Day 36 - walking from Melide to Arzua (14km)
It only rained a little bit this morning and the sun was out again. My back is sore today so I stopped walking early. Once again my body is telling me to slow down and it seems I haven´t quite learned the lesson that sometimes I shouldn´t try so hard to keep up with other people. I have a hard time accepting that I can´t walk as far or as fast as others. I am so close to Santiago, yet so far away at the same time. I was told that often you only start to take in the things you learned from the camino after it is over. More than anything else my back is sore because I have been carrying a reasonably heavy backpack everyday for over a month. Because of the holidays in Spain this week, today another a special day for the Virgin Mary, I have been carrying a little extra food because shops have been closed. I was told at the beginning that people often get weighed down by carrying things in their bag that they don´t actually need. These in a way can represent fears that you have and some times objects have no more than a sentimental value. I am not really sure what else to take out of my bag. Maybe I just need a bit of extra time to think today...
1 comment:
Hi Katie:
Just to let you know, I'm an avid reader of your blog. What a great thing for you to do, for all us ancient people who can only dream of such a strenuous adventure.
You speak often about finding your own way, at your own pace. As an ancient one, I recognise this as a recurring theme in the maturation process.
Someone else said it well. Robert Frost in 1915 wrote:
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
Strange words for us in in our brutally conformist age.
Thanks so much, and I look forward to seeing you one day again.
Ken.
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