The Weight We Carry
Chapter 2
The first thing I packed wasn't a jumper or a toothbrush.
It was trust.
I smiled.
Everything I needed for the next two weeks was neatly packed inside a tiny rucksack. Every item had earned its place.
I wasn't trying to prove anything. Years of backpacking had taught me that carrying less gave me more freedom.
By the time I set off from Porto, everything I needed weighed just over three kilograms. Water and a few snacks were carried separately in a running belt resting on my hips.
My rucksack became a talking point.
Other pilgrims would often look at mine, then at theirs, and ask how I'd managed it. Some assumed I must be using luggage forwarding.
Others looked slightly puzzled, as though such a small bag couldn't possibly contain everything I needed.
It didn't really matter.
We all walk the Camino in our own way. For some people, forwarding luggage makes the journey possible. Without it, they might never experience the Camino at all.
But for me however, carrying my own bag became part of the experience.
Each morning, as I lifted it onto my shoulders, I was reminded that everything I needed was already with me.
I wasn't weighed down by things I might use one day, only by the things I truly needed today.
How much of what we carry every day isn't visible?
Old disappointments.
Other people's expectations.
Regrets.
The pressure to be more, do more, own more.
Opinions that were never ours to begin with.
The stories we've told
ourselves for years.
Unlike a rucksack, emotional weight isn't always obvious. We become so used to carrying it that we stop noticing it's there, accepting that life feels heavier than it should.
Sometimes that weight is exhausting.
The Camino has a wonderful way of stripping life back to its essentials.
Wake up.
Walk.
Eat.
Rest.
Repeat.
Somewhere between the sea, the forests and the quiet country lanes, I realised that the lighter I travelled, the more space there was to notice everything else.
A conversation with another pilgrim.
The scent of eucalyptus after rain.
The sound of my footsteps.
The satisfaction of reaching the next village.
Perhaps that's true away from the Camino too.
What are we carrying because we've become so accustomed to its weight?
Not because life changes, but because we do.
I still smile when I think about that tiny rucksack.
I thought I was perfecting how to travel light.
Looking back, I was learning something far more valuable: to trust that I already had enough.
And perhaps that's the lightest thing any of us
can carry.
Really love this. It’s so true about how much we carry. Funnily enough I’m about to embark on a 10 week teaching in China normally I take a large bag plus in flight plus a very packed rucksack - always full of things I might need and frequently never do. This time I have trimmed everything down. I think fear is the reason for overpacking and carrying way too much.
Quite often we fear that we will need stuff, not find it where we are going or just we need those 'just in case' items. I remember my first 7 month trip to Central America I carried way too much, even though we took only carry on. By the next 6 month trip to Asia I was carrying far less, and so on until the Camino this year, where I carried just 3kg. Emotional baggage is what I struggle with, I often take the weight of others and it's difficult not to carry too much 🤗