Summer 2024: Lightening Your Load

July 25, 2024

Summer 2024 La Concha Lightening Your Load.

Letter from Our Editor

Fellow Pilgrims,

My local chapter recently held its annual two-day hike with an overnight stay at an albergue-style bunkhouse. A popular activity in our post-hike afternoon lazing is to do a “backpack shakedown” for anyone looking to shed unnecessary weight from their packs. Even those who don’t offer up their packs for scrutiny seem to take away some useful tips. This event, like so many programs our chapters offer, also helps to alleviate an invisible weight for would-be pilgrims: Worry over what it means to be a pilgrim. Fear of the unknown. Fretting over details.

One pilgrim in our chapter recently emphasized a suggestion I had imparted before her first Camino: “Don’t carry too many expectations with you.” She said she didn’t fully grasp this before she left, but once on Camino she understood. This philosophy is less about winging it on Camino, and certainly isn’t suggesting one set out on pilgrimage without setting an intention. Rather, it suggests that when we embark on a journey with more flexibility and less rigidity, we make space to experience things different and greater than we might have imagined. Admittedly, this tidbit I offer to fellow pilgrims was a hard-learned lesson myself, one that requires constant practice yet one that allows for a more carefree Camino.

This La Concha issue explores the theme LIGHTENING YOUR LOAD. We have reviews of Camino books including one discovered unexpectedly, a memoir in which a husband and wife balance their storytelling load, a novel about a scarf passed from one pilgrim to another, and a movie about an estranged father and daughter who let go of resentments and find healing on their shared journey. Poetry about the things we lose along the way and canceling plans to make way for the Camino we were meant to have. We have essays from those who carried the weight of deep loss; some whose physical suffering helped release emotional pain; and others who shed “what if” fears, stressful jobs, and even body weight to embark on Camino. We also learn how simple acts—from listening to someone share their sorrows or joys, leading others in song, or picking up a piece of trash—can lighten our collective Camino experience. Enjoy this exploration of the ways we strip away the unessential and lay down our burdens to make way for magic and experience the Camino’s primal simplicity.

May your journey be sacred,
Amy

Summer 2024 La Concha Content

American Pilgrims News

Letter from the Chair – Summer 2024
Summer 2024 letter from American Pilgrims on the Camino Board Chair Joe Curro.
La Rioja Cultural Experience Builds Connections, Deepens Understanding
A group of 29 American Pilgrims lifetime members traveled to Spain’s La Rioja region for an immersive experience steeped in history, culture, wine, gastronomy, and hospitality.
2024 Grants: Supporting the Camino Infrastructure
American Pilgrims in 2024 approved 22 grants totaling $114,800, the largest one-year total in the history of the organization’s grants program.
Summer 2024 – Chapter Happenings
A Summer 2024 compilation of American Pilgrims on the Camino chapter happenings.

Camino News

Camino Baztan: Misty, Mystical, and Magical (But Not for Everyone)
A group of pilgrims get by with a little help from their amigos to experience the magic of the less-traveled Camino Baztan.
American Pilgrim and Scholar Maryjane Dunn Recognized for Camino Contributions
Professor and writer Maryjane Dunn, an American Pilgrims lifetime member, was awarded the 11th annual Aymeric Picaud International Prize, recognizing her length and breadth of work related to the Camino de Santiago.

Hospitalero Corner

Lightening the Camino with Song
When the road gets weary, songleader Tom Friesen finds there’s nothing like belting out a good tune to lift your spirits and lighten your load. And nothing creates Camino community quite like an albergue singalong.
Listening Is an Act of Lightening
A Pilgrim’s Reception Office volunteer finds that in listening to pilgrims unburden their sorrows and lift up their joys, his own emotional load is also lightened.
2025 Hospitalero Training Sessions Announced
American Pilgrims has announced its 2025 schedule for hospitalero training. Four sessions are planned in California, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

Pilgrims Way – Reflections on the Theme “Lightening Your Load”

