Day 22: Hospital de Orbigo to Murias de Rechivaldo: 22.3 km, 6 hours. Total for Days 1-22 = 520 km (323 miles)
There are moments I think of the people I love and there are moments I remind myself to think of the people I love. But mostly I think only of the present, the people who walk with me and what the walk will bring me today.
Exercising the greatest care so as not to make a sound, I climbed up to my bunk last night and slipped into the thin silk liner that has kept me warm and safe the past 21 nights. Lying there, it occurred to me that here I am sleeping next to nineteen of my closest friends, and I don't even know their names.
Every night I fall asleep accompanied by the snoring of the man three bunks down, the creaking of the bed as the person underneath turns in his sleep, and the disruption of alarms going off and people waking up every half hour, sometimes as early as four o'clock. Last night I took my earplugs out and listened to the stirs and snores, and I smiled thinking about the joy these sounds bring me.
I've walked with these people for hundreds of kilometers. I've shared meals with them. I've handed my unfinished plate of spaghetti to a man across the table so he could eat the rest. I've examined other pilgrim's blisters and rashes. I've dissected the fate of humankind, the origins of religion and the purpose of language with people I'd only just met that day. I am grateful for my time with them – whether it be a few seconds or minutes or days.
I have an abundance of appreciation for everything I've experienced and everything that is still to come on my journey. I am so sad to think that my days on the Camino are coming to an end. But that day is not today, and today I can only do today. That's more than enough for me.
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi – Special to the Times
Kelly Osborne-Rozgonyi, 29, of St. Petersburg, FL., is a teacher at Country Day School in Largo, FL. She is currently in Europe walking the 500-mile Camino De Santiago. She is sending the Times a daily blog post about her solo journey, which is expected to last 33 days, ending on August 4, 2017. You can e-mail Kelly at kellys2017camino@gmail.com, though you might not hear back until after she returns.
Read the post for Day 23 of Kelly's Camino.