Recap? Maybe it just the beginning....

It is almost 48 hours since I got back home, and approximately 72 hours since I finished el camino by entering the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. If I closed my eyes and open my heart I am still overwhelmed by the feeling I felt at that moment. That last day on the trail was a very emotional day. We walked approximately 19 km from our room to the city. We passed the airport where the fence that kept on us on the path was covered with thousands of crosses made out of sticks ,rods, whatever the pilgrims had carried or found on the ground. We walked on and started the second climb of the day as we entered the Monte de Gozo, called that because it is the first place on el camino where the pelegrino could look and see the steeples of the cathedral far off in the distance. Now there is a monument built there in honor of Blessed Pope John Paul the Great and St Francis of Assisi. I was in tears as I neared that pinnacle thinking of what great men had walked this path before me, and here I was in the same place.

As I started to go down , I saw some gypsies to the side of the path and so I went to see what they were selling. To make a short story of a long encounter they made me a leather bracelet on the spot and a wired pilgrim to take with me through out my future travels. As I bid them goodbye, one of them says you have some time? or are you in a rush. My better instinct told me tell him you are rushed but I said no, we are not in a rush. So he told me to follow another path off the main one, and that it would lead me to 2 iron pilgrims, as I looked to where they looked I would be able to see the steeples of the church. And so I climbed even further, and reached the spot. I felt like I was the first pelegrino to have still the far off church. I said a prayer of thanksgiving and place one of my hand made rosaries on the huge statutes fingers.

And then we started to climb down. I entered the city and felt lost. There were signs , the shell was still on the pavement at times, but humanity was quicly approaching . I had entered an university city where everyone was in a rush. Here I was a pelegrino, with my stick in hand feeling lost and vulnerable. But I had seen the steeple, I knew I was going in the correct general direction. As we got closer to the church we entered the old city and the souvenir shops assaulted our senses. But we continued, turned into smaller passages, and the saw the side of the cathedral. I was here, as I started to get closer I heard bagpipes, there was someone actually playing the bagpipes outside when we walked by, and then I turned into the main plaza.

There it was before me , bigger then life, it encompassed all of my visual field. It was gigantic, I climbed the steps and entered into the coolness of the main church. It was dark, and it felt cold, but I was here. I had made it. With the help of Barbara and countless others on the path. With all of your prayers, I was here. Tears streamed down my face, I went to the altar, I said a prayer. I climbed the steps behind the altar where I could give Santiago the customary hug. I remember closing my eyes as I laid my face on his mantle and felt the cold of the silver and the hardness of the stones; and all I could think was THANK YOU. I climbed down and then went to the place where his crypt is. I knelt and there I prayed for a long time. I prayed for each one of you as well as for all those intentions I had carried in my heart during the last 9 days , over the past year. I got up went to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and said a prayer of thanksgiving. I was done as a pilgrim, I had become a tourist now. I did get my Compostela, that is the certificate the church issues when you have completed at least 100 km of el camino.

What lessons did I learn or relearn? First, that for me, God speaks to me in the silence of my heart. I have to shut up to be able to listen to Him. Second, that I have to listen to His Words so I can walk the correct path for my life. Third, that I want to be an honest man. Fourth, that there are guideposts to help us along the path, that we are not to go off the path or we are liable to get hurt or lost. Fifth, that el camino has shells or arrows to guide the pelegrino, but in my life God is even more inventive on how He guides me.Sixth, that there is nothing that I should be afraid of,and seventh that I am very much loved by God and those around me.

You know I am back home, but some say that El Camino really starts when you leave Santaigo. I will be on this new path the rest of my life. I know that I will be back to Spain, to el camino. And I hope that if you see me looking lost and disoriented you might just point me to the right path. As you might guess, my blogs form this trip are not really over yet. I have in my heart certain instances that I want to share with you and some of those lessons that I experienced. I wish you a buen camino because we are all in some journey and we all are seekers in this life.

Peace and Joy. Happy Easter.