PC #53 – Laughter

Posted on by

The Camino made me laugh.

There was a stage, during my walk, when it occurred to me that during the past couple of weeks, I hadn't laughed so much in years – since I was in my youth, probably.

And I realised that my face had changed. Physically. It was like the Camino had cracked a mask that had been formed by decades of life's vicissitudes.

Struggle, disappointment, conflict, resistance, anger, determination – all these things had etched their way into my face.

The Camino changed that.

I found myself laughing spontaneously – often over the littlest things. I found myself smiling while I was walking. I found myself greeting strangers with genuine warmth.

I discovered I was happy.

That to me is one of the Camino's most powerful restorative tools. The ability to make you laugh. To make you happy.

Please post here below any incident or situation that happened on the Camino, or in your preparation, that made you laugh…

 

 

48 thoughts on “PC #53 – Laughter”

  1. Okaaaaaay! I’ll be first. Did Jennifer take your picture again? :)Your photos are always so clear and sharp!!Haven’t on the Camino yet but 17 days to go! The Camino most recently made me smile while at REI yesterday getting more supplies. As we were checking out, the clerk asked if we were going on a long hike. We answered yes to Spain (thinking he wouldn’t know what the Camino is). His reply was Santiago? As we nodded he said he was going the first part of September. We smiled all the way home.

    Like

  2. OK – seeing as how you all are slow off the start, (except for Lynda!) –

    One of the things that made me laugh was how the three Aussie engineers I met along the way used to rate the towns and villages according to the number of storks nesting in the bell towers.

    These was their Michelin stars!

    They would walk quickly through a town that had only one stork, yet they’d linger in a town that had three storks.

    And if a town or village had five storks, they’d go crazy. They’d stop, and take photos and phone their wives back home, and they’d want to find a place for lunch or dinner and celebrate.

    They made me laugh.

    Bill

    Like

    • Sorry I have been absent for a few days! Staying with my daughter and grandbabies while their Daddy is out of town for classes. Just us “girls.” Of course, your timing was perfect, as usual. Daughter Rebekah and I were talking about happiness and laughter earlier and how the babies (one year old twins) are such full of joy. They smile at strangers and strange dogs. They giggle at the rustling tree leaves. They know how to tease us (Here, you want to hug my lovey? *starts to had it to me*….nope, just kidding, giggle giggle giggle). If they try to eat something that isn’t to their liking, they spit it out and make funny noises and faces. I am looking forward to walking the Camino and hopefully creating new happiness habits.

      Love YOUR picture!

      Like

  3. Bill,

    Awesome!!! I can’t wait and I hope I get to laugh loads!! We get so busy raising our families, making a living, plus a million other little things that we let get in way of the really important things in our lives!! God, family,and fellowship time!! Thank you for all your wonderful posts!!

    396 days and yes, I am counting!!

    Debbie

    Like

    • I think Jennifer would find that comment personally offensive steve!!

      πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

      no, it was taken by one of my camino mates on the last day, when he was drunk.

      Him being drunk taking a photo is like jen being sober taking a photo.

      Oooops – excuse me – I just had to duck that flying rolling pin…

      bb

      Like

  6. Being a dour Scot…, it is difficult lifting the corners of my mouth into a smile. I practice in the truck mirror. Impossible. I see, you’ve cracked the code and have one side up! The wrinkled eyes help. I was just the other day discussing this with Nancy, how I struggle to smile… But, on some level, I smile broadly, and people get it, but it would be nice to have your upturned smile! Maybe, I’ll get there. I will.
    Buen Camino, mate!

    Like

  7. Dear Bill, every day there is always something to smile/ laugh at, even if it is at something silly you might have done. I read once that no-one ever went blind from looking on the sunny side of life. What ever the challenges big or small a person has in their life you can’t let them rob you of your joy. Fran

    Like

      • I don’t have a Camino related funny incident ( yet) but, and I apologise if I offend anyone in telling this story, one of the funniest incidents happened when Jenny H ( my sister) and I were on the Daintree River train and a man sat directly opposite us with no undies on and shorts. Jenny and I laugh every time we tell the story. Bill, you did ask! Fran.

        Like

        • Fran –

          I bet he was a Queenslander.

          Being a former Queenslander, I can speak with local knowledge that a lot of blokes up there think that niceties such as underwear are a total waste of time.

          Pity about the people sitting opposite!

          Bill

          Like

  8. I’m from the southern U.S. we smile and laugh. It’s considered rude not to smile and say hi to those you know. Also I work with a great bunch of folks, there’s rarely a day goes by that we don’t laugh over something. I am so blessed to have this wonderful work family.
    I did laugh the other week while shopping for backpacks in REI. The assistants name was Danali. I asked if that was her real name and said yes, that her parents must have had a premonition about her future employment.

    Like

  9. Bill,
    I can’t remember any specific thing that made me laugh or smile while on Camino, I do know that by the end of the day my cheeks felt like I had been doing Jack LaLanne facial exercises. When I looked in the mirror, I realized what was causing that feeling – it was the constant smile I was wearing!

    See the Camino makes us happy and sometimes we aren’t even aware of it happening!

    Arlene

    Like

  10. Hi Bill!
    Being from the friendly Rainbow Nation, we do smile and laugh a lot, we’ve learnt to laugh with and at each other, otherwise we would just be miserable.
    On the Camino the beauty of my surroundings and the quaintness of the villages made me smile, I think I must have walked with a permanent smile on my face. It’s the people who made me laugh. I walked many kilometers with different Irish people, their sense of humour blessed my day, as did Gordon Bell the South African hospitalero at the albergue Casa Banderos, a Robin Williams look- alike.
    Lots of love and laughter
    Sandy

    Like

  11. Hi Bill,
    Just got back from the St James Day celebration that included a gathering of the Puget Sound Chapter of the American Pilgrims, a symbolic walk from St Mark’s Cathedral to St James Cathedral, a Mass that included recognition of Camino pilgrims past and future, and a wonderful pot luck dinner! Smiles and laughter all around – and a lump in the throat when those of us preparing to walk were given our scallop shells.

