{"id":1006,"date":"2015-05-23T05:32:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-23T05:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robscamino.com\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2018-04-17T10:01:16","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T00:01:16","slug":"23rd-of-may-my-mojo-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/23rd-of-may-my-mojo-is-back\/","title":{"rendered":"23rd of May – My Mojo is back!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back on the Road – to Hospital de Orbigo<\/h1>\n

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And Another Camino ‘Moment’<\/h2>\n

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I’ve tried to take it easy today to give my legs a bit of a break so it’s been slow and easy.<\/p>\n

And of course more chances to reflect.<\/p>\n

At lunch yesterday in Leon<\/a>, I was sharing some Camino<\/em> stories with three other guys that I have met off and on over the last couple of weeks.\u00a0 Wrenchy, Gray and Jack.\u00a0 And we all came to the conclusion that sharing these stories with someone who hasn’t walked the Camino,<\/em> who hasn’t gone through the physical, emotional and spiritual journey, is sometimes very difficult.<\/p>\n

There are just little things that happen day by day that never cease to surprise me.<\/p>\n

One such moment is today.<\/p>\n

I won’t describe the moment, because you’ll probably think I’ve become a raving lunatic!\u00a0 (But picture the final scene of the last Samurai and the Cherry Blossom…..)<\/em><\/p>\n

But let me just say it was a moment of extreme peace and calm and in that moment, I felt re energized to continue my journey all the way to Santiago<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 ‘Someone’ was urging me on….<\/p>\n

Note.<\/strong>\u00a0 I later decided to add this ‘Camino Moment’ at the bottom of the page…..<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Roman

The Bridge at Hospital De Orbigo<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

But I won’t push my luck! The days of 30 kilometer stages I think need to come to an end. My body just can’t handle those and it doesn’t recuperate.<\/p>\n

So I’m making sure that all my stages from here to Santiago<\/a> are generally about 20 kilometers with the occasional 25 and 26.<\/p>\n

There is a lovely saying that John Brierley<\/em> uses in his Camino<\/em> guide, “Trust in God, but tether your camel.”\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> I guess by that the original author is saying have faith, but don’t push your luck<\/em>. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Camino Moments:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I was re-reading my blog, reliving some of the experience and thought you might like to hear this Camino moment.<\/p>\n

I was in a small village about an hour before Hospital de Orbigo.\u00a0\u00a0 It was one of those days.\u00a0 I had walked alone all day and I was feeling sorry for myself a bit.\u00a0 I missed my wife Pat.\u00a0 But I think the main reason was, I just hurt.\u00a0 Even with the rest day and physio in Leon, my feet were hurting and I couldn’t get rid of the pain in my shins.<\/p>\n

Two things shook me out of this ‘funk’.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ONE. (My Feet Hurt)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was sitting a caf\u00e9 in a village called Villavante I think.\u00a0 I was sipping my coffee, with my boots off and ice on my heels.\u00a0 Starting to feel better.\u00a0 There were just a few cycling Pilgrims at the caf\u00e9.\u00a0 As I was preparing to leave, pulling my socks and boots on, something caught my eye on the right side.\u00a0 Along the Camino back towards Leon.\u00a0 Someone had just turned the corner to arrive in front of the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

He was middle aged, with an interesting design of long socks.\u00a0 Oh, but the socks did not match.\u00a0 In fact only one leg had a sock.\u00a0 Then the penny dropped as he got closer.\u00a0 His left leg was an artificial one…..<\/p>\n

It was one of those reality check moments…….\u00a0 I felt so foolish and selfish worrying about my aching heels and painful shins.\u00a0 What a tosser I was!\u00a0\u00a0 Just that small moment was another one of those great lessons that the Camino throws at us every day.<\/p>\n

I left the caf\u00e9 vowing never to fall into a selfish funk like that again….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TWO: (The Cherry Blossom)<\/strong><\/p>\n

It must only have been 20 minutes after leaving the caf\u00e9.\u00a0 I had\u00a0taken what I think is an ‘alternate route’ to Hospital de Orbigo.\u00a0 That, along with the fact that it was later in the day, meant I was totally alone on the path.\u00a0 A fine gravel track, that lacked markings.\u00a0 But I was sure I was headed the right way.\u00a0 Though I did a quick check on Google maps just to be sure \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I was feeling a lot better now.\u00a0 More positive.\u00a0 More determined.\u00a0 And committed to not ‘over thinking’ things.<\/p>\n

I paused for a moment to admire a beautiful tree.\u00a0 Sadly I’m not sure what kind of tree is was.\u00a0 But it was covered\u00a0 in gorgeous pink blossoms.\u00a0 Just like the Cherry Blossoms in that final scene from the last Samurai….<\/p>\n

Whilst the day was fine, it was cloudy, and the air was very still.<\/p>\n

I decided to pause for a moment of reflection as I frequently did.\u00a0 I took my pack off and knelt down on the track.\u00a0 I spoke out loud\u00a0a sincere thank you for teaching me another valuable lesson today and for allowing me to continue this journey.\u00a0 I just felt go grateful in that moment.<\/p>\n

I paused, before rising to put my\u00a0pack back on.\u00a0 And\u00a0just then,\u00a0through an opening in the clouds the sun shone down changing the feeling of the whole day and illuminating this beautiful tree and a breeze whipped up and cascaded a whole cloud of cherry blossom down over me and the path.<\/p>\n

With tears rolling down my face and a new spring in my step……..I headed the final hour into Hospital de Orbigo.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 This type of Camino moment was not an isolated incident for me.\u00a0 And I spoke to others who had similar experiences.\u00a0 Don’t expect<\/span> these moments to happen, but if you walk with an open mind and an open heart, they often do..<\/em><\/p>\n

I might add a couple more.<\/p>\n

Though I’m sure you can appreciate why I was somewhat hesitant to share them \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 I assure you I am quite sane!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve tried to take it easy today to give my legs a bit of a break so it’s been slow and easy. And of course more chances to reflect. At lunch yesterday in Leon, I was sharing some Camino stories with three other guys that I have met off and on over the last couple of weeks. And we all came to the conclusion that sharing these stories with someone who hasn’t walked the Camino, who hasn’t gone through the physical, emotional and spiritual journey, is sometimes very difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,143,7,13],"tags":[22,25,87],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-camino-moments","category-gallery","category-reflections","tag-camino-de-santiago","tag-camino-reflections","tag-leon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2582,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/2582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}