Qu’importe là où je vais, tant que j’ai l’audace de tenir la main de l’autre, pour aimer le temps qui passe. — Zaz, Qué Vendrá

Escribo Mi Camino

On June 18th, I start walking. Not away from anything — toward everything.

The Camino Francés is 500 miles of ancient road across northern Spain, walked by pilgrims for a thousand years. I am not a pilgrim in the religious sense, though I understand now why people use that word. There is something about choosing a hard, beautiful thing: lacing up your shoes, stepping into the unknown, trusting your legs and your instincts — that changes the quality of your attention. That is what I am after.

This blog begins in the before. In the spring anticipation. In the early morning walks while the rest of the world is still sleeping. In the research, the gear, the maps, the questions I don’t yet know how to ask. In the particular pleasure of preparing for something that matters.

But Escribo Mi Camino is not going to be only about walking. It is about the way I move through the world — slowly enough to notice things. A market in the Marais. A table set with intention. A room that makes you exhale. Food that tastes like somewhere. The kinds of beauty that don’t announce themselves.

I am a woman with a very full vie publique. This is my vie privée. Written one step at a time.

Bienvenida. Bienvenue. Welcome.