Tick, Tick, TICK!

I´m down to hours in Santiago. Just as the city begins to feel home like, it´s time to leave.  It really is.  I´m ready, or as much as any of us is after a fairly long walk, to reenter my real world. Reenter without scaring the hell out of my family and friends.  In my own weird way, I think after finally arriving in the City, I felt maybe a little like Moses did when he came down from the mountain, and people couldn´t look at him.  I just wasn´t ready to have "regular" conversations. I wasn´t ready to think about daily tasks.  Tasks that weren´t walking, washing laundry by hand, and eating something before sleeping again. Tasks that were anything but being, praying and enjoying the world as a whole.

OH....more tears here in the Emerald City!  Sitting here typing, Rita, with whom I literally began my walk, appeared!  We set our feet on the path to Santiago, together, on May 13th just before the gate in St. Jean Pied du Port.  Today on my very last day, she is here with me again!  Some how, it seems to round things out, complete and close a chapter.  Beautifully.  I think as of now there is only one friend I haven´t been able to say a proper goodbye to.  And in it´s own way that is ok too.