Arrow.
Navarrete, España
Day 13 on El Camino de Santiago.
This journey began in St. Jean Pied de Port. The fact that pied de port means “foot of the pass” is fitting considering what we’re all doing here. We peregrinos have each walked underneath protective arches, through forests that look to belong in fairy tales, over mountains, and on top shifting rocks. We each intend to make it to Santiago de Compostela either this trip or the next. This particular route I'm on to Santiago is Camino Francés. It's 790 km long. (490.9 miles for us Americans who never learned the metric system like the rest of the world).
To date, I have walked 178 km, and it has been quite demanding. With the sun beating down because it’s still in the 80s in Spain even though it’s mid-October, it adds another layer of difficulty. So, we have the heat, the terrain which changes damn near hourly, and then there’s the act of actually walking for up to 8 hours a day.
On top of all that, there’s navigation, which is primarily achieved by following painted yellow arrows. Most of them are painted along the way on rocks or trees, but if you’re really lucky, it’ll be on an official stone waymarker.
These arrows are pivotal. These are the ONLY things keeping us on the right path because believe me, there are scores of forks in the road that look like the right path and are without a doubt not. There have been times I have been on autopilot, deep in thought, and I’ve looked up JUST in time to see an arrow veering off the path I’d been on.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned during my two weeks on pilgrimage is that there has to be a balance between reflecting on life and the direction it’s going and paying attention to your physical course. We gotta be sure not to lose our way on this path or the one we call life.
“Follow your arrow wherever it points.”