Walking into Myself

October 16, 2025

Hiking the Camino de Santiago was never a bucket list item for me.  I have my neighbor and friend Nicole to thank for this.  I was planning on spending a month in Portugal and she asked me what I was planning to do and I said primarily reading, journaling and drinking wine and she said, ‘isn’t that what you do right now’?  Fair point, so I asked if she had any suggestions and she said you should hike the Camino (which I never heard of) and after ten minutes I was convinced.

There are several different types of Camino’s but the one I am doing is called El Camino de Santiago or the Way of St. James.  It has been traveled by pilgrims for over a thousand years.  My journey will start in Saint Jean Pied-de-Port France and will end in Santiago de Compostela- 500 miles away which will take me 38 days (three of which are rest days).  That’s right, 500 miles…. Have I been training- a bit.  Have I done anything like this before- never.  Do I have any concerns- plenty.

But the truth is I need it to be hard.  As you know, I lost my wife nearly two years ago to cancer and while I have made incredible strides to gracefully come out the other side of my grief, this journey is the most difficult thing I have ever done.  Painfully, I think it is harder than losing Jessica because for me she was my purpose and that purpose was to make every step of her life fulfilled and loved.  But now my purpose is me and I found this to be incredible difficult.

I think that hiking all day long for nearly 6 weeks will give me the right venue to ask some very difficult questions that I need to process.  For example, what does balance, peace, and happiness look like for me?  How do I grow from this tragedy?  Who is Ryan 2.0 and what does the second chapter of my life entail?  So thanks again Nicole, this is the step change that I needed to take.

My plan is to provide short daily summaries complemented with a couple of pictures to keep you guys in the loop on my journey.  I know for some of you these entires will serve as proof of life as I know there is some minor concern with my expertise in this journey.  As everyone knows, hiking is basically walking but rewarded with wine at the end of the day.  Since I have been basically walking my entire life and my wine consumption expertise is at an elite level I am going to be just fine.

Love you- Ryan.