The Current

Initial thoughts from my walk across Spain

It is solved by walking. -Saint Augustine

For more than a thousand years, pilgrims have traveled to Spain to walk the Way of Saint James. Many are convinced the ancient route, due to its deep religious roots, is sacred, infused with a rich spiritual element.

Well. I’m not as sure of that.

To me, the camino felt more like a current. There were days when my pack felt lighter. The miles, softer. Moments when it felt as if magnets were pulling me forward.

While most pilgrims embark on the Way alone, as I did, the journey is far from solitary. More than any landscape or stained-glass-adorned cathedral, it was the people I met who crystallized the experience. I walked with atheists, agnostics, mystics, Christians, and Buddhists; Australians, Kenyans, Italians, Dutch, and Germans.

I will remember their stories—their insecurities. How they were complicated, as we all are, in such similar ways. I’ll remember, too, how quickly the dividing lines of age & nationality would fade like afterthoughts; how easy it was to connect.

Some walked to process grief, others to rethink careers. Most were between chapters— self-imposed or not. Some were freshly retired, many came looking for a new start. After the isolation of the COVID years, so many walked to simply “air the brain,” as my Slovakian friend Bianca put it. I knew exactly what she meant.

Significant change, you are reminded, comes often at the cost of significant action. If the Camino de Santiago has any merit as a spiritual experience, it is the individuals I met who made it so. These are the people I walked across Spain with.

The current ran through them.