Camino Enlightenment And Quotes

The other day, someone asked if I had reached some spiritual enlightenment on the Camino. I immediately replied no, that I'm kind of hopeless like that. Some else asked were there days that I just wanted to just say fuck it and stop, and since I didn't stop why did I keep going. I replied just as quickly and said hell yes I wanted to stop, but after the first 2 or 3 miles each day, the pain in my legs and feet were mostly forgotten, and that my "brand" of competitiveness refused to let me stop. Had I been doing this completely alone I might have had a different answer. It occurred to me that since I had talked this up so much at work, there was absolutely no way I wasn't going to complete the whole thing. That was just not going to happen. Maybe an injury would have stopped it, but then again, it would have to something earth shattering.

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The Great Grape Incident

I think what I learned or was "enlightened" about was more of a confirmation of what I thought I knew about myself. I don't know if we ever "know" ourselves because I think we're always evolving in someway. For the sake of this blog, I will just say that I had always hoped that when things got difficult that I wouldn't curl up in the fetal position and just give up. As a matter of fact there was a day or three when it was so hot, and difficult, the hills were just murder. I remember being proud of myself, and because I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment I even smiled and laughed about it. At the end of a particular day, I was averaging about 19 minutes a mile. After walking roughly 12 to 14 miles that day, I'd say that was pretty cool. At least cool for me, because I hadn't realized I had been moving at that pace. I had told my travel companions some ancient wisdom I had learned in the Coast Guard so many years ago. Though I'm sure it's a universal saying,

"Embrace the suck"

You know it sucks, just roll with it.

So maybe I did have a bit of "enlightenment", but this is just me. I will find someway to be self deprecating. Life seems way more fun when you refuse to take yourself to seriously. 

Before I let you all off the hook from the Camino adventure, I want to also share with you quotes from the trail and approximately when they came into existence oh and who said them. Please note that someone else kept track of these quotes not me.

Oh and to be sure, this isn't the last post from the Camino. I have like a ton of images and video to sort through still.

So Buckle up!

Until next time, stay outta trouble, and if you can’t do that. Don’t get caught.

Tim

Quotes from The Way

Quote	Where	Who said it
"Where is the rickshaw?"	Northern VA	Tim
"Have you seen these shoulders"	Porto, Portugal	Tim
"It's a beautiful day and my hair looks amazing."	Esposende, Portugal	Tim
It's all uphill from here	Vigo, Spain	The Group
"'look at these glutes"-	Vigo, Spain	Tim
"What's with all the negativity?"	Vila do Conde, Portugal	Tim
I just want to sleep on my bed	Pontevedra, Spain	Tim
"Enough of this slow and steady"	Vigo, Spain	TC-2
"I envy people who don't know you"	Porto, Portugal	Tim
16 million.(I said this any time I needed express a large sum of something. Such as "There's like 16 million million people on that bridge, let's go"!)	Porto, Portugal	Tim
"We only queue for the loo"	Everywhere	TC-1
"Moogy, it's what cows do when they dance" (or the way certain Brits say muggy)	Vila Praia de Ancora, Portugal	British Folks
"I am the way"...(Don't ask...actually yes please ask me)	Porto, Portugal	Tim
"It's a fairy tale. It's a horror movie"....our first eucalyptus forest	Viana do Castelo, Portugal	TC-2/Tim
"I feel like you are not embracing the whole camino experience."	Vila do Conde, Portugal	Tim

TC-1 = Travel Companion 1, TC-2 = Travel Companion 2