A mystical Camino

I've used words like beautiful, incredible, amazing over and over but none of these do justice to the emotion I had in my heart every step we took along the way. As I walked through the Cathedral plaza on Saturday I was overcome with those same feelings over and over. It was as if my whole world had come to a stand still, our long journey across Spain was over, we would be saying more goodbyes to friends and going home to an uncertain future. Though It feels as if I left my job only yesterday, it seems like it was ages ago when we set out on foot from St Jean Pied de Port. It was much harder than I thought it would be, not that anything about walking 500 miles I thought would be easy. It really took about 2 weeks before we could start to truly appreciate our journey, slow down and be thankful that our bodies finally got the message that stopping wasn't an option.
There were days early on that I wanted to quit, I would collapse in the middle of a field, in the middle of no where and if a bus had rolled by on the way to anywhere I would have jumped right on it and headed south to warmer weather. But there was no bus and no quitting, we had made commitments to ourselves and to our fundraising efforts for Cancer. With a deep breath I'd gather the energy to get up and get going. And we kept going, through the elements, the pain that moved from one place to another through out our bodies. And it was worth every step.
The hardest part of coming home is the what now? Where is the road of choices and the excitement of arriving at a new unknown place, the anticipation of making a decision that will directly affect the experience that we will have today or tomorrow. We have already talked about the parts of the Camino we would like to walk again, it has taken a hold of us and won't be let go easily.
Everyone talks about the Camino and the mystical experience they had. My personal hope going on the Camino, apart from our fundraising efforts, was that there would be this amazing epiphany or that something miraculous would happen to change my life, maybe I would find my own answers to some of life's mysteries or suddenly find my "calling" or face my fears head on. Incredible things seem to happen to other people maybe the Camino would be that for me? I can't really say that any one thing in particular would be of more interest to anyone other than my closest friends or family but I can say that I wouldn't trade the experience for anything and being able to share it along the way made it that much more exceptional. Losing my job meant a window of opportunity opened for me and I took it. The miracles on the Camino for me were the everyday steps we took, the people that appeared out of no where to guide us on our way or to add to our already adventurous day. The special moments of pausing on a hilltop with a monk from Philadelphia, two Germans facing their own mortality and sounds of amazing grace playing on a pan flute, all of us strangers experiencing the beauty of a day's walk. The everyday miracles were when a long walk meant you could be in total solitude with the beauty that surrounds you and without interruption send your prayers to those you knew needed them greatly and maybe say a little prayer for yourself to get up that mountain on a cold and rainy day. The simpleness of frost around a golden leaf reminding you that the beauty of fall is tightly holding onto it's last days before the cold winter sets in. Or a rock that seemed to be shaped into a heart that you almost walked right by without notice, the tall windmills that seem to quietly divide one region from the next the high winds of the region giving them momentum. It was the mystical 900 year old tree that twisted in shapes of faces, lining our path, and it's old Galician caretaker who was so proud to tell it's story. Those were the things we noticed and saw truth in. The truth we sought in our journey seem to lie more in it's simplicity. One step in front of the other, understanding of our fellow perigrinos, our relationship with the nature surrounding us rain or shine, wind or cold, mud or rocks. I had countless conversations with nature and her mischievous persistence to alter our journey. Those were the simple things that greeted us each day and allowed us to have truthful conversations with ourselves and our souls. But most of all it was the people that shared their steps with us that will leave a lasting impression on us. Each with their own moving stories and sharing with us their reasons for being on the Camino. I had come to the Camino in search of a future or at least a hint to it. And although the answer didn't fall on my head or appear to me in a dream I did learn that with faith the wrong turns or unfortunate predicaments we found ourselves in at the end of the day always seem to turn out just fine. And as Dwight said, this journey will probably take a while to sink in. Even though we took the same road to Santiago both Dwight and I have been changed in different ways and our reasons for going were different as well.So as we finish up the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers and look ahead to Christmas and the new year, I realize with that our paths will take awhile to unfold as well, but it will and it will be another chapter in this long journey and at the end of the day with faith it will be the best road we could have hoped for simple or not. Dwight and I retraced our steps to find the last arrow on the Camino, this was the last one before you entered the old part of the city. A bagpiper adds a special touch to the sounds and sites of Santiago. Getting some much needed rest, Marley was content to see us home safe and to smell of all the places we had been.