What I Left Behind
Carrying an immense load of grief and anger after her mother’s death, a pilgrim walks the Camino with a 1.6-pound rock painted by her niece in memory of her mother. When she finds the perfect spot to finally set down the rock, she feels lighter than she has in months.
The Heaviest Things, Objects, Items & Stuff
Sitting on the side of the trail nursing her blisters and inflamed calves caused by an overburdened backpack, a woman meets a Camino angel who offers her a vital insight that changes her pilgrimage and ultimately her path in life.
The Downside of Lightening Your Load on the Camino
More and more, pilgrims are lightening their load by discarding worn-out boots, trash, and even human waste on the trail. A new tradition encourages pilgrims to pick up just one item of litter each day of their pilgrimage, to help lighten the load of trash on the Camino.
The Camino Means Freedom
Miserable, burned out, and on the verge of breakdown from the stresses of running a small business, a husband and wife watch the movie The Way and are compelled to sell their business and set out on the Camino to reclaim their life.
Strength to Carry It
A pilgrim returns to the Camino to heal after an extended period of chaos, loss, and overwhelming grief. A communal activity one night at an albergue unexpectedly changes how she sees herself, and is all the stronger for it.
Shedding Weight to Walk Anew
His Camino cut short by an ankle sprain on Day 1, an overweight Type 2 diabetic embarks on a new diet and exercise journey to shed pounds and get healthy to walk another Camino.
Lightening Your Final Load
As she works through her estate planning, a Camino enthusiast considers what to do with all the Camino treasures she has collected over the years.
Letting Go of “What If” Fears
A husband and wife plan to walk the Camino together. Their first Camino is canceled when she gets sick. Once better, they finally set off on their Camino. Her Camino abruptly ends after a fall and injury, but she encourages him to carry on. Along the way, he learns to let go of his “what if” fears. Ultreia!
Let’s Pick This Up Later
Exhausted from a broken marriage and a life spent tending family and students, a woman sets out on pilgrimage with a resolution to no longer carry the deadweight of others. After sufficient respite, she rediscovers a joy for caregiving and for receiving care herself.
Four Loads to Lighten
A reflection that considers the four loads a pilgrim carries: physical, mental, spiritual, and physiological.
Finding the Center
A pilgrim cuts unnecessary weight from his pack; banishes extra noise to enjoy silence; and consciously chooses to avoid social media, games, and news on his phone. This space he created on Camino provided a fruitfulness that shaped the lessons he would take back into his life after returning home.
Faith Over Fear
A pilgrim reflects on what the Camino provides—many gifts, but most important for her, time to sort through what needed sorting, reconnect with herself, and ask hard questions and find answers that have guided her life ever since.
Accompanying Me Home
Having stood witness to his Camino family united by individual losses, a pilgrim who has returned home faces his own deep personal loss. And in that darkest moment, a pilgrim friend’s gesture from across the Atlantic Ocean brings him light.
A Lot to Talk About
As they walk together in the rain, one pilgrim’s openness and honesty allows the other pilgrim to show his vulnerability, too.
A Journey of Gratitude
While making a pilgrimage in honor of his friend who died on Camino the previous year, a stroke survivor learns how to accept help from others; view curses as blessings; and find peace, gratitude and new life to celebrate.
A Heart Opened
With ample time to reflect on 72 years of life and be present to appreciate what the Camino offers, a man’s heart opens to find a renewed spiritual relationship.
A Broken Soul
After her father’s unexpected death, a heartbroken woman feels called to the Camino, where her physical suffering helps her unburden her emotional pain.

Poetry

The Left-Behind Clothing
In this poem, Lawrence Jones muses about some discarded attire spotted along the way and the cautionary tale it may offer fellow pilgrims.
Losing Things
A poem by Suzanne Doerge that considers the things we lose along the way and the finding of ourselves in the losing.
Disburdening
In this poem by Shoshana D. Kerewsky, a pilgrim experiences a washing away of burdens when caught in a downpour of rain in Santiago de Compostela.
Canceled
A poem by Mary Baldree that celebrates canceling the plans she made to make way for the Camino she was meant to have.

Book & Film Reviews

Film Review: Camino
Hany Farag reviews “Camino,” a Danish film about an estranged father and daughter on pilgrimage together to fulfill the dying wish of their wife and mother.
Book Review: The Camigas Scarf
Amy Horton reviews Alder Allensworth’s “The Camigas Scarf: Mother” the first novel in a three-part series inspired by an actual scarf that has created a special connection among women across many Caminos.
Book Review: Happiness is That Way
Joe Curro reviews a dueling memoir by an Australian husband and wife who tackle the Via de la Plata as their first Camino. Curro calls “Happiness is That Way” by Cici Edwards-Jensen and Mike Jensen “a light, easy read that offers a highly personal glimpse into a less-traveled Camino route.”
Book Review: Call of the Camino
An unexpected bookstore find becomes the Camino memoir that keeps on giving in Jerald Stroebele’s review of Robert Mullen’s “Call of the Camino.”

Gallery

Lightening Your Load: A Photo Collection
A collection of photos that consider this issue’s theme, “Lightening Your Load,” from various perspectives.

Submissions to the Autumn 2024 Issue Close September 21

The Autumn 2024 theme is ADDING TO YOUR PACK. We invite you to share your stories, reflections, poetry, photography, artwork, or other original creative works that consider what’s worth the weight.

What did you pick up and carry on your journey? In this issue, we consider the tangible and metaphorical souvenirs we collect on Camino. Is there a cherished trinket you acquired along the way or a talisman that helps you sustain your pilgrim spirit. What lessons did you bring home from your journey and how do you apply them in daily life? What Camino experiences indelibly stamped and changed you?

Access the LA CONCHA SUBMISSION FORM for complete submission guidelines and to submit your creative work. We include as many submissions as possible in each issue. We may defer some items to future issues.

Team La Concha – Summer 2024 Volunteers

Amy Horton, Editor-in-Chief
Carol Guttery, Web Designer
Francine Mastini, Creative Director
Copy Editors & Proofreaders: Kelly Bates, Julie Gianelloni Connor, Stacey Karpp, Pruitt Layton, Jeanette Mills, Gigi Oyog, Sasha Reber, Thom Ryng, and Lise Yale

Communications Co-Chairs

Eryn-Ashlei Bailey
Martin Peña