Tag Archives: Camino

Camino minus 28 – How Many Grams does God Weigh?

Posted on by Kathleen Foote

I did get out this morning, but it was hard. The weather was too lovely to resist – it was perfect “drive-the-Fiat-convertible- top-down” weather but I resisted driving and walked instead. I couldn’t fall asleep last night so I overslept, was tired, and ran behind schedule so driving would have been soooo lovely and convenient. But I walked. And it was hard.

Today was a busy Wednesday. I have a German class every Wednesday at lunch time.   But I have had trouble getting there on time since I determined Wednesday would be my “walk to Patch” day. Walking on German class day means I have to leave the house extra early in order to arrive on time and, well, I just don’t seem to be able to do it.

Today I had lunch with a woman who is planning to walk the Camino with a friend this coming July a few days after I plan to be back home. Her girlfriend is the driving force behind their Camino. She herself is just returning from a trip to Barcelona! Plus, she is a very experienced traveller/walker, so I doubt she will have any trouble.

Her boyfriend is concerned about her safety. I told her that, on the on-line Forum, she will find answers to questions about the safety of women traveling solo (safe enough) but I don’t recall questions about safety of women who are traveling in groups. It doesn’t seem to be a concern. She mentioned the sleeping arrangements and I never thought of them as threatening – up to a hundred people of all ages sleeping in bunk beds in the same room.

I feel more threatened about body odor and snorers.

And I didn’t mention bedbugs. I don’t want to think about them, why get someone else all riled up.

She asked good questions about how to get the biggest “bang for the buck” when walking, since they have a limited time for their walk. They want to get a Campostella, the certificate issued at the Cathedral  in Santiago de Campostella signifying that you walked at least the last 100 kilometers, yet they also want to hit the important cathedrals in northern Spain. They are also considering walking in the Pyrenees because it will be a much cooler walk (temperature-wise) during July. However, the Pyrenees part of the walk is 800 kilometers from the Cathedral in Santiago.

She asked me several questions about spirituality and what role spirituality played/ is playing/ will play in my Camino. Difficult, difficult questions. One writer whose Camino book I’ve read, Kevin Codd’s To the Field of Stars, mentions how the writer got into the rhythm of starting each day of his walk saying the rosary. I’ve started that and found it useful. It let’s my mind focus on things, people, other than my self (my feet, my back, my thirst).

At this point, however, I’ve been able to brush aside the big spiritual questions as I prepare the practical, technical items I’ll need – passport (check), sunblock (check). I seem to be avoiding working on the most difficult aspect of the Camino:

What, if anything, do I hope to get out of this? Why am I doing this?

The obvious answer is that you can’t prepare in advance for this. The Camino will provide what you need. Some pilgrims don’t seem to get anything out of it and are disappointed. I hope that will not be me. One pilgrim suggests that you can’t find God at the end of the Camino if you don’t bring him with you from the beginning.

Great. More stuff I have to bring.

KIDDING!!!!

Camino minus 29 Days – Grand Malaise

Posted on by Kathleen Foote

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The definition of “malaise” is “a general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness, whose exact cause is difficult to identify.”

My training plan was to walk a few miles every day and I usually do. Today, however, I just couldn’t get the energy. Not enough sleep? Too much walking? Bad breakfast?

I don’t know but I couldn’t get it together until too late in the day to go out.

I have the feeling I have things on my mind simmering too far below the surface to be thought through, yet too close to the surface to be ignored. I feel restless, but can’t move.

The Camino has me in a holding pattern. There isn’t much I can do to get ready now except walk.

I have my backpack and my boots are on the way. I don’t need any more clothes (OK, maybe a new pair of pants and a warm weather shirt).  I have five pairs of socks.

The other things I need to pack are all minor – gloves, Compeed, zip-loc bags.

I’ve read books and articles about the Camino, been a Camino Forum member and asked questions of experienced “peregrinos.”

