Should I Walk the Camino de Santiago? 5 Questions to Ask Yourself
Many people ask whether they should walk the Camino de Santiago, especially during moments of transition when the next step in life isn’t clear.
Most people who think about the Camino never get past a single sentence.
“I could never do that.”
They don’t see themselves as a pilgrim. They see distance. Effort. Uncertainty. And the idea stays exactly where it started.
A thought.
What the Camino Really Requires
But the Camino does not require perfection. It does not require extraordinary courage.
It requires something much simpler.
Openness.
Willingness.
I’ve met people on the Camino who didn’t believe they could walk the whole distance. People who thought about it for years before finally deciding to start. People who didn’t know if they were ready, but went anyway.
In my case, I didn’t feel called in any clear or romantic way.
I simply didn’t know what to do next.
We had just come out of the pandemic. I had no job. I was newly sober. My confidence was low enough that chasing another role didn’t even feel possible. Nothing in my life was pointing in a clear direction.
So I chose something that had a beginning and an end.
And that choice changed everything.
When the Camino Appears in Your Life
For many people, the Camino appears at a moment of disruption. Not by design, but by circumstance.
As Richard Rohr writes in Falling Upward, we rarely enter the second half of life by choice. It is usually initiated by something — a loss, a transition, a shift we did not plan.
A death
A job ending
A retirement
A divorce
A quiet realization that the life you built no longer fits
The question then becomes:
What now?
If that feeling is familiar, Is the Camino Calling You? may be worth reading next.
If you are asking whether you should walk the Camino, the answer is not in logistics. It is in a different set of questions.
Questions to Ask Before Walking the Camino
Here are five worth sitting with honestly:
Do I need to dig deeper to understand what comes next in my life?
Am I feeling lost, but still hopeful that something is ahead?
Would time away, walking in open space, help me see more clearly?
Are there questions in my life I cannot answer from where I am?
Do I need a break — or something more like a reset?
If you find yourself answering yes to these, even quietly, the Camino may not be something to dismiss.
Not because you are ready.
But because you are open.
You do not walk the Camino when everything is figured out.
You walk it when you are willing to begin without knowing exactly where it will lead.
That is enough to begin.
Buen Camino.
Michael Rucker
Camino Más Allá
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Related Reading:
Is the Camino Calling You? How to Know It's Time to Walk the Camino de Santiago