All I need is to walk 15 miles a day

With meals included, please. And no blisters.

Port at Finisterre.

Hello friends,

I’m back from the Camino de Santiago and I’ve figured out life. All I need is to walk 15 miles a day in good company and beautiful landscapes, with meals provided. But without the blisters. And the sore and swollen feet and ankles. And please to provide a gorgeous Corpus Christi Mass at the end.

Is that too much to ask?

To be serious, however, I want to register how healing it was to be so totally drawn out of my head and into my feet (even when this was physically painful, as it often was on such a long walking journey). I’m very grateful to

Peco

and

School of the Unconformed

and the 20 or so other souls who walked with us and made this all happen. And I want to share one quick observation.

The Camino de Santiago is known in English as the Way of St. James, and the metaphor of the Way is strong. Christ tells us the he himself is the way, and I meditated on this a great deal. You see, on the Camino, there is no map. I mean, sure, you can buy a map. But that’s not how this Way is navigated.

Instead, you step onto the path and then you simply follow it. Every once in a while you will see a marker with a shell and a yellow arrow directing you to turn. But that is your only guidance other than the movement of any pilgrims who may be visible in front of you (and let’s hope that they’re following the arrows!). You never know if you’re about to begin an ascent or a descent, about to switch to dirt or pavement, about to enter or leave a city or village or town or just walk all day on a sun-drenched dirt path with nary a cafe or fountain to be seen. If you’re hungry, you must wait for a cafe; thirsty, wait for a fountain; sore, wait for a place to soak your feet. Sometimes it comes and sometimes it doesn’t. Somehow, you still make the 15 miles. And there is singing along the way.

Your job is not to know the way, you see. Your job is only to walk and to follow the arrows when they appear and to take what comes to you for the gift that it is.

I found it impossible to walk 15 miles per day for several days in a row while thinking about walking 15 miles. You can only think in steps — or maybe in kilometers. We Americans think of kilometers as quite short in comparison with our miles, but as one of my fellow pilgrims remarked, at times on the Way a kilometer can seem neverending. Some seasons of life are like that, too.

I had some incredible experiences of healing along the Way and at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. What I have come to realize, however, is that I now have to continue on my Camino at home. I have to let go of wanting to see around the corner and acknowledge that my only job is to stay on the path, to put one foot in front of the other, and look for the arrows. It is not to know, but to trust. And to make an act of will, an assent to whatever comes with each step, knowing that I can trust the Waymaker. And that he knows and loves the authentic me — that I need not be anything other than myself with him.

Even with the penance involved on a pilgrimage — and there was SO MUCH FUN, too!!! It was splendid — things are harder at home than on the Camino. At home, I have to trust in a lot more than that God will “keep” my physical feet. There’s a lot more at stake than my ankles. But here I go — trying to keep going one step at a time, knowing that I will be shown the arrows.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.

I’ll write more later about the Camino, I’m sure. But here’s a start.

Warmly,

Dixie