New Eyes
It's been 20 years since I walked the Camino de Santiago. It changed me forever.
It was a cold, rainy March day in Chicago when my parents dropped me off at O’Hare. In my mother’s eyes, I could see the questions about me, my life, and my future. I had returned from a heartbreaking trip to Italy the previous summer. She never asked much about it, and I didn’t really want to share much with her, though eventually some of it would become part of my first book.
She blessed me with the sign of the cross, “En el nombre del Padre…” and kissed me. “Te cuidas mucho.”
I hugged them, then boarded a plane for Paris, where I would spend two weeks with a group of classmates from grad school. Afterwards, we would scatter across the globe. Some went to Ireland, others to England. One went to Brazil, and another to India. I left for Prague, where I lived for three months, working as an intern at a small online magazine that covered Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.
And then, the Camino found me.
There, I found the purpose of my meandering around Europe alone. My heart healed, not all at once, but certainly on that ancient, sacred path I found a salve for my wounds.
It has been the enduring lesson of the Camino, one that I carry and seek to revive even now in this present darkness. I walked with people who came from all corners of the world, broke bread, and broke my heart open to pilgrims of all faiths or no faith, and again to light, to hope, and to God. I saw the world with new eyes, even if the world itself hadn’t changed.
It is impossible to ignore the evil going on around us. Many people in power ignore the value of most human beings, here and on the other side of the world. When I was walking to Santiago de Compostela, people were dying in Iraq and other places. We spoke about it. And yet, the small acts of love I lived on that path rekindled a light that has remained lit.
Remember the moments that watered hope within you. Nurture and share them at home and with your neighbors. We may not harvest the full fruit of this work, but the future of our world depends on it.
Ultreia et Suseia. Buen Camino.