“Do not be frightened, daughters, by the many things you need to consider in order to begin this divine journey which is the royal road to heaven. A great treasure is gained by traveling this road.”

Teresa de Ávila, Way of Perfection 21.1

As I walk along the cobbled streets of Casco Viejo, the old town of Bilbao in northern Spain, I see symbols of el Camino de Santiago everywhere. Bright blue tiles with the iconic scalloped shell are embedded in the road. Travelers enjoying cold cervezas in the plazas, backpacks and walking sticks resting beside them.

In one such plaza, I met Jacob from the United Kingdom. He joined me on a stone bench beside a fountain, each of us enjoying coffee. As we fumbled in our Spanish 101 dialect to greet one another, we recognized English “accents” beneath and quickly switched over. Jacob was traveling the Camino alone. He began his journey in San Sebastian and was now spending a few days in Bilbao. I shared that I was visiting a friend who lives in Bilbao and focusing on my work as a writer. While I would not last long on the walking journey of El Camino de Santiago, I explained, I have great appreciation for the journey and the unnameable desire deep in one’s heart to give oneself to seeking un camino, a way that engages body, mind and spirit and that fully incarnates “journey”. (“Write that down,” Jacob said. “That’s really good.”)

We talked for a bit and then sat in silence drinking our coffee and listening to a street performer deftly wielding her saxophone. When we parted ways, we wished for one another un “buen camino”.

It wasn’t until today that I made the connection between camino and Teresa de Ávila’s book The Way of Perfection which I just began to re-read. Yes, “the way” in the title of her book, but more than that, it is the realization that my longtime friendship with Teresa has been a kind of camino, a way. In her writing, I have discovered images and insights about not just my own spiritual journey but my quirky way of being. This way has taken me along cobblestone roads and unmarked trails deep in the forests of my being. These paths have been forged by reading, praying with, and reflecting on Teresa’s words More significantly, it has also been conversing with Teresa “directly” in our unique language as one does with the saints.

Visiting Spain affords me another dimension to experiencing this way. Ávila is just a train ride away, and Teresa’s foundations are scattered throughout Spain. I am looking forward to visiting Ávila in a couple weeks, returning for the third time since my very first visit in 2011. Being in Ávila is a visceral experience of my way with Teresa. I can feel the way and, like I unwittingly said to Jacob, it is fully engages my body, mind and spirit.

Entonces. So, I can think of no more fitting way to begin writing on this eponymous website than by exploring dimensions of my camino, my way, especially as I walk with Teresa. It is through writing that I best understand the ways that I live and move and have my being in this strange and beautiful, pierced and broken life. Maybe too you will hear echoes of your own way and take time to sit on a stone bench with me and share your story.

They must have a great and very determined determination to persevere until reaching the end, come what may, happen what may, whatever work is involved, whatever criticism arises, whether they arrive or whether they die on the road, or even if they don’t have courage for the trials that are met, or if the whole world collapses.

Teresa de Ávila, Way of Perfection, 21.2

Image Credit: julie vieira