Peaceful Heart Pilgrimage

08/07/2025

Early August.

As a guide on the Camino de Santiago, I'm settled here at home... squarely between "the end" of our Summer walks and "the beginning" of the walks that will come this Fall.

My heart is in two places: reflecting and celebrating the beauty that was gained over ~270 miles (for me), and also anticipating WHAT IN THE WORLD could possibly come in the next ~270 miles.

If you follow along in my emails, you know that I learn soooooo much through my job, and through those that I walk with. I get to foster this experience for you - yes - but I think myyyyyyy rewards might be tenfold.

So, friends, a smattering of my favorite photos from June. You guys... my heart is so full. Still.

My peaceful heart to yours,
-Michelle 💖💫🌳🏔️

(September Pilgrims... your time is coming. Your sunrises, your sunsets... we're getting closer. I can't wait)

06/06/2025

Countdown to orientation: t-minus 20 minutes.

Our first group of 6 will start walking tomorrow morning and arrive in Santiago de Compostela in 1 week. I couldn’t be happier to be on my “home away from home” 🥰🥰 I couldn’t be happier to share it with 5 new friends.

More to come! Send us your love!

04/25/2025

I missed this live last Saturday morning, but *wow* it brought tears to my eyes when I caught it online 🥲🥲🥲

As people...
We know what it means to pray.
We know what it means to be in community.
We know what it means to enjoy a good meal.
We know what it means to be immersed in nature.

But its impossible to imagine - at home - that all day, everyday is spent like this on The Way.

Out there, peace doesn't come in 20 minute snippets between chaos. Peace is an overlay throughout the entire Adventure. It's a lifestyle. The whole thing is a spiritual practice.

Is it challenging out there on the Camino? Yes. But it is the type of challenge that we *choose* to face. And we're equipped to face. These challenges empower us. They don't break us down.

In this news clip, it was powerful for me to see something that I *so ferociously* believe in be presented for all of America. The Camino is one of the most welcoming, generous medicines that I know. CBS did a beautiful job.

May you have the courage, if it's on your heart. 💕

XO, friends,
-Michelle

For more than a thousand years, Christian pilgrims and those seeking self-reflection have embarked on the Camino de Santiago, a network of hiking routes through France, Portugal and Spain that all meet in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela. The ancient tradition is finding new life in the 21...

04/04/2025

it's that time again, friends!!

preparation season is (almost) as juicy as pilgrimage itself. I'm so happy to be gearing up. 💖🌳👣💫💪

Camino Frances, final 100km
1 week, gentle terrain & ample amenities
June 6 - 12
September 6 - 12

Camino Primitivo, 200 miles
2 weeks, rural & 100% worth the challenge
June 17 - July 1
September 17 - October 1

payment plans in 5, 8, and 12 months. 💕

03/07/2025

Springgggg. The thaw. Rebirth. One step closer.

I received this link from a dear Pilgrim friend, and if you've got 26 minutes, I *highly* recommend.

Heart and Soul
Herve's Way: the story of a one-legged Pilgrim

A few of my favorite nuggets:

"The Camino - The Way - you have to learn to respect it. And to respect The Way you have to respect yourself. and respecting yourself means looking after yourself. You have to learn to deal with your wounds in order to keep going, in order to arrive at your destination, which is Santiago de Compostela"

"I'm starting to understand something about pilgrimages. They're not so much about discovering Great Truths as rediscovering Simple ones."

"What happens when you walk is that you eliminate the superficial and unnecessary, leaving you with the essential."

"Walking The Way you enter into a sort of contemplative bubble. You are concentrated on an aim: arriving in Santiago de Compostela. And all the worries you might have you don't think about them anymore. It simplifies your relations with other people, as well. Pilgrims are all equal. Class distinctions disappear. We've all got a pack on our backs and blisters on our feet. On The Way, the respect that we owe every single other person comes back to the surface. And that is extraordinary."

"The Way to Compostela is about rediscovering your Freedom. You are freed from the daily worries that you have at work or with your family or whatever. It is a gift that God offers us, that its up to us to take. That is what I did - taking the time when you owe nothing to anybody except to God."

