Every journey has starting and ending points. When we tell our stories, we might start the tale of our journey from the regional airport in Biarritz, or a tower in Paris, or maybe 20 years earlier with a chance meeting in a local coffee shop. Our destination, whether Denver, the beach, Santiago de Compostela, or the corner store, is often incidental in the telling.

Three medieval Catholic pilgrimages began in Canterbury, at least according to the maps: the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela, the Via Francigena to Rome, and the road that continued to Jerusalem. For several years, all of my roads led to Santiago de Compostela, the destination at that time so much more important than where I began. Every pilgrimage begins on your own doorstep, seasoned pilgrims advised me.

After two walks across Spain on the Camino Frances from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela, starting points and destinations became relative. I met pilgrims who started on foot for Santiago de Compostela from homes in Spain, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark, among others. Some arrived in Santiago using paths they never intended to take, and some never saw Santiago.

If the frequency of medieval stone buildings called hospital are any indication, a medieval pilgrim en route to Santiago de Compostela had best focus on life’s journey because chances were, they would never arrive to kiss the statue of St. James in Santiago de Compostela. The destination can be motivation, but the journey is life, day-to-day, one foot in front of the other.

This blog begins with a simple plan to walk from a doorstep in Shrewsbury, Shropshire county in England’s West Midlands to Rome in 2021. My journey begins here, where I am.

The old saying that “All roads lead to Rome” implies we can all take different roads and still reach the same outcome. Rome is an arbitrary destination though, like Santiago de Compostela, Jerusalem, or a college degree. Even the center of an empire is named so by the victors. References to destinations become particularly poignant in quarantine where a day’s journey might begin and end on the path to the refrigerator.

If it’s true that all roads lead to Rome, it’s also true that all roads out of Rome lead to the entire world. A journey planned and canceled due to COVID-19 is still part of the journey, even if the journey begins in a kitchen and the destination is unknown.

In my case, all roads do lead to Rome, but I’ll walk only one, and who knows where it will end.