March 15 Camino SJPdP

[Linda C. Welsh]

Greetings Pilgrims,

So glad to have found this forum. Have learned a great deal already!

I am Linda from Montana, USA. I will be walking solo starting from St. Jean March 15. It would be great to have some company on the first day, especially if the weather is bad! I plan to stay in Orisson the second night as will probably have jet lag.

I look forward with great anticipation to this journey. Highest blessings to all.

Linda

 

[Anonymous]

Good luck - enjoy! You won't be alone.

When you walk through the town 'gates', the stone pillars at the end of the medieval lane, look back. You will have started early so it will be dark. You must look back at the pillars - and remember that the Camino is also the Milky Way

Is the C in your name for Cornelius by any chance Linda?

 

[Linda C. Welsh]

Thank you!

Hey thanks for your message Br. David. Alas, C. is for Cristina. But I kind of like the sound of Cornelius. Perhaps I'll make a change for this journey!

I have made a note of your tip to look back through the gates. Shall do.

I am reading Paulo Coelho's book, "The Pilgrimage" (among several others) and find myself in a strange kind of mystical space. So your tip on looking back through the gates evoked a kind of mysterious mood!

Off to walk with my sore foot on this overcast, contemplative snowy Montana morning.

Highest blessings,

Linda
:roll:

 

[Anonymous]

Indeed, and I thank you, and those blessings, multiplied and wrapped in fresh leaves, I return to you for your journey.

Linda C., Pilgrim sister, an extract for you ...

"And a man said, Speak to us of Self-Knowledge.
And He answered, saying:
Your heart knows in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

And it is well that you should....... "

For more, if you do not yet know this book, take with you, by Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet isbn 0 330 26220 3

In your Heart and Home
Peace,
David

 

[Linda C. Welsh]

Questions

Dear David,

I so appreciate your inspiring post. I do have "the Prophet", a vivid and beautiful book of truths. Thank you for sharing that quote.

I have a few questions, I don't know if I should post them here??? Will try:

1. How much money do you suggest a pilgrim have with them for starters?

2. Do you now when the sun rises approximately and when it sets in Spain in March/April? Is there daylight savings time? And if so, when does it start?

3. I am a vegetarian. A vegan actually. Me thinks this is going to be a problem. Any comments?

Thanks Bro,

Linda 8)

 

[Linda C. Welsh]

Thank you Sil

Hey Sil,

Thank you for your response to these questions. Much appreciated!

Br. David,

I checked out your website - very cool. I will look out for your van and show you that Gossamer pack. I am concerned that I am going to be one of the noisy ones in the morning as the material is kind of plastic-like. Perhaps since it will be March/April I won't have to worry too much about the heat?

I think gravity coupled with swinging arms makes hands swell.

Your fellow Pilgrim on the road,

Cornelius
:wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Many thanks Cornelius - no, heat not a problem (well, not August type heat). Problem (actually, you perhaps live in Mountain area?) is that you cross three mountain ranges so up and down and weather changing. I did mine March-April ... Spring in France, freezing up on the Pyrenees, then cool and damp, then lovely and warm, then hot (English version of hot here) - one day was so hot and I ran out of water and sort of staggered into a town and there was a supermarket! lurched around, found orange juice first - emptied one of those, lurched some more, found the water - emptied one of those, just sitting on a pallet of longlife milk - God knows what I looked like. Then, when I'd recovered and bought some stuff and presented the empty containers at the checkout, and went outside and drank more and more - met a pilgrim I'd met before and he had done exactly the same - that was a hot day ...,

I had all the nervousness that you (and all others doing it for the first time) are now feeling. I went through the "oh, sure it'll be fine, really looking forward to it" chats with friends to, about three weeks before the off, a deep and silent panic - I can't do this, there's no WAY I can do this, I don't even know why I thought I wanted to do it, etc, etc ,etc - of course, now I know that this is completely normal - stage fright - you will be FINE and I look forward to meeting you - as I will.

 

[Linda C. Welsh]

Stage Fright Indeed

Br. David,

Your "lurching" visual has given me a belly laugh! Just what I needed! Thanks for sharing!

