It’s 11:20pm and I just got in from dinner with my fellow Pilgrims.
This is the hard part; saying goodbye to people you’ve shared 5 weeks of your life with. They’ve seen you at your best and your worst and vice versa but none of that matters. Even if you weren’t terribly close there is a melancholy to the separation. It is highly likely that most of us will never see each other again. An odd sense of separation permeates the mood.
We are, after all, social animals.
Walking home you can’t help but feel that Santiago at night is a wonderland of the ancient and the spiritual and the religious infused with the hope of new life and new spirit. It would be impossible to not feel the power of the millions of souls that have been here before us, many of them under far more draconian circumstances, or the countless Pilgrims that died trying to get here.
Meanwhile, we are scurrying into our 4 and 5 star hotels, having that last aperitif, tired but not wanting to close our eyes on this, our last day of this Camino. Everything is so different now. So sanitized, so safe, so convenient.
Except.
It was a long ass walk.
1,000,949 steps
April 17, 2015
Joe Jeter
4 Comments
JoeLUNA
Go Joe Jeter! Well done! Hard to believe it’s over already. It does sound sad that these people you’ve done something so big with are now disappearing back to other lives all over the world. That one last aperitif that separates you and separation from them… sad moment.
Life goes on, and we’ll be glad to see you back in San Diego! Congratulations on your Camino and your 1,000,000 steps!
jmichael
Wonderful and so happy you made the million steps. Did you have to walk any extra blocks to make it? Still hard to believe you did this pilgrimage twice with a few months. Life can be a spiritual experience along with some physical pain. Hope to see you soon.
katiebb7
Congratulations!!! You are amazing, sensitive, articulate and just plain great!!
Love katie
Tim Chan
That is awesome, what a great accomplishment. So proud of you and you made your goal of a million steps!!