Somehow saying "1.1 million steps" best captures both the scale and scope of the Camino as well as the deeply personal nature of this pilgrimage.
The 450 miles Janet (my wife) and I walked, from Pamplona to Santiago de Compestela, is something that would typically take a day or two by car, or a day's train ride, or a short hop by airplane.

But, 1.1 million steps is what it takes a human to walk it, at human speed, in human time;  1.1 million steps take time. 

I have spent my life focused on "destinations, " moving fast to get to the next goal, objective, or place.  In the process, I missed the richness of "the getting there," of the journey itself.  My intent was that my experience of walking the Camino would be different.  I decided to do the Camino as a journey, for the sake of the journey, and not as a means to a destination.  As I trained for the Camino, I trained my body for the physical challenge and I taught my mind how to focus on the walk itself, the day-to-day experience, and to let go of focusing on just getting somewhere.
 
I was more successful than I had hoped.  Of course, I wanted to get to Santiago and knew it was our endpoint.  But because of my training, I was able to put my attention on where I was, "here," rather than focusing only on where I was going. and when I would get there.  We did reach Santiago and were fortunate enough to be able to walk the whole way.  This was an accomplishment for both Janet and me.  But the real accomplishment for me, the personal one, was in being much more fully present across each day, throughout the entire journey.

Of the 1.1 million steps, probably a million wove through the beautiful wine, cattle, and farming country of Northern Spain.  The other 100,000 steps were taken on busy roads with big trucks, through dirty, noisy cities or both.  My first inclination was to try to act as if these genuinely unpleasant sections were not really part of the Camino.  But then our trip leader, Dave, reminded me with a wry and wise smile, "It's ALL part of the Camino, Art."   

We never needed a map on the Camino.  The entire way was marked with clam-shell markers and ubiquitous yellow arrows painted on every conceivable surface. Getting lost on the Camino is really not a worry. Like many Pilgrims, Santiago is where we landed. However,the actual end of the Camino is about 50 miles west on a rocky bluff, overlooking the Atlantic, Finisterre - the end of the earth.

When I first returned home, I was bewildered by moving so rapidly - from the simplicity of the Camino to the complexity of "normal" life.  How am I going to discern the path now before me?  I despaired seeing how the journey of the Camino might not continue within me, not taking me as I hoped for into new territory and in a new form.

Then, I realized, that the next part of my journey could proceed like any journey of a million steps:  one step at a time, always present to being "here," and accepting of every part of the journey, the pleasant and not-so pleasant.
 
Accepting all of it, as part of the journey. 
 
I know that when I am quiet, I can better "see" the next yellow arrow, marking the path of my life.