Walking the road to Santiago de Compostela has always been on this long list of things I would like to accomplish in my lifetime. I had been reading a lot of books about it — mostly written by my favorite authors. The types of adventures to have on the road piqued my curiosity and got my imagination going.
But beyond achieving a life goal, walking to Santiago de Compostela was also I promise I made to myself seven years prior to moving to Madrid to complete my masters degree. “If this thing that I’ve been praying for — for years — ever happens, I will walk the road,” I said to myself. It was my personal form of gratitude for being granted such a blessing and achieving something I never thought possible.
It took seven years for me to get myself on the road to Santiago but it happened at the right time. Months before the camino, I had been going through a rough time at work. I knew I needed a break to figure out the next steps I should take in my career and the camino provided an enticing and serene environment to reflect — something I haven’t been able to do in a while.
Apart from this, I had also been going through a long period of spiritual dryness where despite constant prayer and regular devotion left me disconnected from God. “Hey God, are you there?” For years, I’ve have prayed for God to unveil the path that he had set before me but I never got a response. I treated his lack of answer as a sign of absence made me feel hopeless and left me fumbling. For somebody who wasn’t sure where she was going in life, the prospect of walking a medival road laid with arrows pointing to a specific destination was attractive — at least I was getting somewhere.
So that day in Sarria before we began to walk, I prayed only for two things things : that the road fills me with hope and faith and teaches me to trust that somehow after years of aimless walking He will unveil his perfect plan. I remember as I walked somewhere between Melide and Arzua, I caught myself chanting a verse from the book of Mark, “I believe, help my unbelief,” remembering Jesus’ words that everything is possible for one who believes. I believed that he had a plan for me and that every little decision I would make for as long as it’s with his guidance would take me where I needed to go.
