Sue Kenney – KEVIN CRAIG

Rest in Peace, Barefoot Sue (Sue Kenney)

I didn’t want to write this post. I didn’t want it to be true.

Ever since Sue Kenney reached out to me last September while I was in the airport lounge in Toronto awaiting our flight to Spain for our walk on the Camino de Santiago, I’ve been dreading this outcome.

“This is a lot to hear, but I wanted to ask you if you would take my intentions with you to Santiago de Compostela on your Camino pilgrimage that you’re starting tomorrow?”

I did not hesitate. It was the least I could do for the woman that gifted me an entirely new path in life.

Sue Kenney, at work along the Camino de Santiago. (I apologize for the grainy photo, but phone cams were NOT the same in 2014. I thought this photo captured Sue’s energy.)

I met Sue at a novel writing marathon in Pickering, Ontario. Her effervescent personality immediately called out to me. I can’t even recall whether or not she told me about the Camino de Santiago at that time or not. I’m pretty sure she did. What I loved about her was the over-boiling infectious energy she exuded. Like me, she could not sit still.

Fast forward a few years, and she had begun taking new pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago…in groups. By that time I had learned quite a bit about the Camino. Once you hear about the Camino, it acts like a timepiece in your heart…ticking and ticking and ticking away while it pleads with you to heed its call. It gets into your blood until you can no longer ignore it.

I signed up for Sue’s May 2014 group pilgrimage. We would begin our journey in Ponferrada and walk into Santiago de Compostela some week or so later.

We were a group of eight and Sue led us across Spain with grace and love. This is half of our contingent…being silly near the beginning of our journey while we were just discovering one another.

We kept meeting more and more pilgrims along the way. Some walked with us for minutes, some for hours, some for a day or so, and some for the remaining of the journey to Santiago de Compostela. Our group of eight was constantly expanding and contracting and our hearts were being filled by the experience! All thanks to our fearless leader, Sue Kenney.

Sue was a barefoot walker, which is something I loved doing since early childhood. My mother could not keep my shoes on my feet, no matter how hard she tried. Eventually she gave up, once she realized I’d walk through rocks and gravel barefoot unscathed and happy. With four boys to run after, she probably realized it was easier to risk my cutting off my own feet than running around forcing me to wear shoes. Sue’s barefoot lifestyle shouted out to me immediately.

I joined Sue in walking barefoot for quite a bit of our Camino. I was still going from Crocs to barefoot, not quite as accomplished as Sue, but enjoying those stretches where I was barefoot and free.

There were two memorable adventures during my first Camino that stood out the most. One of those adventures was a crazy bar run by two sisters. The Casa Verde was electric and eclectic. Sue brought us to this wild stop along the way and she was greeted like visiting royalty. It was one of those times that I felt all tingly realizing that everyone along the way knew and loved our fearless leader. Sue Kenney, or Barefoot Sue as she was also known as, was loved by all. Even elder locals walking out in the streets and alleys seemed to know her. She was definitely well known by the sisters who ran Casa Verde. They spread out the red carpet, and lined the bar with shots for all, on the house. Friends of Barefoot Sue were friends of theirs.

Sue, at the bar at Casa Verde. Pilgrims left t-shirts, which were festooned with pithy quotes and Camino wisdom and pinned to the ceiling, left to dangle. Every wall, table, window, chair, and object were covered with notes and quotes. Sadly, the bar is no longer in operation. An albergue now stands in its shadow.

Sue had us all gather food and drink in the town of Portomarin and organized a quick picnic for us at the top of the hill just outside of town.

This picnic was the absolute pinnacle of our journey. It was such a moment. I sat back at times, fighting back tears trying to fathom how lucky I was to be a part of the magic.

Sue Kenney seemed able to conjure magic wherever she went.

Our Camino group, minus Connie and myself. Connie was unable to attend this Fall 2014 reunion event, and I was taking the photo. Notice Sue’s joy!

I had many reunion moments with Sue. She was a fixture at the annual MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON. When she wasn’t participating herself, she would make her way to the Marathon every Sunday for her widely attended and much loved CREATIVITY WALKS.

Sue, during the Muskoka Novel Marathon…one of the years she participated in the 72 hour novel writing marathon…

Many of the Muskoka Novel Marathoners joined Sue for her yearly CREATIVITY WALKS. That’s Sue’s foot with the purple strapped shoe with the blue arrow. She also invented a barefoot shoe…which was bottomless. She appeared on Dragon’s Den with these shoes.

