Dancing Down the Camino: We're Off! Dancing Down the Camino....

“If we walk far enough," says Dorothy, "we shall sometime come to someplace.”
― L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Logistical planning is complete and the 45 nights of accommodations are reserved. All walking gear has been tested, selected, and broken in. Our pilgrim’s passport was authenticated yesterday and we lit a candle in Notre-Dame-du-Bout-du-Pont church. We bought a few small items at a pilgrim’s outfitter, more out of nervousness than need.

Our first stamp in our Pilgrim's Passport.
We'll need to get at least one stamp a day for
the entire time we walk the Camino.

Our Passports get stamped!

In the cool, cloudy morning of April 17, 2015, we held hands and said our morning prayer. Then we walked through the Porte d’Espagne as have millions of pilgrims before us. We left St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port (literally “Saint John at the Foot of the Pass”) and headed into the Pyrenees, the first of what will be one million steps on the camino to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Showing us the way for our
first leg of the Camino.

John Brierly, author of the definitive guidebook for our route (the French Way or Camino Frances), said “… the pilgrimage starts the moment we become conscious that life itself is a sacred journey, carrying with it the responsibility to act accordingly.”

Here’s our every-morning Camino prayer, adapted from our wedding ceremony in 1996:

Dear God,

Please make our relationship a great and holy adventure.

Help us remain young.

Bring us together in heart and mind. Save us from darkness.

May this relationship be a burst of light.

We surrender to You our conflicts and our burdens.

We approach You with humble gratitude for the great joys and blessings in our lives.

Help us not to forget that You are the cement between us.

Thank you for this love. Amen