The amputee who recovered his will to live walking a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

02/21/2025

It's that tiiimmmeee again, Soul Friends! 💖💫🙏💪💥

Registration for the 2025 walks on the Camino de Santiago is underway and I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER ABOUT IT.

Groups are currently about 1/2 full for Summer and Fall, but we're really just now beginning our eeaarrrrlllyyyy preparations for Summer. The Off-Season Thaw Out has begun!

If you've been curious about this Adventure, it's time to warm your heart and imagination back up. I've got about 30 of these under my belt. It would be an *absolute joy* to walk with you and support your journey.

I hope your Seasons of Hibernation has been restorative, my friends. Last year was beautiful, and I already can't wait to see what we'll create together in 2025.

My peaceful heart to yours,
-Michelle 💖💫🏔🌳👣

09/09/2024

a big chunk of melon in my hotel room sink… this can only mean one thing….

the Camino is only days away! 🥰💖🥳

for some reason this has become a habit/tradition of mine when I arrive early to our meeting place in Spain… holding down the fort… as members of our group slowly make their way from their hometown in the US.

it’s a strange symbol, but a symbol nevertheless 🤣

join me in celebration as 6 beautiful soon-to-be friends will come together on Wednesday to begin our 1 week walk. 🥳

and join me in prayers of soothing confidence for 7 more that will come later this month for 200 miles in the hills and meadows of the Camino Primitivo. 🏔️

I couldn’t be more excited. I have the best job in the world. my heart is ready to give generously to my traveling companions.

Your prayers and support offer a fuel that goes far beyond words on a screen.

My peaceful heart to yours,
-Michelle 💖💫🌳🏔️

08/08/2024

**2025 dates for the Camino de Santiago**

will be released via email NEXT WEEK! 🥳🌳👣🍾💌

message me below or privately with your email address if you don't already receive my newsletters

_____________________________

AND... although I meant to only include a single picture with this post, I stumbled upon a WHOLE BUCKET of photos that I haven't seen since 2022....

therefore... I'm sharing the wealth with you, too. 😉

THOSE SMILES!!!

WOWZA!!! 🤩🤩🤩

I MISSSSS YOU GUYS!!!!!!

07/16/2024

10 days post- Camino de Santiago:

Friends, 10 days off the trail after ~30 days (for me) on.

WOOF.

I have post-walk words for you today, and I will have more post-walk words for you soon.... 💖💫🙏

you've heard me talk *a lot* about all the work that goes innnnn to preparing for an Adventure as GRAND as the Camino de Santiago.

we all spend MONTHS in physical, logistical, mental, and spiritual preparation for this experience. for some, it is YEARS in the making.

and then we go to Spain, and a lot of things happen, and we arrive at the Cathedral, and then... what? just like that, it's over?

No, friends.

The two pictures here were taken 10 days ago, hours after completing our 200 mile group walk on the Camino Primitivo.

Look at my face, look at my shoes.

Haggard. Yeesh. 😳🫣🫠

** We are impacted by what happens to us out on The Way **

We go to learn. We go to expand. Effort and energy is asked of us. We give it in order to become better and fuller people.

Just as it has taken us MONTHS to prepare ourselves for this Grand Adventure, it will take us MONTHS to restore and recuperate and metabolize and synthesize all that has transpired.

and it is an HONOR to do so. 👏

and it is an HONOR to do so. 👏

and it is an HONOR to do so. 👏

So. Trust that I am happy, and trust that I am safe, and trust that I have restored well enough to write to you today. 🥰🥰

(side note: if I had to write a book, it would be about how to become a human again after being drained of our very last drop. it is a very gentle art and science that I do several times/year).

I will come back with more tales of the Adventure soon...

What a wild ride...