Your stage fright description is perfect - scarry it is so accurate! I slept in my sleeping bag last night (for practice) and at 0200 found myself completely coccooned in the silk sheet, cold on top, trapped on bottom, totally immobilized! I had a good two hours of those thoughts you described. Sigh.

And then today while walking, the stone bone of the land cheered me. My shoulders were screaming but my heart was glad. And the memory of being paralized in my mummy bag fell away into the dark recesses...

You rock brother! I so appreciate your comments here, and your encouragement! Thank you!

Linda

 

[Aunty Gen]

Good luck, Linda,

You have my best wishes for your journey, my thoughts will go with you as I keep my preparations happening for our departure about 4 weeks after you. My husband and I will be departing Roncesvalles on approx 23 april - by which time you will be way ahead, or possibly finished your pilgrimage.

May your journey be enlightening and full of all you wish it to be!

cheers,
Aunty Gen

 

[Linda C. Welsh]

Buen Camino!

Many thanks Aunty Gen!

Jumping into the stream...me on one end and you on another! Highest blessings as you prepare.

All shall be well.

Off to walk 20 miles if I can. I hope the weather holds out!

Linda

 

[Anonymous]

Silk liners, cocooned - 'C' is obviously for 'Caterpillar' then...

 

[Linda C. Welsh]

3 days until I go

It has come down to this...three days and I'm off. Just wanted to say how much I appreciate everyone here who has offered their support and logistical advise.

A poem on Pilgrimage

Hiking to see for ourselves, we learn
once again why pilgrims journey by walking.
The steady rhythm of left and right
reassures us. And the gravel of the trail
becomes those places in our minds
we keep climbing over
and over again.

The work of the walking
is our offering,
and our purification
as, step by step,
we lift the questing in our hearts
closer to the source of wonder.
Irrelevancies slide away like sweat.
The walking reminds us of balance,
and the sheer drop-ff by the edge of the trail
is our own death walking beside us.

We lift our expectancy like an empty plate;
and abundance of beauty
fills it again and again.
This world is so huge,
and our place in it so precise.

Eventually there is nothing but
walking and pondering.
Climbing higher with the other pilgrims
and with a sense of all tribes returning
to the place of creation,
we round a bend, and there--
an impossible leap of stone,
a petrified gasp of wonder,
orange-red, arching through the bluest desert sky,
a stone mudra, gathering light,
parabolic angel bones
framing distant snowy peaks.

All the living beings of this earth
pass under the pubic arch
of our common mother.
And she is right here.
True to her nature,
she lets no one depart empty--
Through the great opening
comes a whisper of blessing
or a glimpse that opens
the eyes of the eyes.

We know that when we turn
the trail will lead us back
into our daily lives, walking,
striving for balance,
practicing the rhythm of left and right,
but touching a thread
that leads through the eye of the needle.

(Dr. Hahn, presentation for dissertation on Pilgrimage)

On to join the stream of Pilgrims past, present and future with great love,

Cornelius

 

[Anonymous]

The Blessings be with you Cornelius - enjoy.

Where did you decide you would start?

 

[Linda C. Welsh]

Tendonitis

Unfortuntately developed tendonitis left foot, had to stop all training one week ago. I have no idea how it will feel when I begin again :shock:

Am therefore starting in Roncesvalles which enabled me to cut my two longest days in half.

Where are you located again? Have the visual of the white van, but can't remember where it lives!

Blessings on your day Br.

Cornelius

 

[Anonymous]

Good about the foot - sounds like you have trained enough and need a break ..... how excited/scared you must be!

I am leaving England Monday night - expect to be down at St. Jean by the 15th .... then cruising around. You are starting a.m. 15th and popping up the hill a bit, then going to Roncesavalles on 16th? - I'll be visible within your first week somewhere ... white high-top van, shells and flower box in front window .. PilgrimSupplies' on the side, fat old fart inside - easily identifiable.

Take your time, enjoy.... there is a shelf at Roncesvalles where people discard the things they realise they don't need!!

To you, Cornelius, and all packing Pilgrims - Ultreya!

 

[Linda C. Welsh]

Packing Pilgrim

Ha!

I hope I can find you dear Sir, there at the beginning.

C.

 

[Anonymous]

Linda,

finally a Camino-related poem I can identify with :!:

Thanks much for sharing it :!:

Apertas 8)

xm