Gratitude & Hope at Journey’s End

February 6, 2026
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journeys end Mike O'Malley.
From left: Mike O’Malley; La Perla Negra albergue owner; and Pat McCabe stand in front of the albergue on May 3, 2025, in Azqueta, Navarra. Pat had also stayed at this albergue on five previous Caminos. Photo by a generous pilgrim.

Gratitude & Hope at Journey’s End

by James Michael O’Malley | Colorado Springs, CO

I set out on my first Camino with my college roommate, Pat, on his 14th Camino.

I am forever grateful for having a fulfilling 43-year career and am thankfully in good health. Walking the Camino was truly a blessing, allowing me to connect and celebrate with so many people I was meeting for the first time. 

This brings me to hope. The world is going to be okay. So many young people, including some I met on Camino, are filling the world with pure visions and hopes of their own. The good in their hearts and minds will prevail. 

Each Camino is one’s own. Pat and I started together, much like we did at Maine Maritime Academy in 1978. We finished separately, much as we have lived these intervening years. I hope our Caminos de la Vida end as magnificently as that day we each walked into the Praza do Obradoiro and attended Mass at the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela.

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First-time solo pilgrim Isabella, 18, from Germany, on May 3, 2025 in the Parroquia de Santa María de los Arcos. Photo by James Michael O’Malley.
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Mike O’Malley stands in front of the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela in the Praza do Obradoiro at the conclusion of his first Camino on June 2, 2025. Photo by a generous pilgrim.
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