Walking The Camino Santiago de Compostela
The Camino: The Beginning
In May 2009 I had just returned from a solo week-long holiday in London, England. While I was there I read the book The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho regarding a 500 mile sacred pilgrimage route called The Camino Santiago de Compostela (also called The Way or The Way of St. James). It begins in the small ancient village of St. Jean Pied de Port, France, then you hike up over the Pyrenees Mountains into the Basque Country while walking across northern Spain reaching Santiago de Compostela - where the remains of St. James are said to be buried.
Sometime during the course of reading the book I suddenly knew that I was meant to walk the Road to Santiago. I didn't know how I would accomplish this, but I knew I needed to do it. In the six years that followed from the time I first heard about The Camino until the time I did it, I read numerous books, studied maps, watched movies, and prayed for the right timing for when I would take my first steps up the French side of the Pyrenees Mountains.
Walking The Camino always seemed an inconvenient and costly adventure to undertake but somewhere along the way I started learning to accept life on life's terms which often means stepping out in faith and not allowing myself to be governed by things I can't control. This journey was filled with faith, risk, and courage - none of which am I particularly keen on practicing, as I very much like to control all aspects of my life. And yet the calling was to pursue faith, and what a lesson it was.
My reasons for walking the Camino seemed to manifest as a list of questions that I wanted answered, but as tends to happen with these things the messages that I received were different than the ones I posed. Sure, a few of my original questions were answered but they didn’t get top billing. The stars of this show began with choosing courage in the face of fear, living in the moment, and then came the message, let it be/let it go.
When I agreed to take this journey it was clear that I would be practicing acceptance of something greater than myself in a very different way than I ever had before. This would be the first of many steps that would lead me to beginning a new life as I took one step at a time walking The Road to Santiago.
I hope you will enjoy the photos and journal entries below that outline the sacred truths that I learned during my time on The Way.
In Pursuit,
Nathan Aaron
"One day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted. DO IT NOW." - Paulo Coelho
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To find out more about The Camino Santiago de Compostela please click the action button below to learn about the history of the Camino as well as, helpful practical information should you decide to take this pilgrimage.