Hello Dearest Friends and Family!
Six months later and it seems like a lifetime ago that I walked the Camino Via de la Plata, but it is still very much a part of my everday existence.
I am now in the throes of my thesis, tentatively titled: This peregrina's autoethnographic account of walking the Via de la Plata Way: A feminist spiritual inquiry in human transformation in leisure studies. Autoethnography is a method of research that moves from the researchers inner perspective to a broader, cultural reflection of the same experience. I am always writing...writing, writing, writing, and reading, and I have three part time jobs. I am a teachers assistant at the university, I have my own little business house-sitting, pet-sitting, dog walking and, in the summer, tending gardens. And the other is also a self-employment experiment following a paint crew and cleaning up after them, scraping windows and floors and the like, and it's not glamorous, but it pays cash. I live alone in a sweet and small apartment in Guelph in the province of Ontario in Canada. I love it. It is in the heart of downtown and I can walk everywhere. Life is quiet and though the Camino does, indeed, seem like another lifetime ago, I am still learning from it. And this thesis project is my way to give thanks for that journey and share the awareness and insights I continue to be blessed with.
The summer, directly following the Camino, was intense, but I was glad to be at home with all of my friends and family...you mean so much to me and make me feel like such a well-loved woman! I lost my head a little and had a rebound relationship. Then snapped out of it and put my whole self back into my thesis, where my attention needs to be because this is the most meaningful work I've ever done. It feels good to be working for myself and writing about a subject I feel passionate about! I'm applying for my Ph.D. this winter, but have no expectations or commitments around it. I'm just seeing what will happen and which universities I am accepted at. I'll know what to do when the time comes. After all, who knows what opportunity lies waiting around the next bend? I liken life to the Way now. I do the walking and just keep my eyes (spirit, heart) open for markers (which come in so many forms!). Life is much more simple and much more adventurous this way, I find!
It's imperative that you know how much I love each of you for reaching out and giving me that little nudge and even those big pushes to help me get to where I needed to be emotionally, physically and spiritually while I walked the Camino. For all of you who walked along side me energetically, symbolically and physically, I love you. It was a walk of a lifetime...but that journey was simply the beginning. I feel that the transformation has truly just begun. The greatest lesson I learned was that staying small serves no one and that I want to shine very bright.
This message of thanks is way overdue. As I read over your emails, each and every one, collaborating them all together as data for my study, I came to a few insights about this wondrous group who I call my Camino List. I recieved literally pages and pages of encouragement and well wishes! I can't help but be moved to near tears every time I look at them as a collection. You touch my heart, you beautiful, shining mirrors, you! Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.
Here are a few quotes from a lot of you...though for confidentiality's sake, I've not included names. It's the consistent message of love and light, the collective atmosphere of the support I received that blows me away. I thought it would be interesting for each of you to see yourselves in the Other in a tangible way. I get to witness each of you as a mirror for myself and it feels very good to be able to share the wealth by offering you all a glimpse into one another, knowing I'm the hub of this wheel, but that each of you is a hub. Each of us outwardly affects a great many others. We truly are one...the web is truly spectactular. Never have I understood how truly important I am, how cared for I am, how many people I am capable of influencing at any given moment. Each of us holds this power. My personal goal is to wield that power with as much grace and tenderness as I can muster.
Prayers and Encouragement before embarking on my journey:
- Best wishes on your journey, may you feel your connectedness to universal energies in every footstep.
- I came across this quote in my comps reading, and it made me think of you: 'Teach us to take our hearts and look them in the face, however difficult it may be' – Sayer (1938). I hope this trip is everything and more you hope it to be!
- Thank you for sharing your openness and acceptance of yourself with all of the circle before and after the sweat.This is a good teaching for the rest of us. I believe with all my heart that everyone will benefit from your respectful sharing. My prayer for you (and the rest of the circle) is that your journey will open the door to another level that will be a step to knowing the limitless Mystery thatwe are. I cannot say how this will happen for you, since we are all part of the Mystery and to think (logically) that our journey to completeness - our unlimited Creative Authentic Self may be different as we are all are in the expression of the Love that is the gift of Life.So this is my prayer for you - to find your true Light - your completeness, your Bliss - in YOUR Way. Miiguetch, Walk in the Light that you are!
