“He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” Mark 6:8
For years, I had a dream of walking on the routes of El Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), the pilgrim routes throughout Spain that lead to St. James’ burial place in Santiago. I knew there was little chance of that happening, but whenever the topic of the ancient route came up, I always said, “I want to walk that someday.” I never thought it would happen. Then one day…
Two by Two or Three
In 2022, I was planning a pilgrimage to the Holy Land for our parish, and our priest named some other places he wanted to visit. He had always wanted to walk El Camino, and I said I could look that for 2024, but I was nervous. I honestly didn’t know any logistics about the walk, how long it would reasonably take, which route would be the best, etc. When I told a friend we were thinking about doing this, she said, “You cannot take a group on El Camino when you’ve never walked it yourself.”
I thought about that. She had a good point. It’s not like the Holy Land or France or Guadalupe, where I could just plan the trip and a guide would usher us from one religious site to another. This was a trek through the mountains, in the elements, walking many miles a day. I needed to know what this was like and if I was physically up to doing it myself.
Over lunch, I mentioned this to my friend, Angie, and she said, “I’ll go with you, Let’s do it.” We sat there, hovering over our phones, coming up with a plan. “There’s one catch,” Angie said, just as we decided to go for it. “If I go without my husband, he’ll be crushed. He’s always wanted to do this.”
So our pilgrimage of two on the Camino became a pilgrimage for three, and I was put in charge of making it happen.
