‘After almost collapsing on the Camino through dehydration, I rest in an albergue while my husband goes off in search of a doctor. As I lie there, the hospitalera walks over and I feel an immense terror bubble up inside of me about what was going to happen next. She’s going to help me and there’s nothing I can do about it. The thing is’, the lady tells me, ‘ever since I was a child, I have never been able to accept unconditional love from anyone without having the immediate need to give something back in return. Even from my husband of 40 years. The hospitalera reads my mind because she leans over, cups her hand under my chin and waives her finger in front of my face and says, ‘no, now is the time for you to receive’. As I have nothing left inside of me to give back in return, I surrender and unconditionally receive her love. I start to cry because I know and feel a life-long burden being lifted from me.’
The lady had lightened the load of her ‘invisible backpack’.
Robert Bligh in his book, The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us, says, ‘‘We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourselves to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again. Sometimes retrieving them feels impossible as if the bag were sealed.’
Did the Camino de Santiago help you make visible more of your ‘Invisible Backpack’? Perhaps you:
Heard clearly the wise inner voice that intuitively knows at some level what is always right for you
Acknowledged shut away pain, grief and trauma
Awakened to old stories and narratives that no longer serve your purpose
Discovered how much your life truly ‘weighs’
Re-activated long lost passions, dreams and gifts that have waited patiently to be lived once more
Connected to a deeper and more soulful way of being.
Register here for this 90-minute free webinar February 15th 2025.