Life Lessons

For my mental health, I'm trying to stay off Facebook unless it's to read Camino-related entries or posts from one of my favorite groups, Silent Book Club. (This group reads an insane amount, and the members are anything but silent about opinions and recommendations. I thought I read a lot, but I'm on the low end of the bell curve in this group.) Also, the irony of posting this to my Cathy Shows Up Facebook page is not lost on me.

As I've mentioned, there are a plethora of groups related to all things Camino de Santiago, and I follow several of them. What to pack, shoe recommendations, how far to walk, where to stay, how to find someone to walk with, which airport to fly into, how to sew patches on your backpack, to bring makeup, trekking poles vs not, fanny pack, water bottle vs hydration pack, best bra, fastest-drying underwear, socks - well, you get the idea. Pretty much anything and everything. But one of the groups had a post by a woman, Kay Newton, about what she learned by walking the Camino. I listened to her almost-hour-long video and actually took notes. In reviewing these notes, I realized that they are lessons for life, not just walking several hundred miles in Spain. (If you're interested in reading her story or listening to her podcast, click here.)

What I learned, in no particular order:

- I can't control the weather, but I can control how I react to it. Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. And since I've read the forums, I have a rain jacket, poncho that fits over me and my pack, rain cover for my pack, and a warm fleece to wear under this all in case it's wet and cold. Although I really hope to be walking in shorts and a tank top...

- Pare my kit down to the essentials, since I have to carry everything. In my case, an eyebrow pencil might be an essential since it looks like I have no face otherwise. But seriously, have you ever carried a hurt or a grudge that just got to be too much work to drag along? I have, and it was such a relief to just let go.

- It's not just the Big Goal, but it's all the steps involved too. To me, that's another way of saying it's not about the destination, but the journey, which is something I told our kids when they were little and whining about how far the trip was to Grandma's. (Seriously, try to keep three little kids entertained for nine hours one way. The six-hour trip to visit Nana was much easier.)

- Listen to and respect my body. It will tell me when I need to stop and take care of it. See my previous post about physical therapy, or check this out:

Last week

I went on a nice 6.2 mile walk with my friend and his dog. Kirk's legs are way longer than mine, the route was hilly, AND I was wearing my hiking shoes. I could feel a blister forming but did I stop to take care of it? You know the answer. I came home and told Dwight, in the immortal words of Leslie Knope, "Everything hurts and I'm dying." Next time we do this trail, I am wearing my running shoes and pre-taping where I know will be a problem.

- Enjoy the moment. Don't wait for joy; find something to be grateful for in the present. (In my notes I accidentally spelled it "greatful", which seems to fit.)

- Breathing! Especially when walking up mountains! Deep breaths calm the system down. Find your rhythm. This is actually one of the things I'm working on at PT, taking full breaths instead of the "fight or flight" shallow chest breathing.

- GOYA. This might be my new favorite acronym! It stands for "Get Off Your Ass" - not speaking for anyone but myself, but I know I can do this more.

The author of the video messaged me and asked if I had any questions. I told her the message would be so helpful for planning my September Camino, but it is basically a Life Lesson. She told me I got it (teacher validation! yay me!), and that all the answers are in front of us every day, no matter where we are. I love that.

This seems a fitting place to stop. I'll leave you with some calligraphy I posted on my Instagram account (@cathyboll) several months ago that seems to fit here.

Okay, it's a paraphrase, but you know if the Buddha was alive today, he would totally say it

Buen Camino!