I just wanted to share some of the memories I had with Sue. It doesn’t begin to crack the surface of the time I spent with her. My most cherished time, of course, is that walk along the Camino de Santiago. You grow so close while walking across a country with people. We began as eight near strangers. We all knew Sue in one way or another, but we didn’t know each other. Sue brought us together.

The talks we all had! It was so magical.

I will be forever grateful that Sue came into my life that day at the Pickering Public Library. She lit a flame in me that day that would never go out. It is a profound thing to gift someone a totally new trajectory in their lives. This is what Sue did for me. I can’t imagine my life now without the Camino in it.

It was because of her impact on my life that I did not hesitate a second before telling her, “YES, YES, YES…I will take your intentions across Spain. I will walk every single step for you! I will dedicate the entire walk to you.”

It was what she next told me that stopped me in my tracks and had me searching out a quiet place in a busy airport where I could hang my head.

After giving me her awful news, she followed up with so much inspiration…I was ready to face the Camino and take her with me in my heart.

I want to directly quote Sue here because I want you to see how full her heart was and how thoughtful and caring she was at all times. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me sharing her words in full.

“Since you’re about to walk the path to Santiago, and it doesn’t mean that you have to be religious or have a religious intent, I would like to ask if you would do me a favour and carry my intentions for world peace, a universal love for nature, and great compassion for all the people in the world.

“And to my dear Camino, I want to intend so much gratitude for the 29 different journeys that I took on the path to Santiago. I am so grateful for the lessons and the stories and the experience of guiding other pilgrims on the way, that I was blessed with. Including you! ❤

“I’ll be with you each step as you both walk, without your guidebook, following your heart.

Sending love and light.

Buen Camino

Barefoot Sue.”

Of course I walked for her. Each step I took, I thought of her back home and the journey she was now forced to be taking. I walked into Santiago de Compostela with Sue’s intentions in my heart. And if I ever walk the Camino again, I will do the same. It was her who gave me this great big wondrous gift, and it will always be her I thank for opening my heart to it.

We lost Sue this week. Her light is carried in the hearts of so many pilgrims. I’m certain she will never be forgotten. Her 29 journeys on the Camino alone would be enough to ensure it doesn’t happen. Not to mention the myriad of other ways she entered the hearts of the thousands of people she changed for the better.

Walk on, my friend forever. Captain, my captain.

Sue Kenney, walking into Monte de Gozo…MOUNT OF JOY! May, 2014. Joy meeting Joy!

I love you, dear Sue. Thank you for everything.

Camino Camino – The Obsession Grows

Good ole Facebook is at it again. It is constantly re-igniting my obsession with the Camino de Santiago that grows inside me every day. This week is the 3rd year anniversary of my Camino journey. Every day I am seeing picture after picture in my Facebook Memories feature. Every day, my longing to be back on THE WAY swells to a new height.

Add in the fact that I know my Camino guide and friend Sue Kenney is currently guiding yet another round of peregrinos on The Way even as I write this, and I have a perfect storm of Camino Desire. I want to walk the entire Camino Frances (The French Way) from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela and beyond…yes, all the way to Finisterre. Some days the desire is so strong, I just want to put life on hold, board a plane, land in France and start walking.

But the Camino is time. In order to walk The Way, you need well over a month to complete the trek from St. Jean to Finisterre. Perhaps 2. It is not presently in the cards. Retirement? Maybe. One can hope to be able to have the health required to do these things in their golden years. It is, nevertheless, an obsession…and it will continue to be one.

On this day, three years ago, I cross this monumental milestone on my brief Camino journey from Ponferrada to Camino de Compostela. I walked this leg with my Camino friend Connie

I try to take the journey with me every day. When I go somewhere new, I walk the streets and attempt to see that new place with the eyes of the Camino peregrino living inside me. Every day is an opportunity to walk…every day can be a journey.

Everything points to The Way. It’s a way to live as much as it is a physical path…it’s an exploration of self.

Along The Way there are always signs…everywhere. Ribbons on trees with messages, sticks on the ground forming words, chalked mantras, notes everywhere. This one from someone named Russell Kenny caught my eye in 2014…

I suppose the intensity of my love for this place will always swell on the anniversary of my journey…thanks to Facebook and its memories. Not a bad thing to recall…not at all. I love you, My Camino. One day, I will walk you again. On that day, this peregrino will be home…

Listed – The Things I Will Carry

I recently received a terrifying email from Sue Kenney, the organizer of the Camino trip I am taking in May. To be fair, there is nothing terrifying about Sue. She’s a lovely person. I’ve had the pleasure of novel marathoning with her in the past and I’m looking forward to walking the Camino in her footsteps.

