Walking

CAMINO STAGE 15 Comillas to Colombras Camino Del Norte Route of El Camino de Norte – 18 Miles, Day 16, 21 Days to go

“Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” – Henry David Thoreau

Eighteen miles. In a car, on the freeway, for the most part, 18 miles is a few brief moments. On foot, walking across Spain, depending on the terrain, it’s five to six plus hours walking through farmer’s fields, past loose grazing bulls and cows, along railroad tracks, through little towns of five stone homes, over bridges, beside rivers and up and down mountainous terrains.

“Walking is a man’s best medicine.” – Hippocrates

I heard my mother often remark while growing up: “Walking is the easiest and most perfect activity to restore body and mind.” As a physical therapist, my mother always told her patients this when they were struggling and trying to recover from injuries. I have thought of this in the process of being thoroughly exhausted, while walking the last two weeks and thought “Walking is not that easy!” But today on our 16th day on the Camino, we are now seeing our stride strengthened and bodies and minds restored. In the beginning, it was all about blistered feet, fatigued shoulders and hips from a 20 lb. pack and aching legs. Now it’s less about popping blisters and aspirin and more about the scenery and people around us and what transpires in the rich recesses of the mind. In the quiet, with doves cooing, corn rustling and ones own breath huffing, there’s healing transpiring to the peatones or walkers on the Camino who didn’t know they were ailing.

I walk. I prefer walking.” Jane Austen

One of my favored authors, Jane Austen, loved to walk and hence her character’s walked when they needed to sort out emotions and needs. Anyone reading or watching Pride and Prejudice cannot forget the image of Mr Darcy striding across the field in a brisk walk heading to Miss Elizabeth Bennet as he unconsciously knows he needs her, and that she is the cure to his ailment. In our striding across the fields of Spain towards Santiago Del Compostela, to prove we have mettle, we too without forethought or intention have been unintentionally walking towards an unknown quest of wholeness of mind and body and we are finding it.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” Friedrich Nietzsche

Mile 17: at 3 pm, tired, hungry and sunburned, we stood at the base of a mountain with our daily destination and rest on the other side. As i took a deep breath and gathered my inner reserves, a line from Jane Austen’s book Persuasion came to my head: “never underestimate the power of a well-written letter,” but it came to me as: ‘never underestimate the power of a well-walked walk.’ Yellow flowers, dragonflies, butterflies and the smile of my very own Mr. Darcy made that steep ascent a well walked walk. Or a wellness walk—as our legs propelled us forward, and we reached our destination feeling restored.