Today is the first day I realized that I am directed by forces beyond my control – for October anyway. Today, I rationalized an excuse to walk the Camino France´s. It really wasn’t “me,” though. It was that same force that seeded itself inside my brain last September to walk my first Camino, the Portuguese coastal. Today that force led me to reason that I was going to die anyway, at some point, so why not die doing something extraordinary? Even, if I didn’t actually die, but just injured myself, this mishap could happen anywhere, at anytime, so why not have it happen while taking on a challenge.
I have been toying with the idea of walking another Camino and if I am ever going to walk the Camino France´s it has to be sooner rather than later. I worried about the climbs; I worried about the weather; I worried about my commitment and my strength of will to actually see it through. Then I decided to throw caution to the winds….and there will be wind and just follow the sirens’ call.
I’ve been walking 10kms three times a week for the past three weeks and I have been energized. Today an equipment company that I had bought something from last October sent me an email saying that I had a $15.00 credit with them that was about to expire. I have a list – a short list – of a few things that I would take on another Camino. I knew I wanted a waist pack with accommodation for two small water bottles. I went onto the Athletica site and found the waist pack I wanted and it was blue – one of the colours of the Camino. Doesn’t it just scream, “YOU HAVE TO DO THIS.” I bought the waist pack. I now need a better poncho. I know that the Camino will send me links on FB for a rain poncho that I can’t resist.
I will be helping out a fellow pilgrim on Nov 2 at an all day Camino meeting. She has done part of the France´s. I will pick her brain. There is a magnetism out there that is compelling and I seem to be caught in its primordial “pull.” I am almost finished the final revision of my book(let) describing my first Camino – Pathway to Peace and I have the title for my second book – “Pathway to Heaven.” So, hey, I just have to walk it, write about it and think about my third Camino.
Buen Camino