So on the 5th day, somewhere on KM 75, I could finally walk my Camino alone. A glorious, solitary stretch of 7 or so kilometers that was like coming home: a reminder how singularly important solitude is to me, everyday to be alone and zero out the noise and haste and just be with me. To hear one’s self is to hear God.
So alone, our conversation then gravitated rather quickly to the mission I’ve been entrusted with: to help others live purposeful lives of nothing less than transcendence.
“To do what we were born to do in the company of others who are doing what they were born to do”, as our IGNITE mantra goes.
It is a mission focused on founders in the business context – and particularly in a venture capital context – yet it is a mission every bit as resonant and fundamentally in accord with my desires for and interactions with family and friends. It is all I ask of my sons and all I ask of myself in bringing them up as a father.
“If the founders of religions came back today, would they recognize their work?”, read one of the posters in a long wall of points to ponder.
Still and always gathering my thoughts as these conversations go, but the sweet consolation, as Ignatius puts it, was very much felt.
So onto Day 6, the penultimate day to our final destination of Santiago de Compostella. I don’t want this Camino to end, but as all good things must, I carry again today all your intentions, and in a special way, I carry the Greatness I know is in each and every one of you.
So keep whispering to the wind. These country roads will take your prayers home and I will find them and carry them in today’s walk.
