The Annual Gathering of Pilgrims marks the unofficial start to a new pilgrimage year. The theme for the 27^th Annual Gathering of Pilgrims (March 7-10 in Hunt, TX) is “Rhythms of the Way: Lighten Your Load.” We have drawn on the Gathering’s overarching theme to form a cohesive set of quarterly themes to guide a year of shared reflections, poetry, and imagery in La Concha. We invite you to think ahead to how your personal experiences, scholarship, creative works, and insights intersect with these themes La Concha will explore in upcoming seasons:

• Rhythms of the Way (Spring 2024): How do you experience the cycles, repetitions, or patterns of pilgrimage? In this issue, we will consider the cadence of Camino. Did your steps fall in sync with a Camino family? Or did you prefer to march to your own beat? What lessons did you discover as you lost your pilgrim footing? What routines or practices helped you find your pilgrim flow? What ancient vibrations did you sense as a modern pilgrim?
• Lightening Your Load (Summer 2024): What did you choose to jettison on pilgrimage? In this issue, we will explore the ways we strip away the unessential and lay down our burdens to make way for magic. How did a fellow pilgrim or hospitalero help lighten your load, literally or figuratively? How did a practical decision or disciplined practice open the possibility of pilgrimage for you or allow you to experience the Camino’s primal simplicity?
• Adding to Your Pack (Autumn 2024): 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?
• Keeping Time (Winter 2025): Returning home, what rhythm and tempo did you set? In this issue, we explore the ways we bring the rhythms of pilgrim life and daily life into syncopation. How did you cope with the post-Camino blues? How did you recalibrate your back-home routine to keep your pilgrim heart beating? Did you make radical changes or more subtle shifts? How are you keeping your connections to the Camino vibrant back home?

We invite American Pilgrims members to share their pilgrim experiences and insights on these themes over the coming year. Watch your email for our call for submissions and associated deadlines for La Concha. If you would like to submit materials, but are not yet an American Pilgrims member, learn more at americanpilgrims.org/membership.

Your contributions can take the form of:

• Personal reflections, essays or poems,
• Original artwork,
• Photographs, or
• Personal interest stories on the events and people that have provided that spark you needed to deepen your engagement as a pilgrim.

Please limit essays to a maximum of 400 words.

The submission deadline for the summer issue is June 29, 2024.