MY PREGNANT PILGRIMAGE #14 June 5, 2012 Sometimes it’s hard to know when a story starts and when it stops. This observation has held true for me when I write fiction, but in the last several days, I have been mindful of how it relates to the lives we lead each day – whether or not we …
Fear and the Habit of Momentum
MY PREGNANT PILGRIMAGE #13 May 30, 2012 I’m lying in bed in Villa Franca listening to Spiritualized’s Soul on Fire on repeat. Great song. I was just hit by a memory flash. It’s the summer 2009 and I am sitting on a small plane rising slowly up into the air. A Croatian stranger is attached to …
Gifts in Santa Domingo
MY PREGNANT PILGRIMAGE #12 May 29, 2012 What gifts I have been blessed with in the past several days. Here are just a few: The walk to Santa Domingo including a long, hot hill. But at its summit many gifts awaited us. First there was the wind. We raised our arms and let it embrace us, grateful …
Keep Going
MY PREGNANT PILGRIMAGE #11 May 25, 2012 I learned the following motivational chant while walking through the hot, hot heat in the final kilometers to Los Arcos a few days ago: I had a good job in the army but I left, I left. I left because I did not think that it was right, left, …
Gratitude and Saying Goodbye
MY PREGNANT PILGRIMAGE #10 May 24, 2012 Today I write from Viana, a town of 3,500 long steeped in Pilgrim history. I sit outside the albergue (appreciative of the shade above and cold stone beneath me) typing on my iPhone with the ruins of a cathedral in front of me. The baby is kick, kicking away. …
Gratitude on the Road
MY PREGNANT PILGRIMAGE #9 May 21, 2012 Happy to report that Aimee and I have made it safely to Puenta La Raina – 19 kilometers from our starting point in Cizur Menor. We were up at 5am and on our way by 6. We arrived at our destination at 2pm and got a room at the …
Not According to Plan
MY PREGNANT PILGRIMAGE #8 May 20, 2012 Things are settling in on the Camino. That´s not to say it is not a very different trip than I had anticipated. It is a very different trip. Very. For example, having trained extensively with my pack, I could not have imagined that the day I got here that …
First Days on the Camino de Santiago
MY PREGNANT PILGRIMAGE #7 May 17, 2012 I write from Zubiri. The past three days have been up and down. The scramble of last minute packing, the excitement of heading to the airport for an adventure, the sadness of wishing Colin goodbye, the fun of reuniting with Aimee to take flight for Spain. When my meticulously …
Blast Off
MY PREGNANT PILGRIMAGE #6 May 15, 2012 Onward! Adventure! Unknown! I head to the airport in 15 minutes. Camino de Santiago: Here I am! The person I am today does feel nervous, even a little bit TERRIFIED, about the next 5-6 weeks on the trail. But I know that this is a step taking me towards …