What terrified me was the list of things I am to carry during my walk. The list is remarkably sparse. On the surface, this makes a great deal of sense. We will, after all, be walking every day…and carrying everything we pack with us every day. In theory, I knew the list would be short. It’s the luggage packing maniac in me who has begun to panic. How am I to carry so little for so many days? I’ve taken more with me on long weekends.

Perhaps if I brought along a donkey, nobody would notice. Said donkey could walk alongside me and carry the burden of my guilt infested well-appointed luggage. And if it’s a small donkey, I might even be able to squeeze him into two airline seats. In the proper costume, said donkey could probably pass as a rather corpulent human. Heck, if he’s small enough, I wouldn’t even need the second seat…we could just sit in the more spacious first class section of the airplane.

I’m sorry. I don’t know where that came from. Yes I do. I’m in the denial stage. I’m still under the mistaken impression that I could talk my way around the tiny list of meager possessions I am expected to carry. What can I say. As I was writing, my donkey brayed and that bray was the kernel of an idea. A means of rescue for an over-packer.

CLICK HERE to check out Sue Kenney’s Camino Group Journey!

I thought I would compile a list of the things I will carry that will neither be in my backpack nor on my person during my Camino walk.

1. A rock I took from a mountain in Ohio during a Male Survivor Weekend of Recovery retreat (a retreat for men who were sexually abused as boys). The group of men I was with during that weekend all held this particular rock. It is meant to be a sort of talisman against the darkness. To hold it is to recall that weekend of empowerment and the men I shared it with. I will be leaving this rock at the cross of iron at Cruz del Ferro, if we are indeed to pass by this particular milestone in our shortened Camino walk. If not, it is of no matter. I will still be leaving the rock somewhere along my journey that seems of particular significance to me. (Read about the Cruz del Ferro milestone here)(so, technically, this will actually be on my person…I’m not really good at following rules.)

2. Fearlessness. I don’t think this is something I will be able to squeeze into my backpack. Fearlessness takes up a lot of space. It is better to carry it in my chest, where there is more room.

3. Faith in Goodness and Good Things. This is something I often have a hard time packing, even on my daily workaday adventures. I tend to have a lot of faith in the happenstance of bad things. I wonder now if I should unpack my faith in bad things happening instead of attempt to pack a faith in good things happening. Or maybe I can do both. It’s always a good idea to get away from yourself when you’re travelling.

4. Wild-Eyed Wonder. I will be seeing beautiful things. I want to open my heart to it all, take it in and carry it with me beyond the plane-ride home. If I carry with me the same simple practice of wonder that I see in my grandson, Edward, I think I will be able to do this. When he sees the colour green, or a frog, or his favourite stuffed toy, or a puzzle, or chocolate, or mangoes…he himself becomes quite wondrous. If I think like him, see things for the first time like him, perhaps I will be able to enjoy every little detail of the Camino as I come upon it.

5. A notebook. Okay, like the rock, this is also something I will actually have on my person. A tangible physical item. But I will use it as an extension of myself. I will not worry about the grandeur of the words I choose to add to its pages. I will simply jot down the things that come to me. This is, after all, a pilgrimage. I’m sure a true pilgrim will always have a means to record the pilgrimage they are taking. I will be the notebook and the notebook will be me.

6. Cynicism. I will carry this in a safe place. Somewhere dark, isolated, and unreachable. It will be the thing I swallow before I leave the plane on the first day of my journey. And I will do my best to digest it and allow it to leave completely so I will no longer be required to carry it on my person once my journey is over. Cynicism is one of those things one just can’t seem to unpack. Best to just take it in and convert it to something more useful along the way. I know I can do this, because I am practicing on my Faith of Good Things happening.

If I make sure I have these things, they will help me to not notice the things I may lack in my backpack. Carrying these things may help me to be kinder to myself and to those around me. I’m ready for this. I can do this. The rock in my pocket, and all the things it represents, has given me a new kind of power. Sure, I intend on leaving it behind when I go to Spain…but I also intend on carrying it with me forever. Some things multiply in bounty as you let them go. If you have just the right amount of faith in a thing, you can watch it grow, even as it disappears in the distance. I’m making this journey to reclaim something that was taken from me. Sure, I may just be walking a well-beaten path to nowhere…but with every Camino Walk there is an immense inner journey that happens simultaneously to your feet touching the ground and your body being propelled forward.

Or so I’m told…