stretching

'Its a stretch.'  'Shes trying to stretch her budget.'  'Stretch before you work out.'  'Can you stretch it a little bit longer?'  Stretch is a funny word (particularly when you type or say it repeatedly - I had to double check my spelling and meaning after a few times), and applicable in so many ways.

I'm working through a physical problem currently, "plantar fasciitis". It hurts.  Cursory stretching doesn't do the trick for the heel pain; thoughtful, deep, and multiple stretches per day are much more effective.  The physical stretching has me thinking about internal stretching.

A couple of years ago I don't think walking The Camino would've entered my realm of possibility thinking.  Too much of a stretch.  I'm cracking myself up as I type, if you must know.  I would've dismissed the idea as something other people do.  The moment I felt that little spark of delight, of romantic wonder, of feeling the little tug of desire to walk The Camino I began to stretch internally in ways I hadn't before that imagined.

I believe in myself differently - many friends don't understand why I am going to do this, and why I want to walk for four or five weeks alone - and as humans we are very susceptible to the opinions of others; this reaction from others hasn't affected my thinking or desire.  It seems like in a different time in my life their influence would've been much stronger....  Because I hadn't done any stretching.

So if you're reading this and you're on the fence about something that matters to you - stretch! 

Kerstin

i did it!

Mid-May; USA to France.

Early July: Spain to the USA

In just about every scenario that includes a sense of wonder; of marvel - there are as many perspectives as there are humans that are aware of it.  When I finished purchasing my airline tickets on the internet to get to and from my real destination - my camino - the very next sensation was being aware of the trails that my own tears left on my cheeks- that slight stinging of salt on skin leaving a slightly cool and sticky trail.  There is the awareness (again and again) that I alone decide whether or not to step closer to what I imagine, whatever that may be.  My joy was so profound at taking this step that my body reacted physically.  Whoa.

Some of the reactions I've gotten from loved ones remind me that we have forgotten in the last hundred years or so how amazing our physical bodies are;  who in this world can walk 5 or 6 hours a day?  Nearly all of us.  We just don't think like that!  Millions of human beings through time have used their bodies to get from here to there no matter the distance.  

For me, the beginning and ending are far less important than the days in between.  I'm interested in knowing how I react and respond to challenge beyond what I know.  I'm interested in learning first hand what happens when I bank on faith; in the Universe, God, humankind and myself to get up in the morning and walk 15 or so miles and do that each morning until there are 500 miles across the unknown etched into my physical body and more importantly, my spiritual body. 

It's the 4th of January 2014; 5 months and 10 days til I'm off - I did it - I purchased my tickets.  Yay, me!

Kerstin