Roncesvalles to Zubiri - part two

Today's path is almost all off the road, which is good because I'd started to wave to cars that gave me space yesterday and clearly I was losing my edge. The mud got a bit annoying, but you can't have everything. As a result, there were long stretches of the day without an interaction (like a passing car) which made me *feel* more alone than yesterday.

From my conversations so far, it's clear that medical motives are behind many journeys. A lot of what I hear is that they had a stroke (two at my table of eight last night) or other serious scare, and are walking with eyes freshly widened to life, in triumph and celebration of their opportunity to have a bit more of it.

There's lots I want to reflect on and resolve on this trip, but also the need to balance that with being present for the experience. I think if I'm not careful it'll turn into my rot days at home, where I manage to completely inhabit the grey between productivity and relaxation, not doing either properly and feeling guilt about failure on two fronts.

Yesterday I was completely mentally present on the walk. It was challenging, I had to pay attention, it was uncomfortable and beautiful and new. Maybe because today was less difficult, I found myself in my head for long stretches, asking myself questions I think I will only know the answers to once I've been doing this for a lot longer. I'm trying to show myself grace and not rush. Today is my third day of leave for Christ's sake. You probably can't get enlightened in a long weekend.

To distract myself, I started thinking about how, at work, we could make the process of network variations more efficient (its going to need a LEAN workshop) and that was so boring that it forced me out of my mind and back into my body. While I was there I had a look around and realised steak was still on the agenda, which is interesting because I was - not consciously but in practice - reasonably vegetarian at home. We discussed at dinner there might be something about the experience that's sending us all a bit primal, and by extension, protein oriented. Perhaps tomorrow I'll kill a wild boar with my bare hands.

Slugs: 1, at 9.54am
Cats seen: 4
Cats pat: 1Read more