My friend walked the French Way of the Camino de Santiago. That is a multi-day hike of 485 miles. The French Way starts in France and goes to the tomb of St. James in Spain. Medieval pilgrims seeking redemption, holiness and blessings traveled that route as well as other routes. The "French Way" is only one of the routes.
I bugged her to consider giving a talk about her experience. She gave it some thought and agreed. She explicitly said that first, she had to decide what the adventure meant to her personally. That is often the key: what does something mean to me (now, at this stage of my life). She wrote that her walk was not a search for answers or a direction of life but a time of awareness and drinking everything in.
When I ask people to give a talk, the first thing that comes to mind is "What will I say?" Making that decision, putting into words or phrases or notes, what you want to say is THE valuable part of giving the talk. Members of the audience can be distracted or still worrying about something else. The ideas that are expressed may be arresting for any number of reasons and an arresting idea can pause a listener's attention while the talk proceeds. Yet, the construction, the situating the experience in words has already been accomplished, and that is often the most valuable and lasting part of relating an important experience.