    Also a few days ago Fr. Scott Connolly talked about his Camino experiences last year – great photos, several pieces of music (including We Found Love by Rihanna that would get him moving quickly to his next albergue when he was dragging a bit), and a lot of FUNNY stories causing belly laughs!

    Tho’ I’m not Catholic, this week has been a lovely Catholic experience full of laughter.

    And BTW Bill, so many of YOUR stories have made me laugh ~ and smile. Thank you SO much!!
    Terry (Cheeky female – even with a ‘y’)

    Like

    • HI Terry (with a Y) ! –

      The book I’m currently writing is VERY funny.

      Way funnier than the blog.

      I’m about 3-4 wks off finishing it I think.

      Bill

      Like

  13. Bill, just this morning I laughed at myself and the choice I made. In much need of a walk I set off through our beautiful local bush and decided to follow my nose [ PGS, intuition etc] and see what would happen. After a very peaceful walk, surrounded by bush sounds, crunching under my feet and the smell of freshly washed early morning trails, I arrived at a junction in the track. Left? Right? Which one? I took the left turn, thinking it would guide my quickly back to the main track and home.
    Huh! After coming across a barbed wire fence and following it for some distance, I decided that I needed to get to the other side as time was marching on. So.. for those of you who understand Australian fences, you too can now laugh. Off with the pack, hat, jacket, poles etc and through the wire, ever so carefully. Must have been a sight! Bill, when through the fence, I stood there, laughed and said “Bill, I followed my PGS. Just look at me.”
    All was well however, as the short cut brought me back where I needed to be and safely home on time. It also brought me across the fence at a spot where there was a tiny red flower hidden among the undergrowth. Had I not been facing down, navigating barbed wire, I would have missed this beauty. Thankyou PGS.
    So important to be able to laugh AT ourselves and WITH others.
    Blessings
    Anne

    Like

    • haha –

      the funny thing with PGS is that you think it’s taking you the wrong way – you become convinced it’s leading you the wrong way – then you find that in fact it’s leading you to something or someplace totally unexpected, but better than what you originally wanted.

      the little flower is a perfect example of this – thank you!

      Bill

      Like

  14. Bill 16 days till we leave. I am getting so excited. We are moving today so not much computer time but was wondering if I could suggest a topic. Weight! Both physical and pack. I am going to be Joost from Ansterdam in the movie “The Way”. I would like to lose about 10-15 lbs and get back to the weight I was at 55. Did others lose weight or gain eating all the taps and menus del dia? Also pack weight. I know it is supposed to be 10% of your weight but how did people do with maybe plus 2 or 3 pounds. There are certain things I want to take but don’t want to be cutting off half of my tootbrush, etc. Thanks Lynda and Dale

    Like

  15. PS. Sorry about the typos. After I type two or three sentences in the reply area, I can’t see the rest of my comment to proofread. Think you got it though. Amsterdam, tapas

    Like

  16. Hey, Sister, you have a fellow typo compatriot (see Lynda’s post above) – make you feel better? πŸ™‚

    Happy, smiley Camino moments? I too loved the storks. Storks are very important birds in Denmark, as they’re the ones delivering all new babies. I bet that’s something you didn’t know about Denmark but I kid you not, that’s the myth we grew up with! and I’ve seen countless cartoons, ‘welcome to this world’ cards, etc depicting a stork in full flight with a baby slung in a nappy from it’s beak!! As I was growing up, we would scan the skies to the high-up places where storks used to nest to mostly see them empty. Unfortunately, for many environmental reasons, less and less returned so it was always celebrated by the towns-folk when some did. In the last 10 or so years, more and more pairs are returning to places that have been stork-less for years and the stork-o-meter is ratchening up. I’d not thought of storks for years until I saw my first one on the Way and from then on, I too looked up to find many of those precariously perched nests in church towers, often wondering with a chuckle why they’d choose to build their nests on the bell tower – don’t they have hearing list the rest of us??!! Of course, the Aussies I was walking with had no idea what I was on about, and why I so often lagged behind taking photos of storks πŸ™‚

    Like

    • Hi Britta,

      I grew up in New York, never saw a stork in person but was always told the same story. Yes, that’s where babies came from in New York when I was a child. In fact, the birth announcement for my first son was that very same “welcome to the world” card you described.

      It truly is a small world, is it not?

      Arlene

      Like

      • That’s amazing, Arlene. I’ve travelled a lot and a fair bit in the USA (where I have an ‘adopted’ family with 4 siblings) and to/from Australia with stops in between, but have never heard anyone else knowing about the stork as the flying midwife, so to speak! Thanks for telling me and I’ll be checking with my American sisters and brothers to see if they also know of it!! It sure is a small world πŸ™‚ I too am in my 60ies and am wondering if it’s a generational story and whether kids are still being told it?

        Like

      • Hi All,
        Just wanted to chime in. I too was raised to believe that storks delivered babies and as I grew always thought he brought me to the wrong house. My aunt and uncle lived next to us and I always thought that I belonged there and not at the house I was raised in!! Never know, his GPS and PGS might have been off as I was born during Mercury Retrograde!!

        Xoxo

        Jill, native New Yorker.

        Like

Comments are closed.