“Reaching Santiago” has grown into a metaphor for achieving a goal, for striving to be a better person, for doing good, for overcoming difficulties, for leaving behind the past and reaching for the future with renewed zeal.
And we DID reach Santiago today! For me it seemed surreal that this final walk felt so very ordinary yet at the same time about as extraordinary as anything I’d ever done!
For one thing, I don’t think I’ve ever walked for an hour in the pouring rain.
We walked three or so miles through the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela, at first near superhighways, and then onto the streets of a larger-than-I-thought-yet-somehow-quaint town, across intersections with modern traffic lights telling us when to cross, and then down narrow cobblestone sidewalks of streets under repair, up hills with normal-looking shops on either sides, following the yellow arrows, each of us intent on completing the walk and wrapped up in what this might mean on a personal level.
Reaching the Cathedral was amazing. It is larger than life and dripping with history and beauty. Even though I haven’t yet been inside this amazing building to see Saint James, it could be that just the fact of getting here, through the rain, is what this is all about.
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| The spires of the Cathedral of Santiago |
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| Translated: You've achieved your goal! Welcome! We've been waiting for you! |
We walked three or so miles through the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela, at first near superhighways, and then onto the streets of a larger-than-I-thought-yet-somehow-quaint town, across intersections with modern traffic lights telling us when to cross, and then down narrow cobblestone sidewalks of streets under repair, up hills with normal-looking shops on either sides, following the yellow arrows, each of us intent on completing the walk and wrapped up in what this might mean on a personal level.
Reaching the Cathedral was amazing. It is larger than life and dripping with history and beauty. Even though I haven’t yet been inside this amazing building to see Saint James, it could be that just the fact of getting here, through the rain, is what this is all about. 
