Steve has sent through a guest blog which went up as a comment, but I post it here for clarity, and to give space for others to respond to.

Steve and I met through this blog – he walked his Camino with his wife Jill about a month after me. They got rained on. I got sun. It still bugs him, that…

😀

We’ve since become very good friends, as some of you might know, and we’ve spoken a couple of times on the phone. The extraordinary thing abut this blog is that it has engendered the most unlikely friendships from all over the world – and I feel like I know some of you as though we’ve been friends for years.

So here’s Steve’s blog in its entirety. No edits. Thank you Steve for these thoughts, and for your friendship…

I have learned to say that just because I don’t personally understand it does not make it wrong.  Just means I don’t see it the same way.  There are many gray areas in the world that we would like to make black and white.

 I believe one of the beautiful things about aging is that we are able to accept the gray in the world.  It does not have to look exactly like I see it.

 

We just had a pretty active contributor leave the blog for reasons known only to himself but I think it might have stemmed from this topic of judgment.  Does that make him wrong in some form or fashion or less than the rest of us who continue on with it.  Of course not.  He was just following his own pgs and decided that for him, he did not need to be affiliated with the blog.

 

The beautiful thing about this blog is that we all are able to live and let live and I don’t see much of anyone ever trying to change another’s point of view.  It is a good healthy interaction.  Some people choose to comment on every thread, and others like to lurk in the shadows as someone put it and get their pleasure from reading but not participating.

 

Does that make them less a member of the pgs family?  Of course not.  Each of us can take what we want from the blog, and leave the rest and allow all other viewers to do exactly the same thing.

 

I truly do try to live my life without judgment or expectation.  I have found that if I can manage my own life that it is a full time job, and I have nothing left over to manage another’s.

Given that there’s been some interesting discussion here about how the Camino changed me, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to get other instances of people being changed –

So here’s what I’d like to do –

For the next seven days, I’d like to offer the blog to anyone who wants to post a guest blog talking about how the Camino HAS changed them, IS changing them, or WILL change them.

In other words – you either have walked the Camino, you are currently walking the Camino,  or you plan to walk the Camino.

What you need to do is just post a comment here saying you’d like to be involved – then when you’re ready send me your Guest post either in email form or MS Word – and a photo if you’d like that included – and I’ll do an edit if needed (will get your approval on final edit) then post it.  (My email is billpgsblog@gmail.com)

I’ll do that for the next week. Seven posts.

(It won’t stop me posting blogs during that time too!!)

But it will be fascinating to get some other perspectives on the transformative power of the Camino.

We each see life through a prism.

No prism is the same.

That prism refracts our image of life in ways that are particular to our DNA, to our upbringing, to chance experiences, to the circumstances of our place and time.

I believe that angels cross our paths, at various points in our lives, and try to guide us. Those angels might manifest in moments of synchronicity, in chance encounters with an old friend, or a stranger, in a piece of wayward music at a critical point in your life – in ways that are not obvious. Not necessarily as an ethereal being with translucent wings.

At a crossroads, they are there to point the way.

This is my personal belief.

We each see life through our own particular hand-hewn prism, and our refracted view is unique to us. To you. To me. To us all.

I have asked that anyone contributing to this blog, and the forum too, not hide behind a user name. That they identify themselves. Because I believe you should stand behind your comments. I believe this transparency is the first step towards honesty in expression, and respect for others.

I have been on forums in the past – photographic and film based forums, and a Camino forum too – where people have said the most horrible and vicious things to one another, hiding behind user names.

Would they say those same things had they posted under their real names? I don’t think so. Anonymity gives a person license to be cruel, judgemental, and at times hateful. The Ku Klux Klan wear masks. Drivers exhibit road-rage in the protective shells of their cars. A bandit holds up a convenience store wearing a balaclava.

Anonymity leads to contempt.

This blog isn’t large – nor the forum. And I like that. Because I know most of you. And there are many that “lurk” – who read and don’t post. And that’s cool too. Hopefully you guys  are getting something from the crazy banter that happens here sometimes.

We are approaching 6,000 comments on this blog. And we’re now almost at 85,000 page views. This since April.

I think that’s pretty amazing, given that I refuse to tag, do search optimisation, take out Facebook or Google ads or post on other forums etc to direct traffic here.

The people who land here are meant to be here. The people who leave obviously don’t feel a connection, or they’ve got from it what they wanted to get. That’s cool either way.

Transparency breeds honesty, and respect. Not only on this blog, but in life. Make processes transparent, you make them honest. Make politicians transparent, you make them honest. Hopefully!

Put sunlight through a prism, it breaks up the different wavelengths into colours. Each of us has a different wave length. And we each have a different prism. So our energy, our “light” creates our own particular colour.

That’s what makes this world such a beautiful place. All the different colours.

And this blog, too.