Life Camino? No days off.

A bit of background: -

1 - if you've been reading my blogs, you know Lorraine and I are walking the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain

2 - although we feel "compelled" to do this pilgrimage, at the same time we are doing it at our choice.

3 - we consider our LifeCamino to be a prayer walk - "every step a prayer" - not for ourselves, but for those whose Life Camino is often wracked with suffering of various degrees.  

4 - at the same time, our symbolic LifeCamino is drastically different from their Life Caminos.

Yesterday, we picked up a new friend in Burgos.  He was just sitting their on a ledge, and he looked lonely, and for some reason I was drawn to him, so we decided we would carry him to Santiago, and Finisterre, and Muxia, and maybe even beyond.

He hasn't told us his name yet, so maybe you can help us discover it by guessing at what such a handsome young bear would be called. (Write your guesses in the comment box at the end of this post, or on FaceBook)

Whatever his name is, he has told me that he wants to represent children who are walking harder than normal Life Caminos. He specifically mentioned to me a little boy in South Mountain, Ontario who has been fighting Leukemia ever since he was four.  He said, "that's a tough Camino for anyone" and then he rambled on talking about how Luke and his family have brought so much strength to everyone else through this, that he'd be proud to represent him and his friends at CHEO.

You can read more about Luke and his Camino at http://saradahyland123.blogspot.ca/2014/09/speech-from-winchester-event.html

So today I've been thinking about Luke, and other people who walk harder than normal Life Caminos.

Today, we took a day off ... Just because we wanted to.  We walked from 8:00 to 10:30, and then we stopped.  We weren't particularly tired.  It wasn't particularly hot (only 18 C).  We just chose to stop.

Ten days ago, we stepped aside from the "pilgrimage", took a private hotel with swimming pool, and had a great day.  Two days ago - same thing, minus the swimming pool. Back in Pamplona, two slow days "just because".

People who Walk Harder Than Normal Caminos don't have a choice when they are going to stop.

So let's not kid ouselves about who the heroes are here.  The heroes are not those of us who use our healthy bodies to do something rather exotic.   The real heroes are those who live day after day after day - walking harder than normal Caminos, and somehow inspiring others as they do so.

Now - to show how different my symbolic Camino is from their Life Camino - I'm going to stop writing and take the rest of the day off - just because I can!