Swallowing the Frog

June 28th, 2017

Today I had to swallow some frogs.  Not real frogs of course...but the symbolic frogs that Mark Twain mentions in his famous quote:

"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."

     Mr. Twain knew that sometimes we are supposed to do things that we would just rather put off because their no fun, stressful, will be time consuming, or we just can't stand doing. He calls these chores "frogs."  Most of us probably want to do our least favorite task as much as we would want to swallow a frog.  If these "frogs" need to be swallowed in order for us to make progress on our goals, we might as well get started right away. If we postpone it, we start imagining how gross it's going to be and can talk ourselves out of ever getting it done.

      I did have two frogs that needed swallowing today. 

      Because I'm taking my trip to the Camino de Santiago in September, there were two important bookings I had to make that felt really difficult...and frankly, made me nervous. They involved communicating in Spanish, sending emails to Spain that didn't seem to want to go through, and trying to decide how I could find a safe place to stay upon arriving in Madrid...at 11:45 pm...alone.   These were time consuming and I was so scared that I wouldn't be able to find a solution.  But I swallowed.  

    I gotta say that I'm elated that I'm done with those two tasks.  I admit there was a point that I thought the frogs might choke me, but having them done means that the rest of my planning will be sheer fun.  I guess it's kind of like saying that frogs have a great after taste. (This is definitely not a vegan analogy! Except that it is double true for me that I don't want to swallow frogs.)  

If I hadn't taken care of this business, it would have been like having a grey nuclear cloud mushrooming over my head every day until I did. And as usual, it was easier to get it done than I thought! Half of the difficulty were obstacles that I had made up in my head.

So, swallow your frogs today.  Swallow them early and then go and enjoy your day!

Peace!

Let the Camino Begin!

June 27th, 2017

I am so excited! It's official. I will be walking the Camino de Santiago this September!  I have booked my flight into Madrid, Spain and will be hiking 487 miles for about a month.  This has been a dream of mine for quite some time and I can't believe it's about to come true. 

For those of you who hadn't heard of the Camino before, I am actually referring to a whole bunch of caminos, or roads that people walk on in Europe to get to the city of Santiago, Spain.  There are multiple starting points to this hike as well as reasons to make the walk.  People start in other European countries and follow roads and highways that ultimitaly all merge at the northwest end of Spain.  Some of them will start the walk as a pilgrimage for religious reasons, some as a way to memorialize someone that they love, others for meditative or spiritual purposes, while others love the idea of an athletic challenge.  It is not like other hikes that take you up into the wilderness for long periods of time, far away from society. Rather, this walk takes you right through towns and villages where there are hotels, hostels, and even Bed-and-Breakfasts waiting to set you up for the night.  This isn't cheating! On the camino, participants hike an average of 15 miles per day and then sleep indoors. Most will stay at the alburgues, dormitory style rooms that provide meals and showers for hungry, dirty walkers. It is like the hostels I've stayed at on other trips that I view as global slumber parties!

(This backpack is actually too big for the camino.  It is a 60 liter Deuter. Most pilgrims will use a 30-40 liter bag and only carry 10% of their body weight in supplies)

 I am not an expert on the exact story behind the Camino, but I can tell you what I have read about so far.  The Camino de Santiago translates as the Way of St.James, named for St. James of the New Testament.  The story is that James was assigned to spread the Gospel in the area we call Spain today.  He was eventually killed and his body was put in a boat to be taken away by the currents.  Legend has it that the boat washed up along the shore not far from where the city of Santiago is now and that his body was still in it, covered with shells.  The area became a holy site for Christians and roads from all over Europe were made so that the site could be visited from just about anywhere. It is common for people on the camino to wear a necklace with a shell on it to identify themselves as a pilgrim. The alburgues also have cornerstone tiles embossed with shells on them to let pilgrims know they have reached a refuge for the night.

My goals for walking the camino are simple:

1. To walk the camino and reflect on some issues that weigh very heavy on my heart...like my fear of what is happening to our planet.  I'm not generally a religious person, but I sure wouldn't mind if God decided to show up on the path and give me some guidance on how to deal with my burdens. I haven't been a believer for the last half of my life, but it would be great to figure out if I'm wrong about that too while I'm on the way. I'm also hoping that God will understand that I'm not trying to be arrogant by being the one who schedules our time together. I just thought it might be nice.

2.  To walk the 487 miles powered by a plant based, vegan diet while equipped with cruelty free supplies.  I would love to show others how easy it is to eat a kinder diet.


(I have been practicing eating a plant based diet for about 6 years now.  I say practicing because there have been times over those years that I have slipped up.  I feel that I've only evolved into a full time vegan in the most recent years. )

I know that I am not the first person who has walked the camino as a vegetarian or a vegan.  I recently found a Facebook group geared towards helping veggie pilgrims walking through the meaty culture

of northwest Spain. But I am so curious about how this will go.  I am not a young woman. I am by all standards chubby and by some standards fat. This will be my first time on a long, solo hike in a foreign country. There are a lot of things that would be counted as strikes against my success...but I'm banking on my plant based diet and my determination to give me strength.

This is not my first hike and I hope it won't be my last.  I believe it will be one of my most memorable ones though.  I hope you will follow me as I attempt to complete this journey.  I will keep journaling how I plan for it, how I train for it, and then how it goes.  It may be helpful for someone who wants to do this too...the itinerary is not very simple to put together!  Meanwhile, I could use your good vibes to get me through that 15th mile of the day.

As they say in Spain, "Buen Camino" or "hope you have a good time on the Way.

Peace!