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The way to the soul The endeavor to walk the « way saint James » started in March when I was thinking of new ways to travel. This project involved minimization, a flexible mind, sharing a bedroom in a dormitory, and walking endlessly at it first seemed! I really felt that if I could achieve that walk I would gain a different sense of life fulfillment that would add strength within myself, but what I didn't know is that it would bring way more that I would expect... Walking every day 20 to 30 km was an incredible feeling. A friend told me you enter the Camino like a tourist and you end it like a pilgrim. Indeed, there is a shift happening that you realize when you look back at your experience. The first few days come along with the excitement to enter the Camino and meet new people, and I feel like we all still carry the vibrations of the modern lifestyle but slowly shift into a different mode... Walking the Camino is a powerful teaching for patience because walking has its own pace and one cannot cheat with the time. And it is the same in life, when we rush without respecting a natural flow of things, we end up banging our head against a wall. I remember John and Jean, the two deans of the Camino, they were so young inside! Jean started in Paris in late August and had the goal to reach Santiago on his birthday at the beginning of November. He would walk every day with the same pace and dedication, the same discipline and routine but always making sure to keep a smile on his face and showing so much wisdom! He taught me to stand up for my own beliefs and how it was important to please ourselves before trying to please others. One person I had a chance to meet on the Camino, Joel, a French fellow who had long been walking the Way Saint James told me: "When you let go of your material possession, it is like a hot-air balloon releasing sand bag to climb higher in the sky, your consciousness is rising up." It is proved to be true! As we are all back from the Camino, sharing together we realize how powerful the experience was. Some talk of "The Camino Hangover", which is to me when two completely different worlds are encountering each other creating an instant chaos until you can process everything you learnt along the way, absorb and can benefit from both experiences. It leads you to open to the new you that you got a chance to expand during the experience...