Well, I’m Michele and I think I’m someone who tries hard to ‘walk gently through this world and know its beauty‘ (a lovely phrase that was written on a card my sister gave to me several years ago, and which I still have, displayed on the wall in my home). I come from Irish ancestry, Scottish and German parents and I had a life-time’s experience of living in the wilds of Wales…until ten years ago, when I found myself feeling very at home in Northern Spain, at the end of the 500-mile pilgrimage route known as ‘The Camino de Santiago’.
Although I didn’t fully realise it at the time, that end was a turning point in my life and it was also a new beginning; as each ending in everyone’s life always has the potential to be. And, I’ve since learned, that what shapes and determines the quality and experience of our lives is whether we choose to live in the Land of Eternal Endings or to turn our gaze forward and continue to walk the Path of New Beginnings.
My path of new beginnings led me to giving up the security of a fixed base and a well-paid career in the UK in order to walk more Caminos in Spain; to go trekking in Nepal; to walk a solo pilgrimage to Jerusalem in Israel; and to live for a year on the tiny island of El Hierro in the Canary Islands. I finally settled and gained official residency status in the North of Spain in 2020, because it’s the country that first introduced me to the gift that is the Camino de Santiago and it’s the place (both the country and the Camino itself) where my heart and soul discovered that they feel most at home.
I think I’m an extremely fortunate, self-motivated, Spirit-inspired, sometimes self-doubting, sometimes strong and decisive adult woman. But, in the matter of learning how to live in peace with the wonderful mystery that is Life, Love and God, I try to be an eternally-open, constantly-learning, curious child.
Listening to the quiet voice of my heart, which the Camino taught me to do, introduced me to the world of volunteering (after a lifetime of working in business) through the amazing digital platform that is ‘Workaway‘ and gave me the opportunity to meet and work with generous, courageous, knowledgeable, interesting and sometimes quite complex people, many of whom have successfully achieved, or are actively working towards, turning their own dreams into physical reality, with the help of volunteers.
My dream (like many people after completing their first Camino) was to find and run my own hostel on the pilgrimage route. It was the motivation for me starting to work as a volunteer in 2016, when I spent two months helping out as a Hospitalera (the name for the people who run, manage, work in and care for pilgrims who stay in hostels along the route) in private hostels (known as albergues in Spain). The aim was to test my dream against reality and although the dream remained intact…it seems that God and Life had other plans for me, as the quiet voice inside me called me to other places and to different experiences.
Those experiences have included continuing to work for months at a time as a volunteer Hospitalera (with other amazing folk who readily and frequently give up their free time to do the same); volunteering with other WorkAway hosts in different parts of Spain; and walking more pilgrimages in Spain and further afield.
And it also led to the creation of this website, which I now understand is a virtual representation of the pilgrim hostel I imagined I would one day have…my own ‘Casa de Paz‘ (House of Peace). I now know that my own physical albergue will never exist, something that I only realised in October of this year. But it’s a dream that I’ve been able to lay peacefully to rest, because it came with the realisation that by following the light of it, I found so much more than I realised I was even searching for. This Casa de Paz is where I share a little of what I’ve learned over the last 10 years…what I continue to learn…and what I’m often forced to unlearn and relearn…along the way.
It’s also the place where all life pilgrims are welcome to enter, breathe, relax, lay down their burdens for a while and be accepted for who they truly are. My hope is that every visitor finds something that helps them, inspires them and/or reassures them that they can find and learn to trust their own inner voice, that they do belong, and…perhaps most importantly of all…that they are never as alone as they often feel, fear, and convince themselves they are.
So feel free to make yourself at home. Kick off those shoes, stay for a while, and know that everyone…who comes here with the true desire to find their inner peace…is welcome here.
La Casa de Paz 