journey not destination

[Former member 42123]

How often have I read those words.Compare my two arrivals in Santiago.2013 walking along the narrow streets towards the cathedral,I began to meet pilgrims walking towards me on their way back with their compostellas.They called out "well done" and you're all most there" or"Buen Camino". I had tears running down my face as I got closer.Alas,the Prince of Japan was due to arrive having walked 10k of the way.The place was full of uniformed police and security blocking half the square off.The coachloads of tourists filled most of the rest of the available space and most seats in the cathedral.I felt none of the "exultation" I thought I would feel on my arrival,but as I knelt and said a prayer of thanks for my safe completion of the Camino,I realised the Camino is the journey ,and in the journey is the magic. In 2014 I only walked from Leon,but walked with a joy in the knowledge that its the walking,the meeting wonderful people,the sharing and the caring is the meaning of "The Way". I shed tears again,but not inSantiago,but as I knelt at the wire fence with a thousand crosses on,and at Cruz deFierro as I prayed for loved ones here or passed on.I reached Santiago,but no one spoke to me as I neared the cathedral,but it did not matter,for it was just a destination

 

[Introibo]

Lovely post Philip. Lovely.
I've struggled to achieve some things in life and found that I've had more enjoyment / satisfaction
in the struggle than in the finish.

 

[frasert]

Well said!
I walked St Jean to Burgos in 2013 and had the best time of my life. There was no "destination" and it was all about the journey. The only disappointment was leaving my new friends not failing to get to Santiago.
This year I have 18 days walking and have even considered starting again in St Jean because I loved it so much.

 

[naplesdon]

I totally agree with you. The first time I walked onto the Plaza I was so overcome by emotion and a week long slog in the rain that all I did was go to evening mass and take the first bus home. I left there promising myself that I would spend some time in Santiago the following year, but that emotion when you arrive never changes. Does it?

 

[Mark Lee]

My first CF I had planned on stopping in Pedrouzo from Arzua and finishing up the next morning, but I missed the turn-off of sorts and didn't realize that until I was walking past the airport runway, like 5 km later. So I figured what the heck, I'd walk all the way in. When I was about 10 km from Santiago it hit me....I'm going to finish my Camino today. Wow. And it was a beautiful blue sky late afternoon when I walked in and reached the plaza. I went to the far end of the plaza, dumped my pack and sat on the ground against one of those pillars there and just stared at the cathedral for about an hour.

 

[jsalt]

I stayed at O Pedrouza on my last night before Santiago (November 2013), so 20 kms left to walk. About half way there, just wandering along slowly, I suddenly realised that everyone else on that last day had also slowed down, as though none of us wanted it to end . . .

 

[scruffy1]

Time for my standard reply for this sort of comment, a poem written by a modern pagan
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
C.P. Cavafy