Sybille Yates wrote ‘Taking the Camino Home’ after walking many Caminos, volunteering as a hospitalera in an albergue, and ultimately moving to Santiago de Compostela where she now lives.
‘Taking the Camino Home’ is a book not just about the Camino itself but how you can continue your pilgrim journey after the event with lots of practical tips and suggestions to help you do this.
Thank you to Sybille for a copy of this book. Although I received this product for free all opinions are my own.
If you’re anything like me you’ll do a lot of research ahead of walking your first Camino reading everything from blogs (like this one!), to guidebooks, to Camino novels. In fact, there are so many Camino books on the market it can be hard to know where to begin.
‘Taking the Camino Home’ is a short book of just 51 pages. It’s a book that you can dip in and out of when you have some free time or, like me, you can devour it in one sitting and revisit individual chapters at your leisure.
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This isn’t a ‘how to walk the Camino’ book so, if you’re looking for a full guidebook, this isn’t it. Rather than focusing on the practical aspects of walking the Camino ‘Taking the Camino Home’ is more about the inner journey. If you’re interested in the spiritual, emotional, or psychological aspect of walking the Camino then you’re likely to find this an interesting read.
The book’s subtitle (‘…because another Camino begins there!’) references the fact that, even once we’ve returned home we never really leave the Camino behind. As Sybille says, “we do not stop being pilgrims when we leave the Camino, we are pilgrims of life”.
The chapters are short and designed to make you think, with space to add your own notes as you read through the book.
Each chapter focusses on specific aspects of the Camino experience and gives you pointers so that you can reflect on what that means to you personally and how you can continue to embrace that experience when you return home. The Camino blues will be a feeling familiar to anyone who’s walked the Camino and then has to return to reality after a period of living simply carrying just the bare essentials.
Throughout the book Sybille talks about the Camino as a process of transformation rather than a single act, and how to bring that transformation home. The very act of walking a Camino can be reduced to the simple process of ‘walk, eat, sleep, repeat’ and the book gives food for thought as to how to bring that into everyday life once you return home.
In the chapter on simplicity Sybille looks at whether we really need all the stuff that most of us accumulate over our lifetimes and has exercises to consider just how much we actually need.
There are chapters on anxiety which I’m sure everyone who’s walked a Camino has felt at some point, as well as on weights and fears. I know I barely slept the night before my first Camino and probably added too much weight to my backpack – just in case.
Other chapters look at anticipation, expectations, and negative events/people. I know from my own experience that sometimes the expectations don’t match the reality. After my first Camino from Porto to Santiago on the Central route I decided to walk the Coastal route the following year and, unfortunately, had to cut it short after three days. The mistakes I made that led to this were all entirely of my own making and, although I returned home early and bitterly disappointed, I was able to learn from those mistakes and complete the Coastal route the following year.
In Sybille’s book she offers good strategies for dealing with negative events and handling disappointment when expectations don’t match reality.
‘Taking the Camino Home’ is a book that you can read ahead of your Camino but you’ll get much more from it afterwards as it gives you the tools to reflect on the meaning of the Camino and how you could integrate what you’ve learnt about yourself into your everyday life on your return home.
Everyone’s Camino is different but with Sybille’s practical advice and tips on how to deal with the Camino blues you’ll be able to reflect on your own unique journey.
Buen Camino!
