My Camino: A true story about the spiritual journey of a woman confronting her deepest fear.

I am thinking to walk the Camino. I was wondering if to adventure in Winter time or Summer time. To do it alone or in a group... I believe this book helped me to make decisions more than any other. As well as it inspired me in to stop wondering and to start packing. - Thanks

Sue Kenney's store in Washago, Ontario, in south Muskoka, called The Whistle Stop, felt as though it was about as far from Holywood North as Toronto is from California. Sue Kenney is making that journey the way she made her way along the Camino -- the hiking trail in Spain where apostles were buried and many people have deep spiritual experiences. She had faith she would complete that hourney. She also had chutzpah. That word seems wrong for a Catholic Canadian woman whose story is spiritualy, but there is something about Sue Kenney's drive that is so remarkable it needs a word like chutzpah. When Sue was downsized by surprise from a high powered corporate job, escorted out the door by Human Resources personnel, like many people she decided to go for a walk, to try to figure out what to do with her life. Unlike most people, she decided to go for a long walk: the two week hike in Spain known as The Camino. That takes a combination of nerve and confidence -- or, in a word, chutzpah. when she returned from her walk and discovered people liked her stories, she got herself booked by the corporations she used to do business with in her old life. Marketing story-telling to corporate C.E.O.s takes more than skill and experience. It takes moxie -- or chutzpah. There is much more to Sue Kenney than chutuzpah, of course. Her stories from the Camiono are simple but profound and she believes deeply they are not just her stories but should be shared. "Everybody working in the big corporations said they longed for a more spiritual life," she says. "They surprised me by showing they had a lot of respect for the simple life, even though their own lives are so complex." First she made a c.d. to share her stories with other people and then she turned the c.d. into a book, and now now she is turning the book and c.d. into a movie. First, she's making a documentary. Her c.d. sold a thousand copies in its first year. "Independent record producers say they do well to sell two hundred in a year and a thousand is fantastic, I've learned," she said. She took the c.d. to Word On The Street, in Toronto, and found a publisher in White Knight Publications of Toronto. "Everybody said it would take two years to find a publisher," she said. "I walked up one side of Queen Street West in the morning and down the other side in the afternoon, at Word In The Street, and I had three publishers interested by the end of the day. I talked to everybody who would listen to me and gave them my c.d." She told her publisher she wanted to have the book out in a year. He told her he would need the manuscript in two months. She said, "What's a manuscript?" Then she did the math and decided all she would have to do was write a thousand words a day for two months and that would still give her a couple of days to relax. The publisher was amazed when she met her deadline. The editing process did not appeal to her but by serendipity she met a writing partner she could work with a

Sue is a woman with brains, brawn, beauty, and soul. Herein lies the tale of a remarkable woman, reinventing herself at 45 years of age. Sue lovingly recounts her odyssey on the Road I savor, the Camino Frances. Let her lead you though the echoes of her mind, and the grit of the Road as she rediscovers her inner fire. The Camino itself has been dormant for years, and is finally awakening from it's slumber. Those who walk it return to walk a different Path. Sue brings us the before and after snapshots of her soul. A deeply personal and revealing look into one Peregrina's life. Well done, Sue! Buen Camino. [...]

I had just recently come back (Sept/04)from my own journey on the Camino and a friend of mine said I should read Sue Kenney's book "My Camino". Since I could not get the Camino our of my head I knew I had to read this book and went right out to buy it. I loved every word of this book! Sue was able to bring me right back on the trail with her. I knew exactly where she was at all times and wished I was there too. She not only gave good descriptions of the trail, the scenery, the comradship but covered the spiritualty of the journey. The Camino does allow you to go deep into your soul and find out who you really are and where you should be heading to complete your journey in this life time.I read many books before going on the Camino and some were too much like travel logs and some were less about the Camino and more about the authors trip through her past lives. Sue's book was excellent and gave a person a true vision of what it is like to travel the Camino physically and what it is like to see into your soul. A remarkable book!

I was immediately struck by the book design, even before getting into the text. Simple, uncluttered, but different - a good complement to the storyline. There is a saying that everyone walks their own Camino. That is true, but Sue Kenney's My Camino brings out the common threads we all share: the past experiences that influence our walk; the separation of friends and family, the physical demands of this five hundred mile journey and finally; the changes it brings to our inner selves. The book begins interestingly with a competitive rowing scene: eight women rowing across Lake Ontario: "the set cadence acts like a mantra to free the mind to focus on the body." This phrase made me instantly think of walking across the meseta. "in a moment of transformation the boat and crew's 1500 pounds propel forward with force and grace." The rowing results in a gold medal in the World Masters Rowing Championship in Montreal and provides mental resources to draw on for the challenge of the Camino. Then comes Kenney's background: the despair of having a younger sister with terminal cancer, the typical downsizing job loss - being called to a meeting and handed a box to pack your office belongings, age over forty, teenaged daughters, divorce. The rowing allowed her to put her anger at cancer into the water. The demands of job and family result in a lifetime of giving and little time for herself. Sue Kenney looks at the Camino as an opportunity to face her fears and love herself. She started her trip in early November, so had a very different experience than those walking in the popular months of May through September. Many refugios were closed. Winter weather was setting in and pilgrim numbers had dwindled to the very few. Those who have walked or are contemplating walking off season will find much to relate to in the thread of the physical journey that makes up most of this book. They can appreciate the themes of pain, friendship, rain, mud, distance and darkness, closed refugios. During a highpoint of the day, a hot shower, Kenney talks about "the simple pleasures of being a pilgrim." During this off season time the refugio experience was quite different than it would have been a few weeks earlier. Sometimes a refugio would be staffed by caring hospitaleros, but frequently refugios were not staffed and just a basic room with the companionship of a few other pilgrims. The pilgrim experience during this season is usually a more intimate one with the fewer numbers of travelers. Frequently they would share meals in the refugio kitchens. One of her chapters, "The Honor of Being a Pilgrim", talks about the freely given support one gets from the local people who honor the effort of those on pilgrimage. She talks about an old women caught her attention from across a square, made the sign of the cross and bowed her head with respect. One thing that is very clear in this book is Sue Kenney's openness with others on the Camino and with her readers.. She connect