We finished our 49th day today… seven weeks since we started walking. We’re almost there; we have about 30 miles to go before arriving in Santiago de Compostela on Monday. This map shows our current Camino position, in Melide:

We are very ready to be done with walking and to return to our regular lives. And yet we are ambivalent. We will also miss it.
Walking distills life into intimate encounters we might normally miss…with ourselves, with others, with wonder as we pass through the beauty, and with the One who brought it all into being.
When we begin to worry about missing these blessings, we find hope in re-membering they will not be lost. All are possible at home, albeit requiring more intention. We will have the ability to move through our lives as an ongoing pilgrimage of intimacy… with ourselves, with others, with beauty, and with the One. If only we have eyes to see.
May we all have eyes to see.
Here is a short video I made a few days ago after struggling up a steep rise in the early morning. It might convey why we are sad to be leaving.
And here is a prayer from J.P. Newell that fuels my hope:
In the gift of this new day,
In the gift of the present moment,
In the gift of time and eternity intertwined
Let me be thankful
Let me be attentive
Let me be open to what has never happened before,
In the gift of this new day,
In the gift of the present moment,
In the gift of time and eternity intertwined.
Hello out there! I appreciate your sharing views and insights from your journey with us, and look forward to catching more insights from you in person. I'm not generally much of a commentor, and am mostly writing for Betty Wilson, who when I visited with her yesterday has been following the trek closely, and has wanted to comment, but says that she wasn't able to figure out how to do that. Maybe she has by now, but in any case I want you to know that she has been following closely and caring deeply throughout.
Awesome, Lee and Cynthia! How beautiful! Would love to see you guys this summer, if possible, after your re-entry, and hear more in person. Many blessings on the completion of your journey 🙏