Camino Walk: Where Inner and Outer Paths Meet

In Camino Walk, Marie-Laure Valandro takes readers on a very personal pilgrimage along the centuries-old Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. The Camino de Santiago de Compostela (the Way of St James) is literally a path of devotion to the beings of Christianity--to Christ, to Mary, and to Saint James, for whom the Camino and the cathedral at the end are named. The Camino de Santiago winds its way through terrain that ranges from high plateaus to rugged mountain trails. It is a challenging pilgrimage during which inner and outer paths meet. Beginning in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques of southern France, the author traveled approximately 800 kilometers to Santiago on the northwest coast of Spain. Along the way, with the many other pilgrims on the path, she experienced an international community of the heart, shared by the many thousands of pilgrims of past, present, and future who have walked the path for more than a thousand years. Marie-Laure Valandro offers her fascinating and personal observations of the Camino and its fellowship, joys, pains, and hardships. She describes the many pilgrims she encountered and, most important, invites the reader to share her interior journey to Santiago and to wholeness. Camino Walk offers a step-by-step account of the transformation that is possible when ordinary life falls away and we make room for gratitude and wonder for all that we encounter on our own path.

About the Author :
Marie-Laure Valandro was born in 1948 and spent her childhood in Bourgogne, Morocco, Algeria, and Bretagne. At fifteen, she moved with her family to Boston, where she received a B.A. in modern literature, romance languages, and education and taught in the Boston public school system. Later, she moved to Vermont, and obtained an M.A. in literature. At twenty-three, Marie-Laure returned to Paris to study at The Sorbonne, to teach and to travel around Europe to various Christian Holy sites. She later moved to Tehran to teach technical English and to tour throughout the Eastern world, studying Sufism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism as seen through the eyes of its believers and through visits to holy sites. Marie-Laure returned to the United States to care for her son. She lived in the community of Wilton, New Hampshire, where she first encountered Anthroposophy. She ended her school teaching to care for her daughter, son, and husband, a medical doctor. Meanwhile, she continued to travel and trek in South America, both alone and with her children. Later, she moved to Wisconsin and began the Liane Collot d'Herbois training in painting. On her family farm in Wisconsin, Marie-Laure uses biodynamic methods and has developed master gardens, vegetable gardens, herb gardens, and an orchard. She has also established a painting studio, where she creates large veil paintings. Recently, she moved from Wisconsin to a post-and-beam house built by her son in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia. Her goal is to continue walking across this beautiful Earth, meeting people with love and sharing her journeys in meditative books, sprinkled with insights from Rudolf Steiner's works and the many talented students of his teachings. She continues to make large veil paintings to "heal people and spaces."