Today I went for a long walk down by the river with a dear friend. It becomes harder and harder to meet up as all sort of stubborn viruses, colds and our old friend COVID infiltrate our lives. So, what a joy it is to finally spend time and enjoy a lovely walk with what might be called a “ kindred spirit” . The sun was so low and dazzling that I didn’t even get pictures of my beloved St Lawrence River but here is maybe a different take on the usual cement barriers
My friend Judith calls them modern Easter Island heads!
Our shadows are so distinct due to the strong sunlight. We also stopped for a great lunch in what had become “ trendy” Verdun! When did Verdun become trendy? It was called St-Lu and was full of young kids. Great food and a nice atmosphere.
After we parted I went downtown and ….. bought Euros! Just to make the Spring trip seem closer. Also, the Euro is a bit low these days so maybe it will prove advantageous to me. This evening I’m watching You Tube videos on the Camino. A long winter ahead, friends!
In eight days I will start a journey that has been a long time in the planning. I am a little bit excited, a little bit scared and a big bit curious. I wonder what is coming to me on this famous Camino de Santiago. One thing I have already learned is how to discard things I thought were essential. There simply isn’t room. My back simply can’t carry them, so the weeklong task of packing and unpacking begins. Burn Camino, Peligrina
The innocent clump of thistle was the cause of my fall. The toboggan hill in the park has become my favorite training zone. I developed the habit of walking up and down as many times as I could. I go down backwards to stretch the backs of my knees. It’s good for my balance too – well, most of the time. I get in a sort of “zone” or trance when I’m doing the hills. Last Wednesday evening my trance was a little too deep. The hill is mostly rough grass or clover patches but there is this one clump of thistle right on the edge of the hill. I had been experimenting with going up and down the rough stone path at the side and for some reason was going down at the extreme edge of the hill. As I walked down backwards I stepped right into the thistle patch. I must have been a funny sight as I awoke from my trance and twisted around to try to get my footing. People look funny when they are trying to keep their balance on a hill and if the kids below who were playing soccer had only looked up they would have had a chuckle. I ended up on my rear with a bit of a bump and laughing at my predicament.
Later that evening I felt a little blue. What was I thinking? was I really going to go on this adventure, and come home unscathed? But the next day chance sent me a pick-me-up. I have a few plants on my city balcony, among them this cheerful nasturtium. I heard a faint buzz and glanced out to see a little bird. But he wasn’t sitting on a branch. No, he didn’t need a branch because he was a friendly little hummingbird who looked right at me and then flitted away. My plant only has two blooms but he had found them out and come to investigate. Something about his cheerful resourcefulness made me feel better. He wasn’t giving up. He was managing and taking care of his business.
Then today I had another lovely surprise. My flat is quite close to the big city park, Angrignon where I get out of the metro to walk home. I decided to take a path through the shady trees rather than my usual walk along a city block. No one else was on the path and suddenly a pale hawk or falcon flew up onto a branch in front of me. His solemn eyes above his hooked beak gazed down at me for quite a long time. Then I fumbled with my phone trying to take a picture and he flew off.
So, I didn’t get a shot of either bird. I won’t easily forget my encounters with them, though. I felt as if they were telling me to pick myself up and get on with things. So, I will
These pictures were taken after my “training” yesterday in the beautiful early evening light. I found clumps of wildflowers and noticed that some petals of the wild daisies were falling. The white flowers (help me out with a name, readers) were changing into seed pods and that chestnut trees were starting to form their prickly pods. I love the soft protection for shiny chestnuts inside these protective coverings. Not yet, not yet, I know. It is early days but all these signs mean that summer has peaked and that soon we will notice days a little shorter and other subtle signs that fall is on its way.
The park was still full of the cries of baseball players, young families out with their baby carriages and folks walking their dogs in the cooler evening air. Yes, it’s still summer, but something has turned, tilted and we are no longer in the full bloom phase.
Yesterday was the feast of St. James and there was a huge festival complete with fireworks in Santiago. I’m not much on big crowds or fireworks so I’m glad my own pilgrimage will end sometime in October when things will be cooler in all ways. As I ramp up my training, take better care of my diet and start to sort through my wardrobe (aka rags) for suitable items to take, I’m happy to embrace the reality of the changing atmosphere. Certainly, blazing hot days are not my favorite anyway and observing nature that never questions, never complains, endures, survives, I realize I have plenty to learn.
This week will be one of “ten hills” every day and checking the mailbox obsessively for my new passport. Buen Camino everyone!
It started when I began to walk up this toboggan hill in my local park, when I started to stomp around the track using my hiking poles (see them thrown down in the grass?). It started when I saw on Facebook that a friend I had met on a winter break in Mexico was walking the Camino. If she could…… It started when I found out what Gallicia was. It started when I realized I could be broken into pieces and yet be whole. It started with reading, with watching You Tube clips. It started when I booked tickets in 2020 – but Covid 19 had other ideas. All that wrangling to get my money back, that despair before a vaccination was available, all that feeling so old and hopeless crystalized my determination. Just as heat and pressure change coal into diamonds, the past two years have worked a change.
Was I really ready to walk in 2020? The world and its vagaries had other ideas. Perhaps I will be thwarted again, who knows. My days of saying “I’ve made up my mind” are done. I have learned the lesson that other people, world events, co-incidence can really throw me, bat me aside, show up “my mind” for the little thing it is. Still I’ve set another date and even booked one night’s lodging at Orisson Auberge, half way up a mountain. I don’t have a plane ticket. I don’t even have a valid passport (every day I check the mailbox and I really think I’ll get it next week) but everything will be planned around that first day’s walk in mid September.
Even when I had no real hope of getting to the Camino de Santiago in Spain, I still kept on doing my laps and climbing up the toboggan hill again and again. I’m not a sporty person and normally I hate exercise but something made me keep at this even through a Montreal winter.
I have to fight my own moral compass too. With the terrible fires and floods all over the world I considered making a vow never to fly again as a sort of personal effort to show our dear world that I respect it, that nature should be cherished. I’m not ready yet though. This might be my last big trip. After all, I am 73. “But at my back, I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.” (Andrew Marvel) I will keep on trying – but no more “I will do it!” The ego of that is better controlled.
So although the slope looks gentle and easy in the photo, I assure you it is not! Yesterday I climbed up ten times. Sometimes I come down backwards for balance and to save my knees. Sometimes I practice the zig-zag path that minimizes the jolting on the joints. The day before I loaded a back-pack and walked around the huge park close to my house. After all, one has to practice carrying weight too.
I have set my foot on the path again. I did it with that reservation for a bed at the first stop on the climb over the Pyrenees Mountains that is one of the traditional pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. Part of my discipline will be writing this blog too. I invite you to accompany me on my preparation to walk along one of the oldest pilgrimage routes in Europe.
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