Walking the Hidden Path: Creative Living, Storytelling & Finding Meaning in Life
- Louise Sommer
- May 22, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 24
With a nod to Shirley MacLaine and the journey that still speaks to our souls
Long before I ever wrote The Hidden Camino, I walked the ancient pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago with questions burning in my heart—Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?
The path was quiet that morning. Mist clung to the fields. And as I took each step, I could feel it: this wasn’t just a walk. This was a creative awakening. A remembering. A beginning.
When the Path Becomes a Mirror
Every footstep seemed to echo with the lives of those who came before me—centuries of seekers, poets, mystics, lovers, and wanderers. Like me, they had questions. They wanted answers. They sought meaning, direction, peace.
And that’s when I remembered: I wasn’t the first writer to walk this path.
Shirley MacLaine, in her best-selling spiritual memoir The Camino, shared her own mystical journey along the same trail. Known for Out on a Limb, she broke boundaries in the ’80s by openly exploring reincarnation, soul purpose, and cosmic connection—long before it was mainstream.
She didn’t walk the Camino for fitness or fun. She walked it to hear the call of something beyond. Just like I did.Just like so many of us do.
Creative Living Is a Pilgrimage
You don’t have to walk 800km across Spain to be on a creative path.
Every time you create something honest—from a blog post to a collage, a song lyric to a heartfelt email—you are walking a kind of inner Camino. A quiet, determined journey toward truth, self-expression, and a life filled with meaning.
This is the art of creative living:
It’s not about being perfect.
It’s not about “content.”
It’s about feeling fully alive in the world—seeing, sensing, remembering, making.
“The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”— Eden Phillpotts (and a quote Shirley MacLaine would definitely nod to)
The Hidden Stories We Carry
As I walked, I felt deeply that we are not blank slates.We are storytellers. We are story-carriers.
Our identities are woven from ancestral memory, cultural heritage, ancient myth, and everyday beauty. We carry inside us forgotten songs, half-told stories, languages we don’t speak but somehow understand.
And when we create—through art, through words, through presence—we remember.
You Are Both Heir and Creator
There was a moment on the Camino when I stood at the top of a quiet hill, alone with the wind and silence. I felt so small. Just a speck of dust in time.
But then I realized—this is the paradox.We are dust. And we are divine.We are fleeting. And we are unforgettable.
You and I… we are part of a story that began long before us and will continue long after.We are both the legacy and the legacy-makers.
Every brushstroke, every blog post, every risk we take to live creatively—adds another thread to this wild, beautiful human tapestry.
A Blog is a Sacred Space
You might be thinking: This is lovely, Louise, but what does this have to do with blogging? Everything.
Because your blog can be your own Camino.A place where you walk your thoughts into the light.A place where you share stories that others didn’t know they needed.A place where truth, creativity, and wonder meet.
Whether you’re sharing art, insights, or reflections, your blog becomes a living archive of who you are and how you see the world. That’s no small thing.
That’s sacred.
The Road Is Still Unfolding
As the sun set over the Camino and the day came to a close, I felt full—not from answers, but from meaning.
I didn’t walk away with everything figured out. But I did walk away with clarity.This is what matters:
Living creatively.
Sharing truthfully.
Telling our stories before they slip away.
Remembering that even our smallest actions ripple through time.
We are not just walking the path—we are the path.And that, my friend, is the greatest creative journey of all.
Want to Walk Your Own Creative Path?
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Louise Sommer is a collage artist, bestselling author, and cultural storyteller with an MA in Educational Psychology. She specialises in creativity, communication, and the hidden narratives woven through culture, myth, and memory. Her book The Hidden Camino takes readers on a soulful journey through forgotten histories and sacred places. Since the 1990s, Louise has travelled widely across Europe, exploring how stories shape identity, belonging, and creative expression. Through her writing, design, and workshops, she invites readers into a world of curiosity, beauty, and deep connection.
✨ Explore her art at Collage Art Studio by Louise Sommer
✨ Discover more at louisesommer.coPass it on to someone who’s walking their own soulful path
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