The Camino de Santiago - In a Dark Wood Wandering

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In the middle of my life I found myself


In the midst of a dark wood wandering...

(Dante's Inferno - Canto I)

In a little over a week, I will be starting on the Camino Frances. The number of factors that have to come together to ensure that this would happen are multiple and seemingly unrelated: some where made by myself and my family, many were made by people who I barely know and may never meet. So a few principals of independent schools decide to change the dates for scholarship testing, some colleagues at work decide that work has to be outsourced, I overlook a small detail in the processes...

Suddenly I'm in Dante's Inferno.

Well maybe not suddenly in retrospect. Six months of a downward slide are apparent from the other end. From inside, I thought I was coping, until I wasn't... It took me eight weeks to return to work.

Parallel with this, Kel and I had been discussing doing the Camino de Santiago in September 2013 with the kids. She then suggested that I look to do a scouting expedition. I needed to be back by Bryn's 21st in September. In the end, that wasn't an issue - work duties fell out in such a way that they wanted me to take long service leave ASAP.

So next Tuesday week I leave for Paris, and from there onto Bayonne, and from there up to St Jean Pied de Port, and from there...

I start to walk...

I'm pretty sure (although I'm definitely no expert) that Dante didn't mean that wandering in a dark wood in the middle of life was a good thing. But in some sense I'm embarking on a literal wander (at least in part amongst some trees with varying degrees of illumination), in order to make sense of the metaphoric and poetic dark wood wandering that I've been through of late.

If I really want to stretch the irony of it all, I would also note that Dante was writing the verse above at the height of the medieval popularity of the camino in Spain.

Anyway, I'll try and blog as i walk - well not AS I walk, I'll trip over or wander into traffic, but during the Camino. Not necessarily as just a travelogue (y'know, look at me I'm somewhere BETTER THAN YOU), but to try and see how the trip works upon me. Can I find a means to leave the wood - or find a brighter part of the wood?

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Comments

[Bernadette Power]

Fantastic
It sounds like a wonderful adventure David, I look forward to following on your blog.

[RobJ]

Good luck!
We want LOTS of updates.

[Cristina]

camino
I am planning on doing the Camino in September. I am excited to follow your journey.

[Katie Roberts]

Journey well...
Thank you for sharing this journey with us a little David. This note is to encourage you to post - by sharing our struggles out of the woods (or into them) we help each other - we all feel alone going there, but everyone ends up there sometimes. Its nice to know we are not alone. I hope you find your journey profound and nourishing and come back safe and sound. Love from home.

[LMH]

Blog on, safe travels
Walk into the wood.....