Sponsor my journey

This button will take you to PayPal where you can choose an amount to contribute. Want to know what you’re sponsoring? Read below!

This is my theory:

Flying home after walking to Santiago is only half a pilgrimage.

Long ago, before trains and planes, the pilgrim’s arrival in Santiago was only the first half of a months-long trek. By contrast, modern pilgrims are whisked away mid-journey. Is that second half essential?

For me—and for many pilgrims—returning home from pilgrimage is disorienting. For months afterward, many feel a profound longing for something they can’t name, often referred to as the Camino blues.

What did ancient pilgrims experience by walking home?

Ever since I returned from my pilgrimage, I’ve been consumed by questions about how to make meaning from the Camino de Santiago experience. How do you integrate its powerful insights? What helps lift the Camino blues?

I long to know whether ancient pilgrims had the answer. I want to know if retracing one’s steps from Santiago to the starting point helps a pilgrim re-enter her life feeling whole and inspired.

Bringing back the boon

My purpose is motivated by more than pure curiosity.

As with my first spiritual quest, I feel called to do what seems impossible: walk alone, without arrows, on a shoestring, and in the “wrong” direction—this time with arthritis in my knees. I’m both excited and nervous—which means I’m on the right path.

My intention is one of service.

If I discover truths that could help other pilgrims, I will write about them. Post-Camino isolation is common, and I seek to break that barrier, lift pilgrims’ Camino blues, and helping them move toward wholeness. I am as eager for this work as the journey itself.

A humble request

I am going to walk again. I plan to start in Finisterre, Spain where I ended in 2013 and walk to my beginning point in Saint Jean Pied de Port, France. I seek your support if you feel called to share in the journey with me. Costs for pilgrims are low.

€5 covers breakfast

€10 pays for dinner

€15 covers a shower and a bed for the night

For me, the challenge is the total of 40+ days of expenses. It adds up.

To be clear, this isn’t a vacation; it’s a pilgrimage with a specific spiritual purpose. I’m planning a bare-bones journey. Your donation supports my spiritual growth and allows me to support other seeker as I write about my insights.  I want to live in a world in which people are awake and engaged with life, and this is my way to contribute.

It’s humbling to need something. Just asking for your help (which is so hard for me!) is a part of my journey. Any response is helpful to me.

Any amount, even one dollar, will make a difference for my quest.

Three hug options

All hugs are welcome. If you are able, here are three hug options to consider.

Hug One: To spread support and love, I will share tiny handmade inspiration cards (below) with the hundreds of pilgrims who cross my path as they walk westward. If your donation is over $20, you’ll contribute 20 cards that will encourage fellow pilgrims.

Hug Two: If you donate $60 or more, I’ll make 20 of the cards above to share and also send you a hand-written love note—real mail from Spain!—while I’m walking.

Hug 3: This is me holding the nightshirt I made for my journey. It’s a huge, soft, hand-dyed, Dad-tshirt, and the heart design symbolizes the love that radiates from within each of us out into the world. We’re in this together.

If you make any donation over $100, you’ll cover two days of my expenses—a huge gift, truly. For this, I’ll make those 20 cards to share with pilgrims, send you a love note from Spain, and make you a hand-dyed t-shirt like mine–with a small string attached: a request that you wear it at least once in solidarity with me while I’m walking.

Does one of these call to you?

Gratitude

Whether it’s support of a financial, spiritual, or emotional kind, please accept my immense gratitude for your encouragement and love on my new quest. It means more to me than I can say.