Grey-Bruce Boomers Winter2023

TRAVEL
Arrival at Santiago
de Compostela.
a religiously important place (such as Jerusalem,
Mecca, Varanasi, Lumbini). The third most
important Christian pilgrimage site (after Jerusalem
and Rome) is Santiago de Compostela in Galicia
province, Spain. The various Caminos leading to
Santiago are roads and tracks originating from places
in Europe such as Seville, Paris or Lisbon that have
been travelled since the 9th Century for a variety of
reasons, including as a form of medieval sentencing
for criminals. Nowadays, pilgrims also travel the
Camino to meditate on an important life question,
to get a break from their rushed and stressful lives, or
for athletic reasons. As a lapsed Catholic and in the
wake of losing my last parent and thereby becoming
“orphaned,” the Camino as a long-distance route
called me.
During the many hours of solo cycling up and down
mountains, along canals, and through wheat fields
and vineyards, my mind returned again and again
to my parents. I felt overwhelming regret at having
been such a critical and angry child. I feared they
did not feel sufficiently loved and appreciated by me.
I yearned to let them know what is in my heart now
– so much gratitude. Can I reach them now? Do my
feelings transcend this world? Can they see me as I
ride this Camino to spend time with them, to seek
forgiveness, to commune love, to find peace?
At Cruz de Ferro.
When I rode past the Alto de Perdon, a high hill with
an iconic pilgrimage sculpture, tears flowed. Perdon
– forgiveness. Can I be forgiven? Can I forgive my
parents for uprooting me from my home country,
friends and language when we immigrated to
Canada when I was 13? This is something, I realized,
that still felt painful. I stopped at the highest point
on the Camino where there is an iron cross atop
a five-metre wooden pole, and a small chapel. At
1,490 metres altitude, the Cruz de Ferro is a place that
holds emotional and spiritual significance. Pilgrims
leave notes, photos, rocks or items from home to
communicate with the dead, to lay their emotional
burdens down. I climbed the rocks at the foot of
8 • GREYBRUCEBOOMERS.COM