Sunday 10.12.25 Departure: the discomfort begins at home
October 15, 2025
A Camino Journal Entry by Dean Lisa Hackney-James
Packing for trips has always been my Waterloo. Over the years I have marveled as friends relate to me that days in advance of traveling, whether for work or pleasure, they have already packed their bag. My mind cannot take it in. Their outfits chosen, their toiletries packed. How is this possible? What if they need this top or that shoe in the meantime? How many clothes do they have that they can just consign portions of their wardrobe to a zippered drawer a week or more in advance? It conjures an image of their essentials - static and packed away. By contrast, when I pack for a trip, it’s almost as if I am consigning living things to be shut up for the just briefest time possible! I spend a lot of time contemplating “what I will need” on any given trip. But the smallest amount of hyper-focused time on actually packing. The absolutely predictable result? I will leave something I need or want at home. Add to this mix, a pilgrimage that involves “things I do not normally do,” several days of gentle hiking, and carrying the bits and pieces of parish leadership – reflection guides, receipts and itineraries for the group, a laptop and and all of the chargers/adapters, and the pressure goes up.
And so on Sunday morning, when Jacob Perkins was leading a class on pilgrimage at the 10:00 Forum, and he invited us to imagine what goes through the mind of those preparing to undertake one, I was able to reflect that “I have already failed.” This simple recognition came from knowing that I would be stepping onto a plane 12 hours later, that I did not have packed bags, and that I had several important administrative tasks yet to complete before unplugging to enter into the pilgrimage experience with my St. James companions. Add a dash of a brief medical scare with my husband earlier in the week, and I was feeling pretty fried – anything but calmly centered and ready to enter into a week of spiritual contemplation and pilgrim’s aspirations.
When I reflected that this did not feel like an auspicious way to begin a pilgrimage, the group encouraged me to share those honest reflections- as this may be a point of connection for others who are living a slightly less than exquisitely curated life. And so as we step off, I hope to be able to share back with our St. James Cathedral community not only the sights and sounds of the Camino de Santiago – the Way of Saint James, but also some of the experience of surrendering oneself to a project of communal striving and God’s grace. As the Spirit moves you, please hold our pilgrimage group in your prayers: Adele, Michelle, Sola, Funmi, Maureen, Randy, Gregory, Bernice, Mike, Hak, Erin, and Gary.
