Why?

Why walk the Camino? Why would anybody want to spend a month walking nearly 500 miles through northern Spain?

Why do I?

That’s a darn fine question. I wish I had a good answer.

When somebody asks me, I usually reply with a glib, “obviously, I’m an idiot.” The truth is, I don’t know why I feel called to the Camino.

There is a desire, obviously, to have this grand adventure, but that seems more a result of my gathering determination and excitement to just do the thing. It’s part of the result, rather than the cause.

God calls me to the Camino. Maybe it’s as simple as that, and one shouldn’t question motives so much.

My friend Adam has suggested to me that it’s my love of medieval history that is my primary inspiration, combined with the romance of the pilgrimage trail. There’s certainly something to what he says, but if that was the whole of it, I’d walk or boat up the Rhine and Mosel and into France. What I know about Medieval Spain could comfortably fit onto one sheet of paper.

There’s certainly an inkling in my brain that maybe there’s a book here, but again, that’s part of the outcome, not the impetus.

There’s the actual pilgrimage, of course – the spiritual journey or quest at the Camino’s heart. But to me, this seems like part of the process, the what not the why.

All I know is this: it is a call, an external call that tugs at my heart and which has become a consuming obsession in my brain. Is this what the voice of God sounds like? The process of discernment is extremely similar to what I undertook when converting to Catholicism.

It’s also similar in many ways to my courtship of Francine.

So maybe that really is the simplest, truest answer. Why am I walking the Camino de Santiago? Because right now, this is where God calls me.