Three Roads

It is said that there are three roads on the Camino.
The first road is pain and suffering.
The second road is meditation and the third is enlightenment.
My experience supports this idea perfectly.

And because the beginning of every journey may have pain and suffering, the Camino is not unique.
We get stronger, meet strangers who become friends along the way who lessen our load.  We learn to trust and accept.  We may not understand everything that is happening to us but we have learned that things will change, over and over again. The only way to be free from the pain and suffering is to keep going forward, going through.  No going back.  No skipping ahead.
In the middle of our Way, we find the ability to calm ourselves one step at a time, one breath at a time. We have experienced the impermanence of pain and suffering and do not feel the sting of them any longer.  We may continue to create blisters and other challenges but we have found our way to relax into it without the suffering. We have found the joy of the journey.
Finally, we have awareness and focus. We are present to the journey and are now a part of it.  It is no longer separate from us.

It is said, as well, that to reach Santiago on the Camino we must use three  parts of ourselves in equal measure.
The physical, the mental and the emotional.  All three must be in harmony, working together.  From lightly leaping through the paths on the Camino to putting one foot in front of the other to continue ; the physical is ever present.

 We have learned to understand our mind and how it wants to give up and tell us this is too difficult or we are too old.
Our bodies are stronger and the load is lighter.
  Our emotions are lighter as well.
Those final three mountain peaks are to dance through.

We are above all the challenges  and simply feel the joy and beauty of it all.
We have become children again in our open hearts and trusting nature.  The mud, the hills and mountains are our friends,our family at least for a time.