Camino de Santiago Portugues - Day 21

Daily Overview

• Summary of the Day: Today we got up early and fixed a nicer breakfast for ourselves than we usually do including scrambled eggs, orange juice, fresh kiwi and yogurt. A mini celebration before the day began. You’d think walking into Santiago de Compostela after travelling so far and enduring so much that there would be choirs singing and search lights crisscrossing the skies but there is none of that. The walk into Santiago today was just like a hundred other miles that we have walked through the forest, and in and out of small villages. Up and down hills that make the walking that much harder. Along busy roadways where it seems like we are always in the way of some motorist and where he needs to go. Dogs ignore us or want to bite us. The locals either offer a kind hello or are completely indifferent to our presence. Sometimes just finding something to drink or a place with a bathroom feels like a big success. Here on this Wednesday morning Santiago was bustling as I’m sure it always is with people going to work and school, doing their daily routines while hundreds of us wander quietly, scuffling through the alleys with trekking poles tapping the stone. Moving through the streets still searching for the yellow arrows to confirm we are headed in the right direction. Doing the exact same thing that millions of pilgrims have been doing here for a thousand years. Could it be that turning that corner into the square beneath that astonishing Cathedral is a dim shadow of what it might be like one day to turn another corner and see the eternal city shining brightly?

  This morning as we walked into the city on a random street corner a man saw us coming toward him and he stopped whatever it was he was doing and he began to clap enthusiastically encouraging us in Spanish. He was truly sincere and it was odd and unexpected and wonderful.

  We reached the Cathedral square at a good time since most of the tour groups had not arrived and we were able to take pictures and move around much more easily than later in the day. We went to the lower floor of the pilgrim office to get our Compostela

  and that process was pretty effortless compared to what it took for us to get there.

  
  

• What we planned to do: Today we planned to walk into Santiago on the early side, collect our certificate for pilgrimage and celebrate!

  
  

The Day's Focus

• Topic: The present future - Everthing that God is doing right now with me and with you in this moment is in the same mixing bowl with all he he has planned for us in the future. Try as I might when it suits my fancy I cannot separate the two for they are bound together in the spirit with impossible love and the only way I can discern the one from the other is by faith. Faith alone allows me to trust when the path is not plain and faith alone allows me to walk when the destination is not clear.

  
  

• Word for the Day:  Faith

  
  

• Scripture: Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

  
  

• Spiritual Practice:  Where by faith is God asking you to go or what by faith is he asking you to do?

Moments and Images

• Images from the Way Today: 

  

  Construction on the cathedral at Santiago started in 1075 and took 130 years to complete

  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  

• Beautiful Spot of the Day: 

  

  Santiago

• Spiritual Meditative Moment: 

  On our way into Santiago we stopped at a church that is part of a monastery. Spending time there was precious.

  
  

• What Church We Visited: 

  The cathedral at Santiago is magnificent but we spent a long time in the very small chapel that is housed in the pilgrim center across the plaza from the church. They had slides and music playing that addressed a lot of introspective things that we are processing through after doing the Camino.

  
  

• People we experienced: 

  A lady from Oregon popped up on the plaza and took some pictures for us. She and her group came early to the pilgrim office this morning because if you’re among the first ten Pilgrims they give you a free lunch. She did the route called the Camino Primitivo and had the blisters to prove it.

  
  

• Unexpected Surprises: After walking so long and so far you expect the entrance to Santiago to be something fancy and amazing but you’re basically just walking down a side street in the city and all of a sudden there it is.

  
  

• Animal/Nature or local life: Seeing so many different pilgrims converge on this place is quite a sight. We saw this guy carrying one of the biggest backpacks we’ve ever seen on the Camino. Some people carry a day pack and have there regular pack transported ahead.

Reflections and Learnings

• Reflections from Today: Some things are impossible to completely comprehend or fully express and this moment feels like one of those times. Since that is the case, I must let it be as it is, much bigger and deeper than I am, knowing that it all belongs more to God than it does to me. And I am content with that.

  
  

• "Well, that was hard": Trying to decide which T-shirt to get. I know it kind of pales in comparison to walking over a mountain in the rain with a full pack. Truthfully though, saying goodbye to walking everyday with a new unknown destination ahead is very bittersweet. Having nothing to do but walk, day after day, after day….more precious than I can ever say.

  
  

• "What helped me today": we purposefully planned a very short five mile walk this morning to get into Santiago before all the crowds rolled in. That made a huge difference for us.

  
  

• "Something I learned": Sandy’s name on her Compostela in Latin reads “Alexandram”

  

• "Insight for the day": Sometimes God gives me what I need not what I want because down the road what I wanted is directly connected to first receiving just what I need.

  
  

• "Mystical occurrences": Back in O Porriño (miles and days ago) Jonathan talked to a guy who told Jonathan they both had the same backpack. Jonathan overheard this same man talking to another pilgrim about desperately needing a walking stick along the way and how God provided it. Jonathan said it was the worst most crooked walking stick he’d ever seen. When we got to Santiago Jonathan saw that same stick laying on the pilgrim alter (where pilgrims leave things behind that were part of their pilgrimage) next to the pilgrim office. I guess that stick was what this man needed because he made it here.

  

  Notice the one very crooked stick

Camino de Santiago Portugues - Video of the Day

Daily Conclusion

• A View of Our Compostela

  

• Gratitudes (1–3 things I'm thankful for):

  Thankful that we made it to Santiago all in one piece

  The pilgrim beatitudes that were shared in the pilgrim chapel were very helpful

  A great seafood dinner in old town Santiago, Wonderful!