Camino Day 7 (October 9)

 

 

Camino Day 7 (October 9)

6th Stage: Pontevedra – Armenteira (23.4 km /14.5 mi)

I already know I’m not going to walk 14.5 miles today.

It’s not the miles or the kilometers.

It’s the hills. Or, more accurately, The Hill.

It starts at Comboro – about 11.5 km in a pretty standard Camino path with some “moderate elevation”. I’ve come to understand that “moderate elevation” means something entirely different when you are in your 40-50s than when you are in your 60-70s.

And then? And then it goes up. And, up. And, up. And, up, and then it crests just before Mirador do Loureiro and ends at Armenteira. (Do you see it there? On the map?)

I’m not having any of it. Not even one “up”. Nosireebob.

I will walk until it starts to go "up" and then I will ride in the van/bus and listen to one of my podcasts or Audible Books.

I just finished listening to “Finding Me” by Viola Davis on the airplane and in taxis. Sometimes, when we’re traveling in the van/bus, I’ve been listening to “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Silvia Wilkerson. It’s a stunning book. Everyone should read/listen to that very first chapter about spores. (Seriously.)

That should do me in good stead while other folks are climbing up that hill. Not all. Most will, though.

God bless them, one and all, but it ain’t me, babe. No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe. It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.

Not on that hill. Nosireebob.

Not to worry. I don’t listen to Audible books when I’m walking Camino but I see many who do. I don’t know how to concentrate on what The Camino has to say to me AND listen to an Audible Book.

I can listen to an Audible Book anywhere. I’m here on the Camino just this once.

I have come to understand that the Camino has many lessons to teach, one of them is to listen to your own body, which has its own intelligence and wisdom.

In many cultures, there is a strong belief that the body - the muscles and bones - hold memories, some you have experienced, some which your ancestors pass down to you through the composition of your blood and tissue and what we now call DNA.

When the psalmist sings that "I was knit together in my mother's womb" s/he's not making a case for the folks on the so-called "right to life". It is beautiful poetry for the way our bodies are fashioned with the yarn of creation and the fabric of our ancestors, all fused together with a spark of the Divine.

We have so much to learn from the bodies in which our spirits are "Estimado Cliente" - a dear guest. The Camino provides time and space - a classroom - where we can pay attention and learn from what St. Paul called "this earthen vessel."

My work is to listen. Listen. Listen. And then, to open the ears of my heart and hear deep into my soul. And, let what I have heard transform me.

So, here is the meditation which Valerie has given us for the day. It was written by Sham Tabrizi. It speaks of such deep truth that it made me gasp with I first read it.

It makes me weep every time I read it.

When I run after what I think I want,
my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety;
if I sit in my own place of patience,
what I need flows to me, and without pain.

From this I understand that what I want also
wants me,
is looking for me and attracting me.

There is a great secret here for anyone who
can grasp it.

May all the hills you climb today be ones you have the option to either take on or turn away from; may you find satisfaction and peace, insight and wisdom in either choice.

Buen Camino!