Pilgrims Way

A woman berates herself for not living up to the idea she had about what constitutes a “real” pilgrim. When she finally allows herself to accept help, she comes to understand what it means to be a pilgrim.

A husband and wife discover that the Camino fosters openness and generosity along with the space and pace to notice and appreciate simple, everyday acts of kindness as small miracles.

A man develops a crippling limp on one side of his body that he believes has ended his Camino. Talking with fellow pilgrims over dinner, he learns the cause of and remedy for his affliction, giving him courage and hope to complete his Camino.

As an F-14 pilot flying a mission over Lebanon in 1983 prays for courage, he promises to walk the Camino when his deployment ends. Still haunted by that promise four decades later, he finally makes the journey to Santiago de Compostela, carrying with him the weight of the 241 U.S servicemen killed in Beirut all those years before.

Rupert sets out on his walk across Spain as a tourist on a great vacation. Then one day in the sweltering heat, he comes upon Lesley, who he’d only met the day before and is now struggling in the heat. He pours water on her head and neck, then picks up and carries her pack. As they make slow and silent progress to the next town, they connect in the way humans looking out for one another do. In that moment, Rupert knows he’s transformed from tourist to pilgrim.

After a significant, life-changing experience on his first Camino, a man returns for a second Camino where he develops large painful blisters that would slow him down, lead to disappointment, and alter his walk. Back home, as he reflects on the long conversations he had with 36 people from 15 countries in 12 days, he comes to realize that he may not have gotten the Camino he wanted. But perhaps he became the Camino companion others needed.

When John develops a painful blister along the way, his Camino friend Martin heads into the woods and emerges with an herb that he makes into a seemingly magical balm.

While a woman takes a cab in search of the toiletry bag and medicines she’d left back at the albergue that morning, the proprietor of the café-bar in the tiny hamlet where she’d be staying for the night gathers provisions for her from friends and neighbors, just in case.

Bob and his wife meet Julio through their local American Pilgrims chapter. Julio helps them prepare for their first Camino and in the process a friendship forms. Along the way, Julio is stricken with a brain tumor. After his death, Juilo’s family donates his Camino gear to the chapter. When Bob and his wife eventually make their Camino, Bob carries Julio’s backpack.

A man expresses gratitude for the journey he embarked on with a long-time friend, and the new friends, made along the way, who give him hope for the future of this world.