When a journey comes to its end, it bids a sense of calling; a return of purpose, a reflection of process. The nature of an end is that it opens one to a new beginning as the transformed version of yourself plants itself back into the rhythm of your retrieved life- roommates and a city, a car and clothes and phone and calendar. The arrival at the end allows one to consider the meaning behind it, how to return as a new you, what it is you will take back.
In the kilometers walked, interviews filmed, and people met along the way, I am confronted with the story of my own journey. Most days, I´ve wondered what it will amount to, what Santiago will reveal to me in this second homecoming of sorts... How it will feel different or the same or just as new as it did in August of last year after walking 500 miles to arrive.
Gazing upon the cathedral, watching tired pilgrims saunter into their destination, my sense of End does not come. A longing for a different end surfaces, an end of a summer of scrambling and travel in a backpack, the desire to simply be in one place is where my gaze rests. A horizon of my true home that holds the end of this journey, the start of school, and the continuation of friendships and community in Chi.
While this past year has been spent dreaming of a return to the Camino, I realize I am ready to lay my seeker heart to rest. What is it I seek in travel after travel? What is it I now long for? The next phase of my journey appears before me- the readiness to be home compounded with the desire to perhaps make a new home. This ancient cathedral shows me my Return; it took a second Camino to let it go and lay my wanderlust heart to rest for a bit.
To Chicago I return... Tired by the restless nature of this job, burdened by the planning and unexpected stress of it all. But also thankful for the release of this Camino pedestal, the captivity it held on my heart now free to fully settle into where I am home. Yes, it took a journey to bid the journey goodbye.
Goodbye Spain, I love you so much that I am finally ready to let you go for awhile.
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In the kilometers walked, interviews filmed, and people met along the way, I am confronted with the story of my own journey. Most days, I´ve wondered what it will amount to, what Santiago will reveal to me in this second homecoming of sorts... How it will feel different or the same or just as new as it did in August of last year after walking 500 miles to arrive.
Gazing upon the cathedral, watching tired pilgrims saunter into their destination, my sense of End does not come. A longing for a different end surfaces, an end of a summer of scrambling and travel in a backpack, the desire to simply be in one place is where my gaze rests. A horizon of my true home that holds the end of this journey, the start of school, and the continuation of friendships and community in Chi.
While this past year has been spent dreaming of a return to the Camino, I realize I am ready to lay my seeker heart to rest. What is it I seek in travel after travel? What is it I now long for? The next phase of my journey appears before me- the readiness to be home compounded with the desire to perhaps make a new home. This ancient cathedral shows me my Return; it took a second Camino to let it go and lay my wanderlust heart to rest for a bit.
To Chicago I return... Tired by the restless nature of this job, burdened by the planning and unexpected stress of it all. But also thankful for the release of this Camino pedestal, the captivity it held on my heart now free to fully settle into where I am home. Yes, it took a journey to bid the journey goodbye.
Goodbye Spain, I love you so much that I am finally ready to let you go for awhile.
// Uploaded from Blogger Mobile™
"Enough! or Too much." William Blake
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