👣 Noire Pilgrim: After the Camino

Life flashing before my eyes?

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I’m home after the camino… after a summer in Spain on the trail. I began my pilgrimage in Alméria on the southern coast at the Mediterranean Sea. That trail continued northward through Granada, Merida, Salamanca, Zamora, Ourense, and towns, villages, and other stops in between. The destination was the city of Santiago de Compostela, repository of the relics of Apostle James the elder aka “James the Moor slayer”.

Then I went to Fisterra at Cape Finesterre on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean seeking the zero kilometer marker at the “end of the world”. That is where I connected to my ancestors who looked out from the African coast at that same ocean centuries ago with sadness and horror. I stood above a coast on a Galician mountain and observed that wondrous body of water. The feelings that touched me were happiness, gratitude, and serenity washed with sadness.

I walked one thousand four hundred kilometers or eight hundred fifty miles on my two feet – now my very best friends. My backpack held a change of clothes, food, water and supplies. These things and the places that sheltered me each night and the people I met sustained me on my wandering.

How do I feel?
What do I feel?
Do I feel?

This experience was and is a life determining event, another of a handful of things meant to crush or elevate me. My life ended and began once more on the trail. I paid attention to the obvious and not so obvious lessons being taught. The “learning” is not over. I turn those things around in my mind every minute I am awake.

As the fog of uncertainty and doubt lift, I see more clearly the things that will sustain me. I am a daughter of the universe, strong in body and mind. This pilgrimage revealed to me that I was already what I was seeking.

I am grateful.

Yet there’s something ominous about turning sixty-five. Suddenly old age is not a phenomenon which will occur; it has occurred.

– Colleen McCullough

My plan at the time was to celebrate that milestone birthday while I was on my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Soon after, an epidemic disease or pandemic began to cause worldwide pain and loss. It shut down the world and the camino trail.

Then until now, I learned more about which camino I would walk, when I would begin, and after so much research and decision-making, I wondered if I should even go. I changed my mind several times due to uncertainty, fear, and information overload. Time and birthdays, however, wait for no one.

Two years later – this year – I walked the trail.

This time, I made the choice to get out of my wood shop, to leave my “I can do this with my eyes closed” routine – in other words, to leave my comfort zone.

I am not religious. I don’t really know if I am spiritually minded. Atheist? None of those declarations seem to mean much these days.

I am human, a woman, and a daughter of the universe. That’s all.

Not knowing the outcome and fearing what it might be should not keep you from doing what you want. I experienced that feeling of not knowing on the trail more than a few times. I experienced change, too, in my life. Many were initiated by me. Other times change was a given and not my choice. Going through both not knowing and change provided the map to not give up and continue to walk, think, and talk.

Self-awareness continually helps me remember that I am not perfect. I resolve to do the right thing even if it is only to preserve my humanity and conscience.

The world and planet are changing for good and bad. If you really think about it, nothing that is happening is new despite declarations to the contrary. One thing is certain: a future is being planned. Will you be fit and ready – mentally, physically, and all else – to be a part of it? Will you?

Footprints

Little steps are as important as the big steps, maybe more. You don’t have to look so far down the road. The camino proved that… everyday. Before you realize what you are doing, an entire country is marked with your unique footprints!

👣 For the last time… Buen camino!

Baadaye

Shirley J 🌹

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This and several posts this summer chronicled my pilgrimage in Spain where I walked 1400 kilometers on the camino Mozárabe, the Via de la Plata, and camino Sanabrès – northward, west, and north again – to Santiago de Compostela and beyond. Read my announcement here.

My YouTube channel – Noire Pilgrim By Shirley J – features mini videos, snippets, and shorts from my pilgrimage on the camino.

Shirley J ♥️ was there!

Yes indeed! Age is nothing but a number!