6/13/17 – 18.6km/11.6mi from Vilalba to Baamonde.
It was fairly formulaic today – hike, yoga, food, drink, sleep. So instead, I’m going to talk about the “stages” or “aspects” of the journey. During the last week of our first Camino, we felt real strong. We conditioned ourselves, and endurance was high. So while some members of our group are hurting now, David and I are feeling great. When there are long days planned, we don’t wince. But of course when there are short days, we welcome them! Today was one of those. Then again, I must sound crazy saying that 11.6 miles of hiking is a “short day” when some people drive around the Costco lot 3x just to find a nearer parking spot.
Several people mentioned on our last Camino that each Camino has a physical, mental, and spiritual component. If you read my first few posts from this trip, you’ll see that the first week was physically b-r-u-t-a-l. And that’s coming from a guy who does at least one or two long hikes a year – but that week was damn tough. But you power through it and your body strengthens. Mentally, many pilgrims get to a point where the novelty of the trip wears off and one begins to ponder the sheer length of each day. Waking up in the mornings feels like a chore. I don’t feel that we have truly felt this on either our first Camino or on this trip. Even for the first timers, this group is pretty stoic. As David says, “we get it done and enjoy the journey.” So maybe no major mental challenges here.
But I’ve been thinking a lot about the spiritual aspect. On the last Camino, both David and I showed up with a little more baggage. We both needed and wanted some time to think about things. And we got that. We got a sense of satisfaction and confidence that enabled us to embark on various life goals. This time, three years later, we feel we have achieved some of those goals, be they career-related, personal, or financial. And so while I have often wondered if there should be some kind of “meaning” to this trip, David reminded me that it could very well just be a celebration of all these things we are happy about in our lives. Today, a lot of us drank WAY too much wine. Some of our group wrestled in the yard of Baamonde’s Xunta albergue!
Some people sang Spanish songs extra loudly and embarrassed themselves. Some people simply rolled around in the grass and said crazy things! Someone temporarily “imported” the neighbor’s dog into our albergue’s yard! But nobody’s judging anyone else. Sometimes, that silly fun is just how we need to relax and unwind after these long and hard days. And this is what I’m finding spiritual about this trip: that it’s OK, and even rewarding, to enjoy myself. Maybe I don’t need to find some deeper meaning to each day, each path, or each footstep. Maybe I can celebrate that I have the strength to do it without any major difficulty. That I’m blessed with the time and freedom to do this at all. That I am surrounded by wonderful people whose company I enjoy, in a place that continuously finds ways to make me smile. Unfettered happiness is as spiritual as any scripture.
