Camino 2016 5/18 - zero to 45.39

Google maps said 37 km. Well, it wasn't and the street signs were corroborating me. This was already going to be the longest day of this Camino at 37 km (my mean last time was 35 and I'm intentionally pushing pushing pushing down the number so that I can have more time to talk and be intentionally rested). But given odd measurements and blatantly wrong directions I ended up walking 45.39km.

The most I ever did was 42 and 41. The 45.39 is equivalent to 28.2 miles ( or running a marathon and dropping your car keys a mile before the ending and having to go back and get them).

But what a day.

I started the day with a Psalm reading filled with promise of trust, which I guess I knew subconsciously but had forgotten when I wrote yesterday's blog.  The reading got me in and up and chipper mood. So chipper that I nearly whacked a mole off shaving this morning.

This led to a bloody scene that looked like I was in a fight at Lourdes and the Virgin won. As I walked for two hours it continually bled. I had no bandages on me small enough to go between my nose and lip. Finally a pharmacist was opened and I got some along the way. Just in time for me to relax and enjoy the show.

God went to town in France and it's a reason I've always loved the countryside. Flowers everywhere. Water abundant. Green grounds and yet snow just a few feet above my head further up the Pyrenees.

I had a mild dose of rain but it didn't last long. Sure during I was grumpy. But rather, I saw and smelled and appreciated what was there for us. I kept thinking of how life can be so under appreciated so easily. 

Later when I thought of the kyrie in my prayers for today, I thought of all those who we lost and didn't see this. Or are still here but act lost; they don't see this. They drive on by. 

By the time I was reaching exhaustion, I thought "Ok to heck with all this abundance." But I didn't mean it. I was just tired and cranky. I can tell because I still would stop to take a lovely picture that God had painted.

And part of my crankiness was that I didn't get surprisingly healthy all of a sudden just to pass out from exhaustion. That's not healthiness at all; that's willfulness and exploiting your own good fortune. And like all good fortune it sometimes runs out.

For us to heal, individually and collectively, we need to be aware of our abundance, truly aware, and be ok when we get tired of being sick as well as exhausted being healthy. 

I'd say more but I'm too tired. 

Perhaps let me close paraphrasing the New Zealand book of Common Prayer: "What's done is done, what's left undone is left undone. Let it be." May you have a restful evening.  

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