This is a memoir of my journey on foot along the pilgrimage road known as the Camino Francés from St. Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago, Spain from May 12, 2006 to June 12, 2006. It is a journey of approximately 500 miles, or 800 kilometers. It has given me a soulful library of memories and some enormously beautiful and painful life transforming lessons and experiences.

This is also one of my places to create and as such I consider it a type of sacred space. They say that writing is re-writing, and I believe it, but you'll find none of the gifts of refinement here, which is to say that as an avid reader of fine writing I am only too aware of my shortcomings. These are slightly worked over first drafts, outpourings, attempts, sometimes train wrecks, and every now and then something lovely. I can only say to you that I needed it to be that way, and desperately so, or it would have never occurred at all. It's been a lot like embarking on the Camino alone: you have to go to the most uncertain and frightening place in your heart and accept the adventure.

While you are visiting this site I hope you find something you are looking for. If not, maybe something will find you. If you are planning your own Camino, perhaps the best advice I can give you boils down to this: sometimes it takes a lot of steps to wake up your heart, sometimes only one. Get walking.

~Deb