Counting the Footsteps

We are now 18 kms from Santiago and I cannot believe that this journey will come to a completion tomorrow with our arrival at the Cathedral. It is so hard for me to contemplate what has been accomplished with the long days of walking and the arduous and strenuous effort that has been required to do this every day for now 31 days. My feet are hurting with nearly every step now and it is quite an effort to encourage them to keep going as we are nearly there. We walked about 25 kms today just to get a bit closer and to get to a nice alberque for our last night on the Camino.
Last night we stayed in an ancient building that was a former hospital - must have been quite something back a few hundred hears ago! It was located near a stream and it was a truly beautiful spot deep in the country. At the coffee stops today we began to meet people that we have not seen for days and I expect that when we get to Santiago tomorrow and on Wed at the noon hour mass especially, there will be a lot more people that we have journeyed with.
I am loving the last few footsteps, as tired and sore as I am. I even love the hills now as I am so much stronger and can just keep pushing my legs up the long inclines with a feeling of accomplishment that is wonderful for this old body.
I have not thought much about actually stopping to walk as we will after tomorrow. I suppose my feet will be happy, but the routine that we have set now with early morning rising and on the path by 7 am and then a wonderful stop one hour later for cafe con leche and a tostada (toast) or croissant is simply divine - no other way to put it. It is cold in the morning, but by 11 am we are in our shorts and t shirts so are quite brown from all the days of being outside.
I am thinking that this trip has changed my whole idea of travel and that having done this so cheaply, it gives a whole new perspective on what can be gained from travelling in a simple way.
By walking, you get to see and hear and smell things that you would never do otherwise. For example, we have been walking through eucalyptus forests for the past 2 days and at times stop to beat a few leaves off the high branches so that we can rub them between our fingers for the most intense aroma you can imagine. We have also seen hedges of beautiful flowers that seem like our own florest version of a hydrangea only much much larger and the colors more intense. Such wonderful fall colors everywhere around us now.
There are a lot more people on the path now as we get closer to Santiago, but the die hard pilgrims that we started with are still all around us. They are the ones with the slower steps and the more haggard appearance. We are still stopping a few people to adjust their back packs - unbelievable how people carry their load in such an awful way as they don´t understand the adjustments that can be made to the straps. It is quite a welcoming reception when we meet each other as old friends along the way and inevitable as we meet up in the evenings at the same alberque or bar for dinner. It is quite a party atmosphere
We have promised so many people that we will meet them at the noon hour pilgrim´s mass on Wed, that there is sure to be a great crowd of people there together to celebrate our accomplishment together.
I have been thinking so much about what I am taking away from this trip and it makes me cry to think of just how powerful it has all been for me in a very profound sense. I cry because I was so afraid to come here alone and had to buck up a lot of courage to get myself on the plane and the trains and prepared to be here. Yet I have never been alone or afraid at all along the way - so many people have been around me all the time that I will actually look forward to some time on my own in the coming days! I cry because I thought I needed to still unload myself of the grief of losing Chris and yet what I have gained is an incredible freedom and appreciation for all that I gained from him through my life with him and through living with his dying and now his death. I am leaving Spain feeling that Chris has passed into a more distant spiritual place and that I have been given the gift of access to a very powerful personal life that will be filled with imagination and creativity in ways that I had only dreamed of before. I am so thankful for the friends that I have made, the conversations through those long and arduous days that have helped me to gain such perspectives and to appreciate the precious gift of each day.
I feel like I am finding my dreams once again - those that I had and set aside and those that I had forgotten about for such a long time as other "worldly" pressures became a priority. It will be a challenge for me to go back to my life at home and sort out how I bring the richness of "living in the moment" and for the gifts of each day into some of the material and hurried ways that we normally live our precious lives. So look out it is bound to be interesting for those of you who are waiting with bated breath for me to return!
Such will be the challenge and the opportunity and lucky for me that there are people around me who have done this journey and who will be a great group of contacts for me in the future. I also believe that I have more travel in my future like this and that there is much to be experienced in this way.
Well, the Dutch sisters have arrived so we begin to celebrate a 60th birthday with one of them. The mother and daughter from Austria came with them so we have a great group already here and it seems like there will be more as the afternoon progresses.
I have all of my clothes in the washing machine and I am very excited about that!! I also anticipate that we may get ourselves into a hotel of some sort tomorrow and so may get to sleep in sheets and have real towels in the bathroom. Such simple pleasures that we take for granted in every day life.
More later...........from the pilgrim