Friday, March 22, 2024

The Way - Day 38

 One of the great conversations among those who are considering walking the Camino is foot wear - style - type - brand - high top - low cut - heavy weight soles - lightweight - shoes or sandals - flexibility - socks - and more.  Once on the Camino - one learns that your precious footwear which you invested a lot of money on - has to be left at the albergue entrance - cannot take to your bunk - at risk of being taken either accidentally or intentionally.  Rarely - pilgrims with old or uncomfortable footwear will leave theirs in the rack and take somebody else's.  More often in the early morning in the dark - someone accidentally takes a pair similar to theirs but not theirs - causing destress and anxiety.  Because we wanted to ensure that this did not happen to us - we made it a point to tie our shoes together with the laces and then tie our two pair together making it difficult for anyone to accidentally take the wrong four shoes in place of their two.  Foot care is very important on the Camino - especially when you get blisters. As noted in an earlier post - the complete Camino - from the Pyrenees to Santiago is about one million steps.  Since we did not start in France and walk over the mountains into Spain - we would only have about 800,000 possible steps maximum.  In reality I only got one blister - one that refused to heal since I was continuing to irritate that area on a daily basis.  Here now - at home on our Lenten journey - a spiritual trip - so easy for us to make changes - when we experience a misstep - changes to our our plans - easy - able to continue towards our goal. 


Will my shoes be there in the morning?

There are a bunch of bridges in this area due to the high water level - now that level much lower so it makes one wonder what happened to the water


Bridge system 


Back on solid ground 


More morning fog 


Nice web 


What wove this? 


Trail along the highway 


Place to rest sore feet - eat a snack 


Cemetery 


We are not alone no matter what path we follow 


Welcome to our villa 


John Deere tractor sales - familiar sight reminder of home 


Should we stay or should we go - we went 


Close to village - blacktop - time to think about stopping 


After 17 Kilometers - Vino y tapas  - we stopped - 3 cheeses - 3 meats - bread - wine 


Our albergue for the night 


Hello stranger - are these for us?


Nice looking horse

This day ended with us sipping wine - munching on cheese & meats - waiting for dinner time.
Throughout Lent it is important that we nurture not only our spirits but also our bodies - although fasting - by consuming less - is good - completely avoiding food is not exactly what is expected. When we deny ourselves of all food - drink - it often becomes counter productive - creating an anger inside - that we have to starve.  The goal is spiritual enlightenment - drawing closer to God - not anger because somebody decided you had to go hungry or thirsty.  Each individual has to make that decision for themselves - not for others.  As for us on Camino - we went to the local restaurant and as normal ordered the pilgrim Menu complete with a full bottle of wine.  Bedtime - night prayers - morning will come again - all too early. 

Buen Camino 
Deacon Dale