Can’t believe it, but today is the halfway point to Santiago. I’m halfway there!
Today’s thought topics during the walk:
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is brilliant and also funny.
Opposable thumbs are important.
Rollies make a lot of noise.
For Rinpoche – his book In Love with the World is just remarkable. He’s escaped his monastery where he’s an Abbott and is making his way to Varanasi alone, with no attendants and little money. And the relative life is coming at him in all directions. He’s able to articulate the overwhelming sensory input, his body/emotion/mind responses and then make himself use his training to manage his mind and its thought processes. Absolutely amazing. A real example of what we can do to manage our reactions no matter the situation. And, I’ve laughed out loud several times. He’s so wry and definitely recognizing how cosseted he’s been from childhood because of his Buddhist lineage and status.
Opposable thumbs are really important when you have a window of opportunity to grab a bush with no one near and then realize you can’t unbutton your shorts because your hands are too cold and your thumbs don’t work. Well, hold on and carry on, as they would say in Blechley Park (my other book location). Luckily the sun came up and I warmed up in time.
A gentleman went by on the road that was parallel to the path (with bushes in between) and was pulling his rolling bag. Hiking boots tied on and he was fast! I was in the “focus on sound, not the source” meditation, when we were walking parallel and it was loud! I tried to just let the sound be, not think about how it was drowning out the song birds, the roosters AND the crows. Finally, I just stopped (for reasons noted above) and emptied the rocks out of my shoes as well to give him time to get ahead and let quiet descend again.
Later I caught up as he moved off the road onto the path because the road turned and he’d put the bag on his back. Wow, that can’t be that comfortable, even if it is a softish duffle with wheels. But clever, allows him to do the trip and take his things, but not have to carry all the time.
Here are some morning sights:
The last picture is just classic for this section of the trail.
These next two are from a town called Moratinos. I said a bit about it in the video from the hill, but the wind interfered. The Moors were here as the full or partial population until 1609 when they were completely pushed out of the Iberian peninsula. The little caves with doors were used for food storage and wine-making, part of a wine culture that dates back 2,000 years to the Romans. They don’t know for sure, but know the caves have been used this way for at least 500 years. The sign noted: “Legend says that they were dug in wintertime, a past time for children who could keep warm and occupied scooping out the soft clay. Once exposed to air, the earth hardened to a stony finish strong enough to support the waster earth that was raised in buckets through the chimney ventilation-shaft and dumped out to form the roof of the present ‘Castillo’.”
That’s the hill that I’m standing on to get the video of the surrounding area.
I’m in Sahagun tomorrow night as well, getting transported back here because of housing logistics, so I’ll write about it tomorrow.
Reb's Walks! 