We are once again curious how many of you guessed that we would make the greedy heroic choice (it is fascinating how seductive a choice it is) over the restrained rational one. For those who find it hard to understand, we can only explain that there is a strange and addictive happiness in walking, and that staying too long in one place can make us feel bored and restless. Leaving again in predawn darkness, we arrived at Carrion by 10 am. We just weren't ready to end our day's walk.
Alas, there were no alternatives but to go 10-1/2 miles further, and it may have been an unwise choice. But how much more satisfying to arrive at 3:30pm and fall onto the bed for a long delayed and intensely desired nap.
Chris developed a back ache which we can only hope, as we hope for River's dramatic diarrhea, will prove temporary. Chris wants to add this is an all too familiar ache that usually heals quickly. She was profoundly grateful that "Trail Mommy" River transferred about half of the contents of Chris's backpack into her own. River, who always wanted to be a mommy but never got to be one, was pleased with herself for following Chris' mother's motto "See what needs doing" and for realizing that Chris' backpack needed lightening. Such opportunities for mommy-like care seem obvious (like, duh) once they are noticed, yet they are so so easily overlooked.
Speaking of trail mommies, we delight in how we switch roles so fluidly on this Camino, sometimes one leading, sometimes the other. Sometimes one impatient, sometimes the other. Our friend Joanie Murphy sent a poem that really speaks beautifully to the subject of impatience and shifting roles:
Hurry
We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store
and the gas station and the green market and
Hurry up honey, I say, hurry,
as she runs along two or three steps behind me
her blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.
Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?
To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?
Today, when all the errands are finally done, I say to her,
Honey I'm sorry I keep saying Hurry--
you walk ahead of me. You be the mother.
And, Hurry up, she says, over her shoulder, looking
back at me, laughing. Hurry up now darling, she says,
hurry, hurry, taking the house keys from my hands.
Marie Howe
from The Kingdom of Ordinary Time
W.W. Norton, 2008
Photo 1 - Leaving Carrion on our fool/hero adventure, we crossed over this lovely old bridge.
Photo 2 the parallel lines of trees we find so orderly and comforting
Photo 3 is when we stepped over the rise and saw that the long-awaited and seemingly mythical village of Calzadilla, our destination, really existed and was near.
Photo 4 shows the lovely very new municipal alburgue with its white bunk beds so different from the bright colors at Hornillos but so peaceful and calming and right for us after this long exhausting walk.
Look closely and you will see Chris napping under a blue comforter.
No comments:
Post a Comment