Happy Holidays! I have a new favorite Camino blog, Communitas Blog: Making a Big World Smaller by Landon Roussel, MD.  He has walked three routes: Camino Francés in 2009 and El Norte in 2011 with his wife, and Primitivo in 2013 with his brother. He writes, “It is really a blog about my reflections on my most recent Camino with my brother on the primitive way. We walked this just before he was unexpectedly killed, and after his death I spent the year writing a memoir about our Camino, which chronicles not only our pilgrimage on the Camino Primitivo, but also our pilgrimage in life, which was marked by over a decade of estrangement due to his struggles with drugs and prison prior to coming together on the way of St. James.”

Wow. The Camino works in mysterious ways. Read more in his post Healing on the Way.

I love his intro about the Way of Saint James, particularly the section on simplicity:

As well, for pilgrims walking the Way, the pilgrimage is an exercise in simplicity. Focusing on walking, finding a place to sleep and food to eat fosters an interior simplicity. It is a simplicity that is fostered by the physical act of the walk but that develops into an interior journey. This is ‘el camino a dentro,’ (The Way within) that many speak of once they complete the pilgrimage. As a result, when the pilgrim returns home–which is considered the true endpoint for everyone’s pilgrimage–he or she finds a renewed sense of gratitude for the simple joys.

In his latest post, The Green Pilgrimage Network: Carrying the Mission Forward, Landon discusses that popular religious pilgrimages have become a potential source of environmental pollution. In an effort to stem the unpleasant trend, The Green Pilgrimage Network (GPN) developed a series of initiatives: ban on cars on pilgrimage routes; provision of fresh, clean water for pilgrims; and the planting of thousands of trees around sacred sites.

On the Primitive Way is available on Amazon.com.

See more Favorite Camino Blogs and let me know if you have any suggestions.

Buen Camino!