My 500km Walk of Acceptance Alongside Visions of the Future

The author walked about 485km of the Camino Frances over 22 days in April and May 2025, writing about grief, acceptance and a discovered value in their own over-planning. They describe crying through much of the walk after their divorce and finding support in other pilgrims, including a "Camino Family" of people they met along the way. A key turning point came in Logrono, where their habit of researching accommodation let them lead fellow pilgrims to their hostels during a mass blackout across the Iberian peninsula. The essay concludes that a self-perceived weakness can be reframed as a gift, so that acceptance makes change easier.