Keeping a journal on your Camino

Keeping a journal is not natural for me. I am not a “journal person,” have never kept a diary, and did not keep a diary or journal during my sampling of el Camino del Norte in 2018. My view before that experience was that it was only a small part of a much greater trip that included three weeks attending a Spanish immersion class in San Sebastian and a joint vacation with my wife, Janis, and our wonderful Spanish friends Julian and Mercedes.

Keeping a journal of one part of it did not seem important.

Experiment versus pilgrimage

Not being a Catholic, my goal was to find out what el Camino was like, not to make an 828 kilometer (514 mile) pilgrimage across the north of Spain to the Cathedral in Santiago. The plan was to perform this experiment over six weekend days while attending the immersion class Monday through Friday. Every night save one, the first one, would be with my host family rather than what I found along The Way as the local narrow gauge railway would make returning to San Sebastian each evening easy.

It was only to be a brief experiment, a small taste of the Camino to find out what it was like, to satisfy the curiosity that had grown over the years since Julian had told me that those folks walking near the highway were pilgrims on their way to Santiago. I had not the smallest awareness that this “taste” would be the beginning of some of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

Keeping a journal – single, critical lesson

In the end, my tiny sampling of the Camino showed me only one thing: I was not finished. “I knew that I wanted my journey, my Camino, to continue.”

Keeping a journal – the “why one should”

Reminiscing about 2018 later, the reason so many people recommend keeping a journal would become clear and not having one was a bit of a disappointment.

Keeping a journal – 2021 and beyond

Somewhere in my travels I picked up a blank, pocket-sized journal. Since it is decorated with one of Picasso’s most important pieces, Guernica, or rather a detail from it, the purchase probably happened in Spain, but it appears that it was already in my possession on arriving at The Washington Reagan National Airport on July 31st, 2021.

My three journals, as of July 2024 (2021, 2022, and 2023), are personal treasures. IMHO, the wise pilgrim carries a journal and works to make some brief entries each day.

The three “Ruminations on …” posts planned for the seniorpilgrimage website will begin with “My Camino Journal, 2021.” They are electronic versions of my journal entries as written in pencil in each of my journals. Every effort has been made to avoid anything cleaning up. Misspellings have been left in place, although some highly personal thoughts have been redacted. A few, hopefully modest and clearly marked, insertions are intended to provide some context or explain what may otherwise be obscure comments. Hopefully these “raw data posts” will give you a tiny taste of el Camino de Santiago del Norte.