I Still Can't believe it!

[Penny Kingma]

I know it likely seems odd but it just hit me.
A few short months ago I was sitting with this same tablet in hand eating up the words of seasoned pilgrims. Nervously planning and wondering if I could really do it. The packing and repacking. The stressing if I have everything...if I have too much. Oh god...do I snore ? What if I do and I don't know...what if ...what if.
Now here I sit on the other side. I've done it....I'm a Pilgrim....pinch me...I still can't believe it
My husband took this picture the day I left...my heart ached at leaving my family...now my heart aches for the Camino family scattered all over the globe.

 

[MTtoCamino]

Welcome to the club

 

[Mike Trebert]

Well done! Hats off to you.

 

[SYates]

Have fun planning your next one ;-) Buen Camino de la Vida, SY

 

[Penny Kingma]

Have fun planning your next one ;-) Buen Camino de la Vida, SY

Right now I'm unfortunately planning my hip surgery Camino. I dislocated my hip, shredding my labrum a week after returning home. I was attempting a return to water skiing after not doing it for years since a shoulder dislocation.

 

[SYates]

I know and I wish you speedy recovery, but no reason at all not to plan/dream about your next Camino ;-) Buen Camino, SY

 

[AcrossTheWater3008]

Well done @Penny Kingma! Best wishes and here s hoping you speedy recovery!

 

[Penny Kingma]

Well done @Penny Kingma! Best wishes and here s hoping you speedy recovery!

Thank you

 

[Waka]

It's the ideal time during recovery to start planning your next pilgrimage.

 

[Penny Kingma]

Oh believe me I am in spirit.

 

[Penny Kingma]

As I lay here on the couch at 3:12 a.m. again not sleeping because of the hip pain reading the forum....I remember. I remember reading dire posts. Warnings of dogs, and thefts, bed shortages, bed bugs, and worse...and being tempted to cancel. My sweet husband had nightmares of me crying in the pouring rain with no place to sleep. He wanted to send me with a tent . What am I doing heading out alone, with M.S. etc. if it's so dangerous. To those of you reading this forum before your Camino. Take the info in...use it as preparedness...not dire warnings. I walked it from start to finish. Not one blister, extreme M.S. Nerve pain in my feet. Yet... I loved it ! I never raced for a bed...and I was never forced to sleep outside. Others have there own opinions and experiences. I decided to look at it this way. Like a book or movie review. Five people could read the same book or sit side by side watching the same movie...and when asked come out with 5 different views or experiences. All people view life differently. Go with a clear mind ...an open book and fill those pages your Way. To those of you about to embark on your first....I'm jealous....enjoy.....
Buen Camino

 

[Kent Davis]

Penny, you describe such an awesome experience which I am very happy for you, could you describe what about your experience was so fulfilling and/ or enjoyable?

 

[MCFearnley]

I am also here basking in the glow of my own Camino experience just a week since I got home. One question I have been asked by many was if it met my expectations. Honestly, I launched in this adventure by trying to keep my expectations to a minimum so as to experience it as fully as possible. All I can say is that it has gone beyond anything I could have imagined. To experience the Camino through the soles of my feet, instead of through my head, was the best thing I could have done for myself. I learnt so many things about myself and life. I still have a hard time putting words to it.

 

[C clearly]

Take the info in...use it as preparedness...not dire warnings.

Others have there own opinions and experiences. I decided to look at it this way. Like a book or movie review. Five people could read the same book or sit side by side watching the same movie...and when asked come out with 5 different views or experiences. All people view life differently.

This is very good advice. Often when we post about "bad" things, they are taken as a conclusion or reflection of the overall experience, when in fact they are just things that must be worked out or things that should be laughed about afterwards. We need to know ourselves - what things are mere nuisances and what things are show-stoppers. Let's face it - the camino is not for everyone so some self-knowledge is useful and some people should do something else! Then go with an open mind and some flexibility.

 

[MarcelWals]

Your feelings...I feel them at this moment! I read/learned so much on this forum and still have 1000 questions. I can't believe that tomorrow is the day I'm leaving!! For my first one. I promise you here and now...I will experience every step! Thanks for all advice people gave me. Now I have to do it.....and I will!

Marcel

 

[MarcelWals]

To those of you about to embark on your first....I'm jealous....enjoy.....
Buen Camino

I will!!

 

[marbuck]

Your feelings...I feel them at this moment! I read/learned so much on this forum and still have 1000 questions. I can't believe that tomorrow is the day I'm leaving!! For my first one. I promise you here and now...I will experience every step! Thanks for all advice people gave me. Now I have to do it.....and I will!

Marcel

Enjoy, you will have the time of your life.

 

[Penny Kingma]

Penny, you describe such an awesome experience which I am very happy for you, could you describe what about your experience was so fulfilling and/ or enjoyable?

