Walking in the Mud

After facing a life-changing cancer diagnosis, Phil Volker started walking a circuitous route around his ten-acre backyard. It was a chance to exercise, which his doctors had encouraged, but also created a sacred space to think and pray. Realizing that he was covering quite a distance, he found a map of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route and began to map his progress, calculating that 909 laps would get him from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to the Cathedral of St. James. Volker completed five caminos, five hundred miles each, without leaving his backyard, and many visitors have found healing, solace, and consolation in walking with him. Phil’s life was transformed by what he calls his three Cs--Camino, Catholicism, and Cancer. Part spiritual autobiography, part pilgrimage journal, and part Old Farmer’s Almanac, this book is the story of his journey.

Phil Volker was a Catholic pilgrim, Marine Corps vet, master woodworker, husband, father, and grandfather. He lived on Vashon Island in Washington, where he spent his last ten years journeying with cancer and writing about that and his camino every day. He mapped the Camino de Santiago, which became a metaphor for his life, until his death in October 2021.



Kathryn Barush is Thomas E. Bertelsen Jr. Chair and associate professor of art history and religion at the Graduate Theological Union and Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California. She is the author of Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience (2021).



Rebecca Graves has been a teacher, neurodevelopmental therapist, writer, and fiber artist. She lives on Vashon Island, where she and Phil Volker were happily married for forty-five years.