "do" a Camino.  You "take" a walk.  And then ... another one, and another one, and one more, and ... and ... and.  The steps you take start long before Saint Jean Pied de Port.  The steps include saving money, walking around mundane Gypsy Lane, saving money, walking around mundane Gypsy Lane, denying yourself other things that would eat away at the money you've saved, walking around mundane Gypsy Lane.  And finally the magical day arrives and you are sitting in a cafe/bar in a little French town you now know as SJDPD, and you say, "tomorrow I'm taking a walk".

But even then, you don't begin to walk a Camino.  You just walk. You see a yellow arrow on the way out of town, and you follow that arrow.  And then there's another arrow, and another.  You're exhausted already, because mundane Gypsy Lane couldn't prepare you for the first hour of the  French Pyrenees, and you want to quit, but you don't - you just keep walking.  You're not walking a Camino.  You are just walking to that next shade tree.  When you get there, IF you get there, you will reward yourself with a drink of water, and then you'll walk to the next shade tree.  When you get THERE, if you get there, you'll have water AND a piece of bread.  Now that's a reward worth looking forward to!

So you walk to that shade tree, and somehow garner the strength to go to the next one.  Not because it's fun, but because you have decided to walk a Camino, and the only way to walk a Camino is to walk to that shade tree.