It was remiss of me not to mention Lugo in my last update, the most amazing walled city and UNESCO World Heritage Site and we stopped there overnight. We spent a chilled evening wandering around the town and in the morning, the others walked ahead and I stayed back for a few hours and circled the perimeter of the 2km wall, marvelling at the ingenuity of the Romans all those centuries ago. Apparently it’s twinned with the Great Wall of China!
The final 3 days commenced on the Primitivo, a small tributary relative to the mighty Frances it feeds into, with its hordes of peregrinos and vast Camino infrastructure. Yet despite the 10-fold volume of people, it was still possible to find solitude and the route was no less beautiful.
And now, 14 days after leaving Oviedo, I’ve arrived in Santiago de Compostela. Or rather, the Trinity (33.33% Holy) of myself, Jean Max and Giovanni have arrived in Santiago. It was no less emotional the second time for me, and especially wonderful to see the sheer joy on Giovanni’s face as we approached the Praza do Obradoiro, the square that faces the cathedral. For Jean Max, it was an opportunity to fully appreciate the special moment of completion, which he was unable to do when he entered the city in 2015, suffering from horrendous blisters.
So what is it about the Camino that attracts 3 so very different people to each other, with whom you share confidences that you’d struggle to impart to your closest friends? There is no doubt in my mind that we were drawn to each other for a purpose; it was no co-incidence. Yet how is it that that a psychiatrist, a financial planner and a soon-to-be-ordained monk can be blessed with such a strong mutual bond and friendship over 2 weeks and 350 kms of walking the remote highways and byways in a strange country, with not one cross word, moment of angst or anything other than the unbridled pleasure of each other’s company?
For certain the Camino is a great leveller, where our differences fade into insignificance and our similarities come to the fore. We do not enter this world as angry, miserable, stressed or unhappy souls. Those traits come about through our conditioning in childhood, and later through our professional lives and exposure to our peers. The Camino strips us back to basics; to the people we really are, with all the crap left behind. The Camino shows me that fundamentally, nothing is more powerful than the collective human spirit and if suitably nourished and sustained, there remains considerable hope for the future of humanity.
On a personal basis, the Camino has taken me out of my comfort zone and made me look inwards and examine my own fears and insecurities. It has given me a greater sense of self-awareness and confidence, out of which has emerged an open-mindedness and a willingness to take more risks.
Life teaches us certain survival skills. Mine was to build a castle around me, a defence against attackers, a safe place to retreat into when challenged. It served me well in the past, but I decided it is no longer needed, so I offered it a grateful “Thank you and farewell” and left it behind. I found myself asking the bigger question, about what’s of real value and importance in my life.
And on the day that I left the others and walked alone, with the beautiful, tranquil views and wide open spaces around me, and with my new found sense of freedom, I opened my arms to the Universe and received the answer… the direction my life needs to take to allow me to fulfil my true purpose and destiny. It comes with a sense of certainty and inevitability….. The fun starts right now!
For others, the journey is different, but no less important. Jean Max wrote in his diary of the day on the Camino ‘when he was no more’ – he was ‘absent’. He was feeling so immersed in the Camino that he and the Camino became one and the same thing. He’s promised to send me that particular extract of his diary, as it felt there was huge significance in those paragraphs for him, and he was keen to share his feelings, but sadly my limited French doesn’t do true justice to his more expansive explanation.
For Giovanni, it was his ‘Walk of Courage’, and I know that he will return to Naples inspired to assist the young who are struggling to find real purpose in their lives.
They both unwittingly proved to be my guides and teachers. Jean Max showed me how to relax, to let go and go forward with confidence, to simply trust in what will be. Giovanni revealed enormous amounts of personal courage in making huge changes to his life that will give it even greater purpose whilst benefiting others… and through him I can now differentiate the sounds of the wind in the trees!!
John and Don
Our lovely Spanish friends
Spanish Camino friends
Palacio de Rajoy – opposite Santiago cathedral
Praza de Obradoiro
Los Tres Amigos
Made it!Now back in England, missing the Camino and my Camino friends and reflecting on my personal journey, it cannot be better summed up than through the beautiful and apt words of David Whyte’s poem Finisterre:
- “The road in the end taking the path the sun had taken,
into the western sea, and the moon rising behind you
as you stood where ground turned to ocean: no way
to your future now but the way your shadow could take,
walking before you across water, going where shadows go,
no way to make sense of a world that wouldn’t let you pass
except to call and end to the way you had come,
to take out each frayed letter you brought
and light their illumined corners, and to read
them as they drifted through the western light;
to empty your bags; to sort this and to leave that;
to promise what you needed to promise all along,
and to abandon the shoes that had brought you here
right at the water’s edge, not because you had given up
but because now, you would find a different way to tread,
and because, through it all, part of you could still walk on,
no matter how, over the waves.”
Until the next time… ‘Ultreia‘ fellow pilgrims!
Peebeecat 