There is nothing more soothing and relaxing than the sound of nothing except the crunching of sand and rocks under our shoes, the birds tweeting and the leaves rustling in the wind.
There is nothing more comforting and familiar than the sounds of cars and trucks on the highway and planes overhead.
What the?? Did we just write that?
Yes, we did! Being on the Camino, we learn to be true to ourselves and here we are being true to ourselves.
After two full days in a city rather than a town, we stand up and accept that we are “city slickers” through and through. Sure, we love nature and being outdoors. It’s wonderful to get away from the industrialised and commercial life that we live in. But when it’s time to go home – where is home to us?
Home is Sydney, where it is crazy busy and there is traffic and life is FAST!
We LOVE the life of rural Spain, the slow and steady pace but when we hear the bustle of the city or the sound of the highway, for some reason, it comforts us! It could be that we know that civilization is not too far away as opposed to walking for hours through mountains and farmlands without seeing life other than other pilgrims.
There is just something about urban life that energises us, admittedly in a different way to the way the outdoors energises us.
Both lifestyles have their pros and cons and none is better than the other. We are just more use to the life of the city and having that busyness around us. Would we appreciate the countryside as much if we lived there and saw it every day? Probably not!
As with anything, to appreciate what we have, we need to not have it for a while to really value it’s worth and come to the realisation of how it all fits in our lives!
As much as we say we would like to escape the craziness of Sydney, the reality is Sydney is home! So to continue to appreciate home even more, we will have to keep on travelling and mix it up with city getaways as well as getting back in touch with nature.
Maybe we are associating city life with our families who we are missing dearly. Although, we have made friends on the Camino, it has been hard not physically seeing the family in almost 3 months, especially when we were seeing them every week. Maybe it’s being tired and weary on the camino that is making us nostalgic of home. Maybe it’s because we know that in three weeks, we will home again!
We can be very quick in complaining or criticizing how much we hate traffic and how crowds drive us crazy and how boring Sydney can be but we can’t have the best of both worlds. Similarly, we can’t be home and travelling at the same time…
If we look at Sydney as if we are tourists/travellers, maybe we will be able to make home exciting for us. And we will feel like we are still travelling – seeing what home has to offer with fresh eyes every day!
"Sees" the Day 