I'm a day late in posting this but I was waiting for something to arrive. Four years ago, on May 15, 2011, I started my first Camino. It was the start of a truly life changing event in my life. I learned the limits I'd placed on myself were a manifestation of self-doubt. Completing my first Camino shattered those limits and diminished - but never totally eliminated - my self-doubt. I came back a more self-confident man eager to replace old limits with new goals.
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A Shell from Fisterra for my backpack. |
The symbol of the Camino is a shell. All the pilgrims have one hanging from their backpacks. I have a bad history with my shells. During my last Camino I carried a shell I'd picked up in Fisterra, a seaside town at the end of the Camino.
I dropped it and broke it along the way. A Frenchman I befriended early on gave me a shell he had picked up on an earlier Camino.
I accidentally broke that one too at the end of a particularly hard day for me. A third shell was given to me by other friends met along the way. I lost it before reaching the end ... though
I was able to recover it after I got home. It hangs from my desk lamp.
I picked up another shell from the beach near Fisterra on my second Camino. I intend to hang it from my backpack as a reminder of what I can do. To ensure it doesn't get broken, I had it encased in acrylic (it arrived this morning ... a day late). It will not break but it will get beat up along the trail. Like me it will gain character as it collects scratches and scuffs, each telling a story - stories that will make me smile.
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