santiago de compostela

the road has to end somewhere.

objectively, this is a fact. no road goes on forever, eventually mountains and oceans and forests and national wildlife refuges get in the way. i´ve known all along that eventually we would get to santiago, and that although we would extend our camino to cabo finisterre on the coast of the atlantic (about 90km from here), that essentially i would eventually have to finish this road. the journey would, by its very definition, come to an end.

but i didn´t think it would happen so soon.

walking is such a different kind of travel--you suspend the moment of arrival in your final destination because each day has its own destination. sometimes all you are capable of is thinking to yourself (quite literally): one more step. one more step. one more step, but still there is always an immediate destination and now...we are here and the immediate destination is our final one. santiago is the end of the road, and for the first time in almost two weeks, we will sleep in the same place for more than three nights. how strange to think of actually seeing a city, rather than passing through it...and that we will come back again for three more nights is astounding. in total, we will spend about 6 days and nights here--and maybe more.

the camino has momentarily suspended time for me--i hardly know what time of day it is, let alone what day, and most importantly, i haven´t had time to be concerned about the future. all my worries about what to do with my life, how i will pay the bills and find dance classes and find dancers and become world famous (kidding!) have been erased by this constant need to live in the present. the camino prevents us from really being absorbed in anything other than the conversation we are having, the sensation of the road beneath our feet and our sound of our breath, and the beauty that surrounds us everyday which i have never had to find time to notice. its all of these things that have made this experience what it is, but the people and community here, the natural beauty, the coziness of these tiny towns we pass through in five minutes or less, the stillness of foggy mornings and the heat of the sun are sensations which have made every pain i´ve had, the swollen state of my achilles tendons, and my exhaustion each afternoon not only seem worth it, but seem blessed.

compostela means field of stars, and that is what i have been in, each day and each hour of this journey.