Tag: Camino


Land Of Anne: I Am I

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I am I
And you are you
Drops in the ocean
Of infinite goo
My essence of me
A distillation
Of life and IT
Pungent, intense
A unique cuppa tea.
Irish and British
City and sea
A nomadic explorer
One squinty knee
Daughter and sister
FGM* and aunty
(Marriage and mothering
I leave to the end!)
Technician, coder
And hunter of bugs
Analyser, author
Late nights are my drugs
The floodlights of London
The glimmer of sea
Cruising the Amazon
The drunken banshee
Tramping the Camino
Or sporting acne
Eclectic and curious
Ditzy and free
Whatever it is
All of it is me
And what do I do?
Besides ditties and poems
And act the yahoo?
I seek out the Visions
Of what to create
Shine light
On the darkness
Of all that frustrates
Then envisage the pathway
That acts as a gate
To the Garden of Eden
And my Destiny to make
The art of our heart
Is what sets us apart
Unlocking our secrets
Our individuality
Intuitive mastery
Is the ultimate key
To the journey
That matters
The one of being we
For when I am I
And you are you
We are better connected
In this Universal goo
And that is when
We create magic synergy!

*FGM – Fairy God Mother

Camino: A Heroes Journey

I had the privilege of meeting Liam Cullinane from Galway (Ireland) in Spring 2012 while on a retreat in the Aran Islands run by Greg Muller, human conditioning and performance coach.

Liam has a remarkable story to tell from the wild freedom of the French Foreign Legion to the inconceivable strictures of meningitis.  Liam choses daily to take action to be a fully functioning human being.  Despite or perhaps in spite of a bleak prognosis Liam has engaged his will over 20 years to inch his way back to being physically able and engaged in the world.

Last Autumn  it was a serendipitious surprise to bump into Liam again in the midst of a milling crowd on Oxford Street;  a million miles away from the lonely outcrops of rocky land off the western most reaches of the land of Saints and Scholars where we first met.   I was about to head off to walk the Camino Francais.  Obviously that meeting planted a seed for Liam as he has been inspired to walk the Camino for himself and is locked in on being able to do that in April 2014.

Liams story will be documented by David Souto, a basque filmmaker based in Galway for the last decade. David is choosing to tell Liam’s story because of his admiration for him as well as being compelled to document a life changing event and an adventure that ends in Galicia where his roots are.  They are working together to raise funds to create a documentary to inspire and serve.  Liam is now focused on enhancing his physical fitness even further and the first round of funding to faciliated Liam to travel to Atlanta USA for specialist treatment and for the filming of his trip has exceeded the funding target so he is on his way.

I am learning that the Camino is less about a walk and more about life.  Our lives are Camino stories;  starting with conception and winding on to the day we leave this mortal coil.  The journey from the lead of our human-ness to the gold of our spirits.  Be inspired by Liam’s story to see your story.  I look forward to sharing more about Liams journey here over the next few months.