Month: May 2016

Last night was spent in a century’s old albergue run and hosted by a married couple, the man had 14 times walked the various Caminos. It inspired him to start an albergue, with his wife to aide pilgrams , asking only a donation for the overnight stay which offered a shared dinner and breakfast. The albergue was a restoration in progress, it only had one bathroom with shower , sink and toilet all behind one door. That bathroom had to serve the needs of 34 pilgrams bedded on three different floors. It was the art of sharing, letting someone with urgent toilet needs enter the bathroom to the front of the line. Everyone attentive to the needs of others , it reminded me of a saying that a dear friend of mine coined, Archie has now passed, but he used to say” be ever mindful of the need of others” Thank you Archie my friend RIP.

While sleeping in the rustic albergue last night I was visited 3 times in the night by a ghost, spirit or angel. The first awakened me to the feeling of my blanket being placed upon my feet. The second was my feet being moved physically to the center of the bed. The third was like a cat jumping upon my feet and shaking the bed, each time I opened my eyes to see nothing, the last time I was fully awake during the encounter.in the morning I talked to the hosts about my encounter, they shared that they have seen , yes seen , four different spirits, the woman host said they are spirit and spiritual guides. She shared that after they make contact with a pilgrams they don’t show back up in the albergue for weeks as the spirits give spiritual guidance to the contacted pilgram all along the Camino.the hostess said I should be open to further contact in a couple of days. I welcome the contact. 

I shared the story and found out that a lady on the ground floor also had contact during the night. She started to tool off of her bunk and was caught and supported back upon her bunk. After my sharing PJ one of my travel companions went to the room where I had been sleeping alone. He heard the sound of breathing with no one in the room. 

The walk to Belorado was peacefull and serene, many deep conversations with my travel mates. Lots of deep sharing, I and grateful , for their genuine opened to share their inner thoughts, thank you Lisa, PJ , and Stewart. 

I again walked alone for part of the time working on my stride to reduce the aches and pains in my ankle and knee. I would find a certain stride that would produce no pain for several minutes, then all of a sudden, some random pain would start up again. 

We have all decided tha a full day of rest is in orde in the town of Belorado. We checked into a fantastic albergue for a two night stay, great food and a warm family that hosts the hostel. We enjoyed a late lunch of shared tapas, and Stewart and I each had a well deserved  San Miguel Beer.

Had a 2 hour nap, in the siesta tradition, walked very little of the town to rest my foot,Stewart went to the doctor for his nagging cough and got some antibiotics. He I on the mend. PJ. and Lisa did their usual shopping for fresh veggies and cooked their evening meal, after a 3 hour nap. 

Thought for the day: The steps of your path is your destination. It is not the perceived outcome, of those steps,  but the single step in motion in the present.

Started early from Azofra with a cup of coffee to start the walk, using a brace on my left knee seems to help, varied Terrain today , vineyards gave way to wheat fields and oats, mostly rolling hills with a few steep accents and descents . Traveling from east to west at dawn, I observed the dawning of my shadow, starting with a very long shadow that was leading me along the path, I followed my shadow for hours , my shadow becoming shorter and shorter as the sun rose higher in the sky, at the apex of the sun sun the shadow began to follow me. I spent time discovering the shadows within myself, my judgments , my slants, my profiling, my expectations, my shadow ego. A very fulfilling day of introspection. 

Thought for the day: it’s not your experiences that shape you, but what you make of them.

After a very hot walk yesterday and a wonderful stay at a fabulous albergue. The day was started cool, wore my jacket all day . The weather has rapidly turned cold with approaching cold front rain and thunder forecast for the afternoon. I have been troubled by the ankle sprain , caused by bicyclist zooming by from behind with no warning, a few days ago , startled me ,allowing  me to loose my balance and foot placement and thus rolled my left ankle. Yesterday I was walking alone and again was passed by a trio of speeding downhill cyclists without warning. The first one struck me with a glancing blow from behind, knocked me off balance and re-rolled my ankle, they kept going without a word spoken. 

 Today was the the practice of being in tune with my step, the pace, the length of stride, weight on the outside of the foot, on the inside of the of the foot. All manners of walking to ease the discomfort of the ankle, and because of compensation to the ankle yesterday and my now bothersome left knee.  But it was the day of the step. I also got to confront my anger and distrust of all cyclists, I am guilty of profiling. So I spent much time looking at the issue within. 

The young man sitting at the table was named Daniel he was using arm crutches, as he had no use of his legs , maybe spastic , he was walking the Camino 6 Km a day, quite an inspiration to me, his hands were of leather due to his grip on the crutches , his smile was the expression of his heart.

The thought of the day: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a secret, today is a gift.

Very hot in the Albergue last night, not much sleep due to tha heat and humidity. Got up at 5:30, it was 70 + at 6am, took an hour to walk out of the city. Another short 10 mile walk in the the heat and humidity the temp rose to 85 . All of us were suffering the heat , not much shade, and lots of new aches and pains, for all of us hydration has become an issue. So we are drinking lots of water. Our walk today took us thru the vineyards of northern Spain , such beautiful sights and countryside. We were greated at the albergue in Ventosa with cold water, by a very nice host couple, we could not wait to hit the shower for a long cooling time.

