A small spark

In November 2014 I was very sick.  I had been diagnosed with several systemic autoimmune diseases, one of which is causing fusion of the joints in my spine and pelvis, in 2013 and nothing in my life had been the same since.  Specifically in the fall of 2014 I was struggling to overcome several infections because of my compromised immune system and was spending days at a time not even leaving the house.  During this time, while I was in prayer, I kept being distracted by this image of myself hiking.  I had been feeling forlorn about missing out on our annual trip to the mountains this year because of my health problems and I thought that perhaps this was the root of my distraction.  I willed it away.  The image remained, and a seed was planted.  The name of the Camino was also planted in my mind and stayed with me for a few weeks. 

I had heard of the Camino before, but only because a few people that I have known over the years have made the journey.  No one that I knew well though, so I really hadn't heard too many details.  I knew that it was a pilgrimage, and I knew that it was difficult physically.  It was, in my mind, not something that people with my health problems could do.  I willed thoughts of the Camino away.

A couple more weeks pass, and the Camino is everywhere.  I see a link to it pop up on facebook as something I might be interested in.  Why?  How would facebook know the secrets of my heart?  Then I finished a novel (historic fiction set in Egypt) and the book site suggested my next book should be "A Million Steps" by Kurt Koontz.  Low and behold, it is a book about one man's camino journey.  I can not escape mention of this journey.  It even came up in casual conversation with a woman in at a playground - and it was she who brought it up.  By Christmas I was convinced that the Holy Spirit was urging me to walk the Camino.

Even with God's calling I had a few major hurdles:

1. I don't know anything about the Camino.  I suppose I had read that one book, but I felt as if it was entirely unknown to me, and
2. I am really not healthy.  I am disabled, and unable to walk well, or far.

I began to research the Way of St. James, and I read voraciously.  I read several books, numerous websites, and I found and joined a web forum where I could communicate with peregrinos that seemed to know what on Earth they were talking about.  Through all of this reading and conversing I learned something very valuable - there are many ways, and no one right way.  I began to feel that I might be able to do this.

In mid-January I finally told my husband I wanted to do this.  I don't think he believed me.