- I will miss you very much! Please take care and I will do the same. Safe journey friend. I decided to dig back into my Catholic roots to frame my thoughts to St. James. I hope that's okay :)
Prayer to St. James
In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
I pray to you, St. James, to keep my beloved friend, Kim Lyons
in your thoughts as she embarks on her Journey. Let her be
strong. Let her be healthy. Let her connect with others around
her and enable her to look deep within. Let her let go and be
free of all confines leaving her heart, mind, and soul open to
you, and all the beauty that may cross her path and enter her
life. Bring her wonderful dreams and experiences. Let her
call on you to feel safe and loved. Take her home safely.
Amen.
- I want to wish you well on your journey. Know that all our hearts go with you and that we wish you happiness, growth, and understanding with each step you take. You are going to have a fantastic journey no matter what happens, but be sure to take the extra time to enjoy the moments as they come along. Create a sacred space around you as you travel so that you may feel comfortable and grow to take the inward journey at the same time. This is a time in your life when you can make it all about you, leave the rest of us behind and don't think twice about it. This is a time for you to nurture your soul and delve deeper into who you are and what you want to become. Stop to enjoy the small things, the call of a new bird, a light spanish breeze brushing across your cheeks and the way your muscles work collectively to move you ever forward on this long peaceful journey. I do hope that you find a peace you have not yet known on this journey and that you will be able to savour it, cherish it and bring it back within your soul. It is a long path you are taking both earth and spirit bound so be sure to enjoy the little revelations that happen along the way and the feeling of triumph at the end. I wish you a safe journey, one to heal your heart, bless your soul and let your spirit soar. While you may be walking alone, know that you have all the support and love from your friends back home, but do this for you and you alone.
Mesages of Healing and Support during my bought with tendonitis
- I send you healing light and heart energy. Don't forget to breathe into the space in your ankle, give the pain room to express itself and to grow as large as it needs. Focus your attention there until it begins to shift. Be gentle with your whole being.
- Your twin in exploring here. I'm sending you a message from my hurt to yours - dispel this energy because it's important not to dwell, not to linger and to focus on the journey ahead. We are all here thinking and rooting for you. Your many fans. Mend yourself and your hurt so you can continue to walk free with consciousness for new and great things for Kim Lyons. Ankle! Get strong and shake it off! You're have great duties ahead of you and should be well enough to undertake them. Be steadfast, heal, absorb the walk and work with the whole! Support Kim in her journey and she will tend to you with much love. Keep calm, carry on.
- On an energetic level, according to Louise Hay, "Ankle problems are about inflexibility and guilt. Flexible ankles represent the ability to receive pleasure." For the left side of the body is receiving and the right side is about moving forward. The left is also governed by the feminine side. Not wanting to move in a certain direction in life. “I trust the process of life to take me only to my highest good. I am at peace. Bring your breath into your heart and do some Reiki on it. Whatever comes forth is ready to be shown, intergraded in your heart through compassion and forgiveness. Then thank the ankle for showing you this pain and giving you the opportunity to transform it. I’m sending you my love, some healing and a big hug…
- Sending you all the love and healing I have in me. :) I'll spend some time tonight doing some meditative healing with the focus on your ankle.... and your heart. Go in peace, my sister. You have us all behind you.
