I always wanted to do the Camino de Santiago and, although at first I had no special reason, I wanted to live that experience and the moment came in 2006.
I left Roncesvalles, attended the mass and blessing of the pilgrim at the Collegiate Church, and the next day I began the journey.
I lack words to express what I felt at each stage of this pilgrimage that is like the path of life. Climbs, descents, difficult routes, flat sections, wind, rain … I especially remember La Meseta because of the teaching it showed me. It is like when in your life, there is a situation that seems to have no way out, and you walk and walk, and you think and think looking for the solution that does not come.
I walk and I walk more, without shadow under a scorching sun, but at the end as in the dark night of life the light appears and you reach the goal.
Each stage has its charm and beauty if we know how to look with the eyes of the soul.
Being able to enjoy nature, feel part of it, contemplate each sunrise, listen to the birds’ greeting and hum, contact with Mother Earth again. Priceless! That connection that we are losing and so it goes.
I wanted to walk alone, fill myself with silence, observe and listen to myself. If I perceived something it is the respect that there is among the pilgrims when someone wants to go alone, and at the same time, that attentive gaze and outstretched hand because there is a lot of companionship, a lot of heart. Very good friendships are born, the smile is good language and if we speak from the heart we understand all languages.
I believe that along the way we show the best of each one, our true essence, but with simplicity and naturally what we carry inside comes out. I felt that we were all one and that we were not really that different. We go from equal to equal, there is no status, we leave one stage and reach another. The journey is the same, the only thing that changes the size of the backpacks is lighter, others with too much weight and I wonder if this just in case, that other in itself will be related to our attachments … and so we fill up with unnecessary things. It was another great teaching, attachment enslaves us, I learned to live more austerely and no less happily in this consumerist society that traps us without realizing it. If I took what was necessary for a month, do I need so much junk afterwards? Light luggage.
The magical moment was when crossing the arch that leads to Plaza del Obradoiro with the sound of the bagpipes. I went downtown and when I turned around there was the cathedral! I looked at her in amazement and with tears of joy and emotion. I raised my eyes to heaven and thanked God for having reached the end, although the goal was the path itself and the transformation that was in me when I got home.
The Camino leaves no one indifferent.
Buen Camino. Ultreia et Suseia!!