I’ve watched videos on YouTube and I’ve made the few reservations that I need.

I have walked the miles to Patch often enough that, although still challenging, I know I can do it. I’ve participated in long Volksmarches.

I’ll wash and waterproof my ol’ faithful red rain jacket.

I’m running out of ways to prepare. I am in danger of overpreparing.

Because I’ll be gone for five weeks, I can’t get involved in long-term projects (the theater, learning long-arm quilting, developing a plan to teach) until I return.

With only a month to go, I don’t have time to get involved in short-term projects either  (making a quilt, starting an on-line class, starting just about anything).

I’m on the runway waiting for launch.

I looked up the definition of pilgrimage and came up with several suggestions.

” . . . a journey to a place associated with someone or something well known or respected . . . ” – New Oxford American Dictionary

” . . . a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance . . .” – Wikipedia

” . . . a journey in which one travels a distance to pay their respects to a religious icon . . . ” – Ask.com

” . . . a ritual journey with a hallowed purpose . . . ” – Illuminated Journey

” . . . a long journey or search, especially on of exalted purpose or moral significance . . . ” – the Free Dictionary

” . . . invitations from God to visit spiritual locations and signposts left behind by God . . . ” – 206Tours.com

” . . . a personal invitation from God . . . ” – Medjugorje.org

Surprisingly, some of the most heartfelt and thoughtful came from tour companies selling trips to pilgrimage sites.

I hope that tomorrow I have the energy to get out and do what I need to do. Tomorrow is my big trek day of the week (walk to Patch) and the more I do it, the less I look forward to it. I know the parts that are hard and don’t want to do them. I know the parts that are boring and long to take my headphones.

I know I have to go if the weather is rainy, or wet, or cold and I just DON’T WANT TO DO IT!

I need a good night’s sleep.

Camino minus 30 Days – Am I Bigfoot?

Posted on by Kathleen Foote

I spent an hour and a half on the phone with my mother, catching up on news. It’s not surprising how much you miss when you’re 3,000 miles from home. She has heard about my Camino trip from the children. She doesn’t know much about it, but she has always been my most fervent supporter of any adventurous inclination I have displayed, justified or not. My Camino is no exception.

Tell me all about it, she asks enthusiastically. But how can I tell her about an adventure I haven’t been on yet? I struggle to describe what I’ve heard of other people’s experiences, but I know I’m being false and I quickly surrender.

Go to the library and get this movie, “The Way,” I tell her. We’ll talk about it next week.  That way, I commit myself to calling next week, which I want to do but too often get caught up in other things. Really, what’s more important than talking to your mother????

I ordered new boots last night. My old faithful ones, the ones I had planned on using for the Camino, had suddenly, inexplicably, given me the dreaded “black toe” last week while on a routine 11 km hike. I was totally dumbfounded. This was a walk I have done, same boots, same socks, same backpacks, numerous times in the past two months. Yet, this time, I found myself consciously pulling my right foot back at each footfall in order to not have the toe press against the front of the boot. What’s going on here?

I’ve had the Black Toe before from shoes that didn’t fit correctly and even from simple overuse in fairly well-fitting shoes, but I thought I had these boots well broken in. Now, with only 30 days to go, I have to hope and pray that the shoes I ordered would a) arrive on time, and b) fit.

For days before hitting the “submit order” button on the Zappos website, I had spent time in local sporting goods stores trying the shoes of my choice, based on internet recommendations – a pair of Merrell Moab Ventilators. My feet had perversely decided to change sizes on me at the last minute, just to mess with my mind, so I couldn’t just order shoes of the same size as I had worn for the past year. I never wear the same size twice.

I’m glad I did because it turns out that I don’t wear a size 41, the size I have been wearing – comfortably – until last week. Now, I need a size 43.

Men’s!