Today’s thought for the day: Henery Ford

If you believe you can do it, you are right, if you believe you can’t do it you are also right.

A day of placing stones again, so most all of you have have been stoned by me, LoL . I also did much thinking about how we create seperation in our lives, religious , political, ethnic, cultural, gender etc. so I placed several rock cairns, that had two vertical rocks and a larger rock on top spanning the vertical rocks kind of like a pagoda, the symbology to me was , we each are unique but we are connected or bridged to one another. Also we bridge the past to the present, the present to the future, so I spent much time enjoying the sense of connectedness. It was a fine experience to walk into the large city of Logrono. Rested my tired feet in a cold foot fountain at the public Albergue. Had a cold beer and a high carb dinner. 

Photos later due to very slow internet even in the big city.

Very short walk today to Rio de Torres, after yesterday’s marathon hike took it very easy. I tried something different today during the walk, mindlessness, tried for a quiet mind, I only wanted to experience my sense of smell, the wheat growing along the path, the flowers, the animal dung was quite easy to experience, the wet lands are different from the dry areas, all in all a fun time, when the mind got busy I would focus like a Monty on the quote from 

Theodore Roosevelt

Do what you can with what you have, wherever you are.i would use that to quite the mind back to mindlessness.

Slow internet photos later.

Today I left  Lorca early before the others, I wanted to walk alone only saw a dozen or so pilgrams all day.

The walk was a very long 34+ km started at 6:30 am finished at 4 pm in Los Arcos. 

Today I walked with my music all day, clicking my trek poles to the time of the music and yes trying to sing, no one around to hear me. Today I placed a stone along the path for every person in my life that I could recall from childhood to present , so you are all included, I placed stones on top of markers and on stone piles. As I thought of each one of you I expanded the place in my heart where you reside. I also placed stones for that I have known and passed to the next journey. I expressed love and greatfulness for having each of you in my life, as each of you has impacted my life in one way or another. I am truly blessed to have had each of you in my life. A great day remembering friends and listening to music. Oh and visiting the fountain of vino, free wine too bad it was so early.

A very short day today, my walk partners and I were still tired from yesterday’s trek up and over the mountain. None of us is in a hurry and we are enjoying each little village, we spend time taking in each place we walk thru. Ready tomorrow for a few more miles, still quite a bit of vertical in front of us. All of our ailments are improving daily. 

One of the Asian ladies that we met on the train to St. Jean , fell and broke her arm, spent some time in the hospital in  Logrono. We wish her future safe travels along the Camino.we are spending the night in the village of Lorca. 

Today my focus was to forgive others.

Today was a most significant day, started out with thunder and lightning all night long, woke up to rain . Everyone putting on rain gear for the long up hill trek to the windmills , then a very steep decent down to the verdant valley. After a long struggle up hill arrived to have a fantastic view of the trek ahead and Pamplona and the Pyrenee’s behind. As I started Down the steep rock and pebble covered path, I observed many placed rock piles , and stacked rocks called carins , don’t know the spelling. I wondered why people add to the piles or stack the rocks. My answer was, that it didn’t matter why others placed their rocks. What mattered was why I would stack or place them. I decided that I would place them for atonement. To place one for the girl in kindergarten that I pulled he pig tail. For other acts that I was not proud of. Any transgressions that I may have committed , known to me or unknown. Atonement for any wrong doing on my part. I also placed a stack holding blessings and positive thoughts and prayers for my family, I also set a stack for the entire family of man and a stack for the beautiful planet the we live on. As I decended the steep mountain .

I came across an old man going in the opposite direction, I pulled out my camera to get a photo of this very old man, only to realize that he was a man of the cloth. His first words to me were, your atonement has been heard and your blessings received. He then blessed me an said that all is forgiven in my life. This was without a word from me. I had not spoken to him at all except buen dia. He told me to enjoy the spiritual part of my Camino and blessed my journey and continued his walk in the opposite direction. A truly amazing Encounter. Became a very emotional day as I thought about the relationship and love that I have for my family, I also thought about my relationship with all my friends, and thankful for all the great times with my friends.

On the way down the thunderstorm started building so I ducked into a cafe and moments later came pouring rain and hail. Many pilgrims were caught in the downpour. 

The rest of the day was spent visiting one of three octagon shaped temples built in Spain by the Nights Templar. It was a few km off the normal path. We arrived late into Obanos for the night. The four of us ate dinner and had deep conversations, that came from deep within.

After our day of rest started the walk to Pamplona , walked an alternate route along the river, a wonderful stroll into the city of Pamplona , impressed by the old structures and the cobbled streets. Wondered what the old pilgrims felt as they entered the city. I was impressed with the city parks, not impressed with the hustle bustle of the city, busses, cars, horns, sirens, diesel smells, got to the other side of the city and stayed in a very nice albergue in Cizor Menora host by a nice lady that spoke great English and gave foot massages. Glad to be out of the big city.

Q