This will be brief.

Why on earth would I choose to do the Camino de Santiago, already a difficult hike of approximately 800 km, in the first six weeks of the year? Northern Spain is not like northern Canada, but there will certainly be snow en route.

The quickest answer is, this is when I have the time. Perhaps one day I will have a five to six week block of time free to jet off to Europe in the spring or summer, but perhaps not. The time is now. (This is true on an existential level, too. The present is all we have.)

While looking into this, I found a few resources online which explicitly addressed a winter pilgrimage. Winter Pilgrim is written by the author of a booklet by the same name which is published by the Confraternity of Saint James. If it’s on their website, it is authoritative.

Amawalker: Walking in Winter had a lot more information and winter-specific tips, but it also pointed out the years in which pilgrims had died crossing the Pyrenees in March and April. It was good for me to read this and realize that my bluster of being a winter-hardy Canadian wouldn’t prevent me from freezing to death if I slipped and broke a leg on a pass in the mountains. Hmmmmm.

Then I found the blog of a 17 year-old Australian girl who is doing the Camino at this very moment. (She also has an older companion along with her.) While she’s more than a month ahead of me, I am following her blog with great interest. That is also what prompted me to set this one up.

Finally (for now, at least), last evening I came across Ann Sieben’s blog. Beginning at this entry, the Winter Pilgrim described her walk from Aachen, Germany to Santiago de Compostela in the winter of 2008-2009. I haven’t read her “Best Of” summaries yet — that is what I’ll be doing this afternoon when I get home from church.

One literary critic has called the opening line of Genesis simply the best sentence ever composed. It is silly of me to start my Camino blog with that, but it’s certainly not a line that I can improve on.

I booked my flight to Europe two days ago, so I have now made a major financial investment in my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.  For the past few weeks I’ve been researching online, reading other pilgrim’s accounts, gathering gear, and otherwise obsessing on this.   In a sense, I have already begun my pilgrimage.

Why did I decide it would be a good thing to hike 500 miles across northern Spain in January?  Where did this notion come from?  The clarity which the title for this post provides is not matched by my own awareness.

What I have been aware of, for most of my life, is the feeling of being a misfit.  When I began reading the Bible seriously as an adult, the phrase strangers and pilgrims on this earth resonated deeply.  Throughout the Scriptures, we see that God cares for the poor, the marginalized, the homeless and crazy and desperate.  My parents are very remarkable people, and they raised me in that spirit.  I’m sure they’ve entertained angels unknowingly.  This is more than just “rooting for the underdog.”  This is a vision which sees the face of Christ in every person.

So now I am about to leave a comfortable place and become a pilgrim.  This is a matter of choice for me, but for six weeks at the beginning of 2010, I will become radically dependent on other people and the providence of God.  I will be that hungry dirty smelly person tramping through your town.  A cup of cold water in the name of Christ yields great rewards, but perhaps you could provide a cup of hot coffee instead.

More thoughts tomorrow on pilgrimage in general, and much more on the Camino de Santiago in particular will follow.