Until I tried on these new shoes and enjoyed the comfort, I had been feeling so good about my physical condition. Weight holding steady, blood pressure down dramatically, able to climb gentle hills without huffing and puffing, no longer dreading the uphill walk to the apartment and the accompanying three flights of stairs. But now, realizing the delight my toes are signalling to my brain in these new shoes at the store, I suspect that blood, bone, and excess fat had simply slithered down to my feet, providing a false sense of cushy, soft, marshmallowy security. Now, I realize where all the weight has shifted to – into my big, fat, magically-mutated-into-a-man’s foot.

Only one foot, though, the right one. The left one still feels feminine at a dainty size 41.

*Sigh* I’m so not ready for this trip. In so many ways.

 

Since When am I a Pilgrim??? – Camino minus 31 Days

Posted on by Kathleen Foote

One month from today, I will finally begin a journey for which I’ve been preparing, at least mentally, for the past year and a half. I will begin walking the camino de Santiago de Campostella, in Spain.

I had never heard about the Camino until a year and a half ago. One night in November 2011, I was supposed to go with a friend to see a movie in a new part of the town to which I had recently moved, Hampton Roads, Virginia. At the very last minute, she couldn’t go. However, since I was already prepared, I went by myself.

The movie was a recently released movie titled, “The Way,” starring Martin Sheen, who was a special favorite of mine because of an act of personal kindness he once did for one of my family members.

The story tells of a father, played by Sheen, whose adult son dies at the start of  the son’s walk on the 500 mile Camino Frances, a route which goes across all of northern Spain and is one of the most ancient pilgrimage routes. The father decides to continue his son’s walk in his memory, perhaps as a penitential act for his earlier father/son clashes with the young man.

Along the way, he meets people who are doing the Camino for their own reasons.  Several of them inexorably join Sheen’s character and  form a Camino “family” and each ends the journey with his or her own personal discovery – some exceeding expectations and some, frankly,  not.

The movie was not the very best movie I had ever seen – it had flaws. However, the story called to me in a way no story had before (yes, I know it’s a cliché).

I have no big demons in the closet to exorcise, I have people I love and who love me (as best I can gauge, LOL). On balance, God has been good to me, my family, and my friends and I believe He is always on our side. I am content and comfortable.

But this movie about these people on a long walk stirred up a curious desire in me to follow in their footsteps. I wanted to get what these actors in a movie had gotten! Yes, I knew it was fiction!! Yet, an inner voice called and refused to be dismissed!

I secretly decided to plan this trip. But how does one explain to family that one wants to go on what is, essentially and foremost, a pilgrimage? That word has such a weird connotation in today’s world. Freaky.

I don’t consider myself a religious nut. I enjoy going to Church now as an adult. As a kid I had found Catholicism simple and undemanding. As a young adult, however, it became more and more boring, disagreeable, and irrelevant.  Recently, I find that I disagree with the Roman Catholic Church on many issues.

So, now, I have a hard time explaining why this very Christian activity is something that I feel compelled to do. I don’t know how to “do” or “make” a pilgrimage – I’m not sure what that even means. What is the difference between a pilgrim and a walker? Expectations? Desires? Backpack size?

After six months, I shared my plans with my DH (Dear Husband). Of course, he was perplexed yet, bless his heart, totally supportive from the start. For me, sharing this goal with other people was an important part of finally committing to the Camino. Telling my family about my plan was the nail in the coffin of committment.

Yet, as soon as I started to share, I started getting the questions, questions, questions. What is it? Where is it? How will you get there? Who are you going with? How long will you be away? It is how long a trip!?? By yourself??!! I’m sure many thought (although too kind to say out loud), aren’t you a little old for this?

And, the most difficult yet most obvious question – why?

If I tell them that I’m doing it for fun, to get in shape, I would get some admiring smiles, like telling friends you plan to run a marathon (although many would suggest there are easier ways).  But that wouldn’t be true.

So I tell them it’s a pilgrimage, and I get very strange and uncomprehending looks, as if they suddenly see something weird and uncomfortable in me that they never suspected before.

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