Walking Toward Santiago, Walking Toward Myself

My decision to walk the Camino Frances has been many years in the making. The answer as to “why” I am doing this isn’t a simple answer.

I like to think of myself as someone who reflects deeply, but the truth is that I’ve become very good at staying busy. Between work, family, commitments, and the endless distractions of daily life, there’s rarely enough quiet to hear what my heart is trying to say. Busyness can feel productive, even comforting, but it can also keep us from asking the deeper questions. Somewhere along the way, I realized I had become addicted to motion. The Camino is my chance to break that cycle—to trade constant activity for intentional reflection and discover what I might find in the silence.

I’m not walking because I’m lost, and I’m not walking because I’ve found all the answers. I’m walking because somewhere along the way, I realized that life rarely slows down long enough for us to hear ourselves think – and really be introspective. We spend years meeting obligations, building careers, raising families, solving problems, and taking care of everyone around us. Before we know it, decades have passed.

The Camino is an opportunity to step away from all of that – not to escape by beautiful life, but to reconnect with myself, and really feel the gratitude.

I have been blessed with a life filled with love, family, responsibilities, victories, disappointments, and lessons. Like everyone, I’ve experienced seasons that brought the best joy and seasons that brought the most difficult challenges. Through it all, there has always been another task, another commitment, another reason to keep moving forward – and not slow down.

This journey is an opportunity to slow down, reflect, and live in each moment.

For weeks, my only job will be to wake up, put one foot in front of the other, and follow a path that millions of pilgrims have walked before me. There is something beautiful about that simplicity. No meetings. No schedules dictating every moment. No expectations except to keep walking.

I expect difficult days filled with blisters, fatigue, rain, loneliness, heat and moments when I question why I started. But I know there will be quiet mornings, unexpected friendships, breathtaking landscapes, and lessons that can only be learned one step at a time.

The Camino isn’t about reaching Santiago.

It’s about who I become between the start and finish.

It’s about discovering what remains when all the distractions are stripped away.

It’s about gratitude for the life I’ve lived, appreciation for the people who have shaped me, and excitement for what will come next with my loved ones.

Most of all, it’s about trusting the journey as cliche as that sounds.

When I take my first steps on the Camino, I won’t be carrying all the answers. I’ll be carrying the questions, hopes, memories, and an open heart.

And maybe that is exactly the point.