For whatever reason, my devices would not sync to the wifi (pronounced weefee here) when I arrived in Tricastela yesterday. I tried for a little while, then just had to accept the fact that I was “going dark” last night. I had dinner with a couple of travelers from Canada who were kind enough to let me use one of their phones (they were smart enough to purchase international minutes) so I could call Nancy and let her know all was well. What a glorious day. I think it was the first day I wasn’t climbing the Empire State building all day. In fact, most of yesterday was walking downhill. Gave the walking sticks a good work out. Tricastela is what we would call a one light town. They call it a village (it doesn’t actually have a traffic light). I stayed about ten minutes outside of the village at the Casa Pacios. It’s an old Spanish farmhouse, that has been converted to a hotel. Imagine a big square building. In the center of the square is an open courtyard laid with very large flagstones. Around the edge of the courtyard are the rooms for the house. On one side of the courtyard, it’s a two story situation, and the hotel rooms are on the upper level. I felt like I was staying somewhere right out of Zorro. I can easily imagine that at one time, the livestock was kept in this courtyard, to protect them from predators … that must have smelled lovely.
For the last two days I’ve been walking through dairy country. Leon y Castilla, where I started, seemed to be a little more agricultural, think grapes, but Galicia, where I am now is definitely cow country. Every village I walk through has the fresh baked aroma of cow pie. Yum yum. At one point yesterday, I rounded the corner of a building and almost head butted about 1200 lbs of fresh steak on the hoof. WHOA. Almost laid a road apple myself. I knew it was “just a cow” but when you’re looking dead in his/her eyes and it has horns, I don’t care  what you know about livestock, that’s a big animal. Didn’t have any time to be concerned as his minder (a miniature looking German Shepherd, was nipping at it’s heels telling it to “move along”). Because I only walked about 13.2 miles, I seemed to recover a little quicker than I have been. My new Canadian friends and I were noticing that everyone who is hiking the Camino, unless they started in St.Jean, all have what we have termed the “pilgrim’s limp”. After walking all day, when you do stop, the muscles in your calves just cramp up, and you end up hobbling. It would be funny to watch, if you didn’t do it also. I don’t know how I would have gotten started the last couple of days without the big tube of Biofreeze that my friends at St. E Holistic Health Services donated. Helps to “unstick” everything and get me going.
Today, I started out in the fog. Not “a fog, the fog”. If you’ve every been outside in a dense fog, you know that it has a tendency to really dampen sound. I walked half the morning with the only sound I could hear being my boots. I imagine that some would find this eerie, but I was digging it. Because visibility was only about 50 yards ahead, I just walked. Not a lot of time for reflection, although at one point, it did occur to me that just as our little “bat-caves” we provision for maximum comfort, are our “homes”, this whole planet is His home. I can tell you that for me, there’s no “looking for God” out here. You can’t miss Him, just open your eyes and look around. I’m walking right through His living room. At least that’s how it seems to me.
Point of order: Because I know that many people reading this blog do not share my personal “religious beliefs”, I am intentionally trying to use language that can be related to by all. In the Zen tradition, when trying to convey Truth, the language and the teaching are referred to as the “finger that points to the moon”. The point is to look at the moon, not get hung up on whether the finger needs it’s nail trimmed … ’nuff said.
Before we get too close to winter, consider taking some time to reacquaint yourself and more importantly your kids with the natural world. I was listening to the radio a couple of months ago, and the the gentleman speaking was saying that the generation growing up right now, will be the first generation to have no significant interaction with the natural world, and he suspected that there will be interesting consequences as a result. My generation grew up playing outside until dark, knowing that we had until mom called us the third time to come in. Our kids. Not sure if they even have the stuff to play outside with …very sad.

Mindy Loan writes: I am an RN visit nurse and unofficial Team Leader. I’ve worked in Home Care Hospice for three years. I used to be “pulled” to the Hospice IPU (Inpatient Unit) at the old North unit in Covington when I was a floor nurse. It was there I realized that being able to comfort patients and their families at the end of life is so rewarding. Currently one of the things I do is manage phone calls from emotional patients and/or family members and try to calm them, until a staff member can visit. Occasionally I’m called to visit patients, when no other staff is available. I believe that God smiles on any of us who help make the transformation from this life to the next as comfortable and peaceful as possible.

If you haven’t yet, please consider visiting the Help St. E page on my website www.walkwithe.com and make a $5 donation. Below the “other” box where you will have to enter $5, is a drill down menu. Please drill down and select Walk with E. I am so grateful to all of you who have given, and some more generously than $5. Thank you. Anything you can give, helps tremendously.

Buen Camino