Paranoia and Pronoia
/As I talk with people about my upcoming Camino walk, I’ve noticed something interesting.
Some people immediately imagine everything that could go wrong:
What if you get hurt?
What if the weather is bad?
Do you speak Spanish?
Are you really going all by yourself?
What if something happens and you’re alone?
Others light up.
You’ll do great!
50 days by yourself sounds amazing!
You will find so many things to inspire you!
What if this becomes your next book?
What if you discover something you weren’t even looking for?
Two very different ways of approaching an unknown road ahead.
There’s a word for the first posture: paranoia, the sense that something out there may be working against us.
And there’s a lesser-known word I love: pronoia, the playful, hopeful idea that perhaps life is conspiring in our favor.
Pronoia doesn’t mean denying that bad things can happen. It isn’t blind optimism, or refusing to prepare, it is a willingness to leave room for the possibility that something really good could happen, too.
I think many of us become very skilled at rehearsing disaster. We scan our lives for what could go wrong, in the habit of worry and worst-case images.
But what if we practiced imagining positive possibilities with the same intensity?
What if the stranger we may fear actually becomes a friend?
What if getting lost leads somewhere beautiful that we would have missed otherwise?
What if the plan changing becomes the story we tell for years?
What if the thing we’re afraid to do contains exactly what we need next?
Preparing for my Camino walk is reminding me that none of us knows exactly what lies ahead for us.
And maybe the preparation isn’t about imagining everything that could go wrong, but instead trusting that I can figure things out and I’ll find good humans to help me with whatever I need.
Worry and fear often travel with us, but so can wonder and awe. I may have setbacks on this adventure but I will also have moments of amazement.
Where does paranoia creep into your life?
Where could you use a dose of pronoia?
Do you live with a subconscious belief that people are out to get you or that things will align in your favor?
Camino walkers have a phrase, “The Camino will provide.” Hikers tell of moments where what they needed showed up and the perfect person who could help them appeared. The faith in that happening is pronoia.
I’m two weeks away from departure and reminding myself to make more room for pronoia in my brain. I trust the possibility that somewhere on the road ahead, life may have a few surprises waiting for me that are far better than anything I could have planned.
Onward we go together,