- nothing is ready to let go until it has received the healing it seeks. make space for the ankle by tuning into it. if it could speak, what would it say? what kind of thing does it capture in its ache? What is the character of its distress? (colour, shape, texture ... image ... ) Sit with it one breakfast, just your ankle and you, and the rest of the body, and ask it, what do you say this morning? Listen to it. Can't approach this inquiry too directly. Then, another time, sit with your heart. hi heart, beating its vibrations, notes that resonate through all of you, through trees, and rocks, and mountains, and caminos. How are you at this moment? If you could say some thing, anything to me, what would you tell me? hang out and listen. your job would be to just stay along, make space, and stay with. you don't have to know or figure anything out. tune into the body before you begin. see what stands out. work with that. see where it leads you. what it's saying. let it not make sense. that'll come. One of these evenings, as you are falling asleep, you will feel me slipping beside you, designing a healing swirl that allows all the parts to separate, to breathe, to just be there, hang out. When all the parts get heard, we do what we gotta do more easily, with more energy, leaning into the work, and gain momentum. Listen. what's that? just hang back and stay with. the knowing will come.
- I did a short energy work ceremony and rebalanced your chakras. Try to be present with whatever experience you're having, and once you've allowed yourself to have it, don't be afraid to let it go.
- I send you all my Love and energy every day straight from my heart. Hold it with you and call to it when you need to. I pray for you to be healthy and for great weather on the next leg of your journey.
- Our thoughts and prayers are with you always. As I have known you since you were born I have every confidence that you will be able to complete your journey...
- What an intelligent decision -- so often I get caught up in doing something out of obligation! Our bodies tell us what they want & need when are willing to listen. I was in a large, energetic crowd last night. Out of nowhere, your face appeared -- shining, laughing -- in that surprising moment, I thought -- Kim, take this energy!
- Very wise choice Kim! It doesn’t matter that you took the bus. This journey is a symbol and coming across obstacles along the way is part of the journey. Overcoming those obstacles by making wise choices is what being successful is.
- Im proud of you for so many things. Today I'm proud of you for taking care of yourself.
- Hopping a bus while walking the Camino seems very poetic...almost Jack Kerouac-like ;-) ... and as always there is learning in each moment...
- my Sister Warrior: My Prayers go out to you! You are an inspiration for all of us. Please remember, there is no failure, except to never have tried.You have exceeded most peoples expectations in having taken that first step. Go at your own pace, with Love, Respect and Forgiveness in your Heart.
- I am doing all I can to send you some healing power and energy... I was blessed to complete a Reiki Drumming Certification last weekend and I will continue to send reiki drum healing from a distance to you. I hope it finds you well. You got this!
- I just wanted to send you a message to remind you to trust that everything is working out exactly as it's suppoed to, with Devine blessings for everyone involved. Let go of any particular outcome and have faith. Evething that is happening is part of your healing journey. I not only ask that your physical body be healed, but that whatever emotion or situation that may be manifesting itself in physical form be healed also. Sometimes Spirit has something else in mind for us.
- You're amazing- what a courageous strong wise women you are. I am with you, for we are connected and you live in my heart. I love you soooooooo much
WOW!!!! And this is only a smidgen of what I received! It's moving to put it all together on paper...for this is data for my thesis work. In re-reading your messages I see I am not alone in my beliefs of true interdependency and coexistence, of being able to exchange energy from near or far, of the collect consciousness that I feed and am fed by.
You sent me with prayers before I left, you prayed with and for me while I was on the Way, our voices, as one, speak loudly of the compassionate beings we truly are at our cores. We speak a language that is beyond language. It is the Way of the Heart. Thank you for loving me and caring for me while on my journey. Know you can call on me whenever you need me in return.
On December 21st, 2012, we gathered together at the Sacred Healing Fire to celebrate the arrival of the New Age! Here we are, together, in the emergence of a new, heightened consciousness! This collection of messages tells me that the circle I travel with (that's you all!) are the forerunners of this loving, heart-guided time! It is an honour to walk beside you in this lifetime. I see you, you beautiful being, and you are LOVE!
As was clearly the message at this month's Full Moon Women's Circle:
We are opening up in sweet surrender to the luminous love light of the ONE!
Happy New Year, loved ones!
With so much love and gratitude my heart bursts with it...
Kim xo