Hello Kent
As you may have read in my previous posts doing the Camino was a dream I held for approx. 30 years.
With all of the reading I had done over the years, all aspects of it interested me.
I purchased and studied the guides, thinking I would follow the stages...but on the 3rd day I donated it...along with many other items. The physical pain was so high on that day...I was in tears...I truly felt that my Camino was over. I had to pull deep inside myself to move forward. Pain has been a daily part of my life since 11...with the onset of Lipedema. A condition where toxins build up in your body causing all over pain due to a non functioning lymphatic system. Then the added nerve pain of M.S. I got angry ! I decided then that I could walk with the pain here in these beautiful surroundings. ..fulfilling my long held dream. Or go home. I knew the pain would likely worsen...but I also knew that in staying my spirits would rise. And in completing for me ...something I could take with me through life ...pushing me forward. So I stayed...and I smiled..and I concoured.
Something that you don't realize before is the pulse of the Camino. There's an ebb and flow that if you allow yourself ...captures your soul. I chose to not follow any stages. I fell in love with the people living along the Camino as well as those that traveled it. I took the time to converse with the locals. Sometimes with charades as I don't speak Spanish.
I fell in love with the beauty and history. Sometimes a quick hello turning into a 3 hour discussion under a shade tree. It's funny many people passed me arriving early to there stop, thrilled with there making it in short time. That was just not my goal. I wanted to take in every step...and did. Yes I'm lucky to have a very supportive husband. He knew how important this was to me. He urged me take whatever time it took. You see with Multiple Sclerosis you just don't know what your future holds. I was also diagnosed with skin cancer a week after the M.S diagnosis. ..requiring two cemo treatments. All this the year before I did my Camino. For me the physical pain that I experienced was nothing compared to the emotional, physical and spiritual beauty I experienced. To see people from all over the world, with such different backgrounds and burdens travel together with a common goal....beautiful. I truly miss the calm I felt. I felt embraced...and came home enriched and truly empowered...to continue my Camino wherever it takes me.

 

[Penny Kingma]

I am also here basking in the glow of my own Camino experience just a week since I got home. One question I have been asked by many was if it met my expectations. Honestly, I launched in this adventure by trying to keep my expectations to a minimum so as to experience it as fully as possible. All I can say is that it has gone beyond anything I could have imagined. To experience the Camino through the soles of my feet, instead of through my head, was the best thing I could have done for myself. I learnt so many things about myself and life. I still have a hard time putting words to it.

Beautifully said

 

[Penny Kingma]

Your feelings...I feel them at this moment! I read/learned so much on this forum and still have 1000 questions. I can't believe that tomorrow is the day I'm leaving!! For my first one. I promise you here and now...I will experience every step! Thanks for all advice people gave me. Now I have to do it.....and I will!

Marcel

Safe travels

 

[Penny Kingma]

Yet....your words are beautiful. But anyone that walks it under stands too....it's the feeling of being....totally present.

I am also here basking in the glow of my own Camino experience just a week since I got home. One question I have been asked by many was if it met my expectations. Honestly, I launched in this adventure by trying to keep my expectations to a minimum so as to experience it as fully as possible. All I can say is that it has gone beyond anything I could have imagined. To experience the Camino through the soles of my feet, instead of through my head, was the best thing I could have done for myself. I learnt so many things about myself and life. I still have a hard time putting words to it.

 

[Kent Davis]

Penny, that was a 10 for an answer. Thank you

 

[Lucy Longpath]

Hello Penny, I am so happy to read that you completed your Camino. I think we met you at breakfast in a small hotel with a swimming pool in Saint Jean Pied de Port. You were sitting with another peregrina whom you had recently met. Both of you were about to start your Caminos. We had just finished walking the Puy Way and were going to cross the Pyrenees and go to Roncesvalles and then stop.

 

[Penny Kingma]

Hello Penny, I am so happy to read that you completed your Camino. I think we met you at breakfast in a small hotel with a swimming pool in Saint Jean Pied de Port. You were sitting with another peregrina whom you had recently met. Both of you were about to start your Caminos. We had just finished walking the Puy Way and were going to cross the Pyrenees and go to Roncesvalles and then stop.

I don't remember a swimming pool...breakfast was served in a old windowed solarium that fronted the hotel.

 

[Lucy Longpath]

Yes, that is correct, breakfast was in the area with windows at the front of the hotel. The swimming pool was at the side of the hotel. Maybe you didn't notice it as you were probably only there for one night before you set off on your Camino. We had a rest day there after the Puy Way before crossing the Pyrenees. It was Hotel Camou in Uhart-Cize. We were sitting on another table next to your table. We talked about your Camino and the reasons why you were doing it, which is how I can remember you. We talked a bit about food on the Camino too.

 

[lovingkindness]

Bravo, Penny K. Well done...

 

[Penny Kingma]

Just an update on my hip situation. If you all remember I was diagnosed with a significant labrel tear to the L hip from 12 to 8 if you picture the hip joint as a clock. Last Thursday about a month later .....complaining that the R hip had similarities in pain...a second MRI. The results show a tear in the R hip from 1-2 . Not as bad but as I'm relying on that hip ....not good.
Still praying for recovery to return .

 

[MarcelWals]

Wish you all the best, Penny.

 

[Kanga]

Oh Penny, what a setback. I wish they would just invent a human glue gun to stick us all back together. And a form of human India rubber. Wishing you fortitude and good things in your life to make up for the physical ailments.

 

[Penny Kingma]

What's making me a little crazy is I've been told that it could be a 9 month wait for surgery. I've had a synvisc/ cortisone injection...but still have great discomfort.
No worries my fellow pilgrims my smile will stay put....as I'll shock them all when I return and walk again.

 

[SSojourn]

View attachment 30208 Just an update on my hip situation. If you all remember I was diagnosed with a significant labrel tear to the L hip from 12 to 8 if you picture the hip joint as a clock. Last Thursday about a month later .....complaining that the R hip had similarities in pain...a second MRI. The results show a tear in the R hip from 1-2 . Not as bad but as I'm relying on that hip ....not good.
Still praying for recovery to return .

Penny, I love your expression, positivity and your sharing of memories. I will pray for the best for your recovery. You are blessed with that wonderful husband