Rock Bridge, Galicia Spain
“Focus on the journey not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it” Greg Anderson
One of the things we found while walking the Camino to Santiago de Compostela, is the same thing we have found and experienced in many other areas of our life. People are goal oriented and want to reach the next destination. On the walk people were getting up well before dawn and walking in the dark, little headlights on their forehead, trying to find the next arrow or marker. This is fine if you have spent some time the day before surveying the route out-of-town. But why walk in the dark. Yes it is a quiet time of the day, and you can be out-of-town before the traffic gets bad, but in the small town on the country road that we were walking traffic was never a problem.
I do understand that the summer heat of Spain can make walking in mid afternoon difficult, so that might be a consideration during the summer months for some people. But walking in the dark means that you really can’t see and enjoy the town, or the countryside, the signs, the shrines or farms that you are walking by.
It isn’t reaching our goal or destination that shapes our journey, it is each mile or milestone along the way that shapes our soul. It it the sights, sounds, people and experiences we have along the way that is what we, what I wanted to remember. I would say to anyone planning this journey to take your time, enjoy the sights, the sounds, get to know the people along the way, live each moment of the journey.
