After All

Everyone asks me now that I'm "home"...

What would I do differently. As I look at the pictures of the other pilgrims, albeit, mostly younger, i realize that they were having waayyy more fun than i was. So my answer would have to be..

I'd have more fun. And maybe I'd skip everything between Burgos and Leon. ;-) I would wear my socks and wash them before I left town, I would not get caught up in the competetive first week but take any number of extra days to stay strong. I would not eat breakfast just because I was awake at 6am. I would definately take at least 1 walking pole. I would spray my feet and hands w/bug spray as well as the rest of me especially when too hot to sleep covered. i would have a light weight white sheet to sleep under on those hot nights. I would take even more pictures than i did. I would take more siestas. I would plan to have a friend like leena preferrably on the same time zone to help with computer, reservation, telephone kind of things that are difficult to do while walking and exhasted. and I would tell all of my friends before I leave that it is not a diet, I'm amazed at how many times people have commented on my weight. Expecting me to have wasted away, they make me think of another pilgrim that i heard talking before she arrived in santiago. She said" my girlfriends are asking if i've lost weight; and I told them "well, my head isn't as big as it used to be" does that count?"

In the end, all the planning in the world cannot prepare us for all that the world brings to us or that we put ourselves in the middle of. We just have to keep going; but I am a firm believer that it helps to know where we're going and where we've been.