This is it

(St Jean Pied de Port in southern France. I don’t like the look of those mountains. They’re pretty and all but going up is gonna be a drag.)
I remember a cartoon about two Buddhist monks sitting in a meditation hall. The younger monk asks what happens next and the older one says “what do you mean? This is it!”
I think that’s a pretty good metaphor for life. We often act like we’re waiting for it to happen at some point in the future, but the older monk was right.
This is it.
I thought of that during the 24 hour or so period I’ve spent getting to starting point of the French Way or path along the Camino de Santiago in Spain (St Jean Pied de Port in the Pyrenees Mountains in southern France, where this branch of the 480 mile walk begins).
It occurred to me that the “real” pilgrimage doesn’t start in a cool Romantic place. It starts when you step outside the normal door.
The hassles of driving, scrambling thrgough airports, delays, lines, sleeplessness, etc. aren’t just preliminaries any more than daily life is different from our real life.
This is it.