It is coming up on a year now since I have left my beloved New York and my group of friends. Despite the 457,920 minutes that have passed, it still feels like yesterday.
A great many things have happened during these minutes. When I left Long Island, I drove to Michigan and dropped off my sister at home and left for the Toronto airport. Many hours later found me in Switzerland, on a train to Martingy. (Should you ever feel the urge to travel and see mountains, the Valais is the place to go.) I spent a week in Switzerland at a convent and what a peaceful week it was! I look forward to my return. After my stay was up, I traveled to Bordeaux, France, where I met my sister and her (now) fiance on a train headed towards St. Jean Pied de Port. I hadn’t seen her for months and I didn’t know her fella at all, and here we were planning to walk from southern France to western Spain…in the space of a month…camping in a children’s tent. For about 38 days, we carried all of our belongings on our backs as we walked the Camino de Santiago. If you think your feet know pain, and you haven’t hiked 500 miles before, then you don’t actually know pain. That pain is forgotten now. I have wonderful memories of stealth camping in the rain, drinking wine and eating bread and chorizo, and having meaningful conversations with my fellow pilgrims, and with God. Walking into Santiago de Compostella was an overwhelming experience, not only because you have actually succeeded in walking across a country, but also because your journey has come to an end, and the loved ones you have grown to know and respect more intimately than ever are going to leave you.
Such is life. At least we have the memories to cherish and hold us up while we are down.
Upon my return to Toronto, I drove to Buffalo NY to pick up my little brother, then to Port Huron to get two of my sisters, then on to Idaho for a night, and down to Santa Barbara California where I cooked for 25 people for 12 days while they walked 300 some miles to Carmel-By-the-Sea. After that (long and harrowing journey) I drove back up to Idaho where I proceeded to get a job at an Italian joint and have been working ever since.
Easter week, my best friend’s father died of cancer back east and I wasn’t able to be there. It was the first time since leaving that I had to look at (eew) my feelings. I miss my people tremendously. All seven of them. I told myself I’d do anything to be near them again because I’m not about all this loneliness. And then I went and turned down a job offer 15 minutes from them. (wth?! Gab) I must be crazy.
I guess we’ll see what the summer brings! There’s a wedding in a month….holy cow.
toseetimefly 