Day 26: Santiago.

Day in one word: processing

Wow. Arriving in Santiago was spectacular. On Saturday, my camino family and I got up at 3 am to walk a chunk of the final stage by moonlight. It was stunning and really nice to have the roads to ourselves again. Without any open restaurants, we had no reason to stop as often and make excellent time for 20 km. Gyeong Sun and I got a bit ahead of the pack, but we stopped to wait for them all once we saw the spires of the cathedral, and I'm so glad we did.

The atmosphere was truly set for us what with bagpipe music as a welcome and the square still relatively empty. We whooped and cheered as we made our way to the center of the plaza in front of the church and allowed ourselves to fall backwards onto the pavement. Sitting propped up against our backpacks in a straight line, we just chilled and stared up at the western facade (full of scaffolding, of course); with the rising sun glowing behind it, lighting up the low puffy clouds, it was a moment to remember. Pictures were taken, hugs were given, and the moment was savored before we quickly moved on to the pilgrims office to get our certificates of completion.

We crammed into the noon mass with hundreds of other pilgrims, and my wish came true because they lit and swung the botafumeiro right over my head. Then we looked at all the traditional sites inside the church: the portico of glory that has the marble handprint column, the sepulcher with the relics of St. James (supposedly), to name a few. The most memorable one in my mind will be the Door of Pardon though, which is a rare eastern entrance into the cathedral only open in holy years (next one in 2021). As Viktor and Ana explained it to me, entering through that particular door means all your sins ever are forgiven. We all gave each other skeptical looks, though I realized it was for different reasons when Ana said, "if only it were that easy." I'm sure I scared her half to death when I nearly jumped out of my skin and shouted, "But it is!!! You just say to Jesus 'Please forgive all my sins,' and he does!" A nun shushed me, so we didn't really get to finish our conversation until later that night, and it wasn't as deep as I'd hoped, so I'm sad about that. And sad about the lies. Grace is free to us and forgiveness simple, and look at the complicated mess it's been made into.

So, I can't say that I enjoyed the cathedral of Santiago all that much (although I do recommend the coolest roof tour ever). The church of San Francisco of Assisi was a better experience as we attended a special pilgrims prayer service led by a Franciscan monk. That was actually quite moving, probably because we were given real time to pray for ourselves and together. We ate a ton yesterday, I watched Germany win its fourth World Cup, we've cried our good-byes, and my month-long trek really is coming to a close.

I still can't believe I'm here, sitting in the square right now, listening to Celtic music. I'm grateful to God for his protection and guidance, for the continued healing of my feet. I love my new friends, and I'm thankful for the work in my heart. He has definitely written onto my blank canvas, filling it with nose kisses and truths. I'm sure the processing will go on for many days, weeks, and months.

Thank you for journeying with me. Thank you for praying and sending daily notes of encouragement. Thank you for all you've added to my life. I hope to spice up these blog posts with pictures to the corresponding stories in the next week or so, so feel free to check back. And who knows, I'll probably find more to write about concerning the camino soon.