Until then, please send your continued prayers for both myself and the Peaceful Heart Pilgrims that I was able to share my Summer walks with. They, no doubt, are recuperating too. 💪🌈

(and please don't let this post scare you. my job is a beautiful balance. not all Pilgrims feel as extreme as I do. 😉)

Warmly,
-Michelle 💖💫⛰️🌳👣

06/26/2024

currently on Day 6 of 14 on the Camino Primitivo. *much much much* to say later when I have some space for words, but until then…

when I say we’ve been treated like Family this week… I mean it from deep in my bones.

My heart is so full. So happy. What a gift. Best job ever. 💖💫🌳👣🇪🇸

06/21/2024

The Camino de Santiago: so much more than what happens in Spain.

June 21, 2024.

Today is “Orientation Day” for the 2nd group of Pilgrims that I’ll walk with to Santiago. 200 miles ahead on the Camino Primitivo, that ain’t no joke! 😱💪🏻🥳

They’re currently in our first albergue preparing for their first walking tomorrow, and I’m writing now from the laundromat down the street. It seems poetic to make home in such a clean room, and to start fresh tomorrow in such clean clothes.

Simultaneously - in what seems like a different world - my 1st group of Pilgrims are now off of the trail… the journey and our completion a few days behind them… no doubt in the early phases of integrating whatever happened on the Camino into their “Ordinary Lives”.

All of this might be *literally* true, friends… but I gotta tell you, when we’re talking about the Camino de Santiago… time and place doesn’t matter much.

My friends that are starting the walk tomorrow… in many ways, have already been on this journey for many months. Many lessons have already been learned.

and My friends that are settling back into their “normal lives” after having completed a few days ago… in many ways, their pilgrimage journey will continue to unfold for days, weeks, months, and years to come.

This is not something that exists and then is over. This is not a vacation that is consumed. The Camino tendrils in to who we are and is *so much more* than just what happens here in Spain.

So, to those that I’ve walked with in past years… know that I feel you sooooo deeply here today. The Camino remembers you. The Camino knows you. It sends its love. (and I do, toooooo) 💖😘

And for those that will journey in the future, know that it’s already begun. Even today, reading this, is part of the process of Pilgrimage. Don’t underestimate the importance of your daydreaming and your research and your interest. None of this (waves my hands around to indicate the laundromat, and beyond) happens without a lot of that (what’s happening on your side) first.

So, send us your sweet love and support, friends. We’ve got a lot of miles and a lot of friendship ahead.

Here’s to this phase - the boots on the ground phase - of something that is so much bigger. 🥂

-Michelle

06/09/2024

View en route to Sarria, Spain:
Countdown to Camino, t-minus 2 days:

I've been a quiet mouse since finishing my *final* pilgrimage walks in Japan a few months ago. Gosh... the cedar trees, the cherry blossoms... I'll admit... it feels like a long time ago. 🌸⛩️

Many of you know that I've been traveling full-time this year. I hesitate to call myself a "nomad", but I am living out of a single suitcase and a backpack, mostly 1 month at a time. Oofta.

Since Japan, I was in Columbia for a spell, and a stint in Madrid and Portugal.

I've been traveling for "work" for many years now, and so the rhythms of travel are comfortable in me. I am comfortable being uncomfortable. When you can master this, you've mastered travel.

But, friends... something happened to me today...

I was on the bus this morning en route to Sarria, Spain... the origin city where I'll meet my first group of Pilgrims to walk the Camino de Santiago... and I felt a whooosh of home that I haven't felt in many, many, many months.

I have been eating from new menus and new grocery stores nearly every night. Sleeping in beds that I barely get to know. Never dirtying enough clothes to justify a full load of laundry.

Transient life.

But today on the bus... I *know* this landscape. I have been here so many times before. I have slept on these beds. I have eaten from these menus. I know exactly what turns to take...

There is room for me in The Great Unknown that is *everyone's* Camino de Santiago... we have to be flexible... but... there is also a deeeeeeep sense of home and familiarity.

I am hoooommmmme.

the medicine you need is the medicine you get.

Cheer for us, friends.
We're about to go see what's out there.

My peaceful heart to yours,
-Michelle 💖💫⛰️🌳👣