Thursday, January 9, 2014

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

2 comments:

  1. I'm sorry your foot is still bothering you. There are tons of little "fixer-up-for-now" contraptions you can strap on your foot. Maybe one will be a little miracle worker for your walk! I know that's not the gist of this post, but I'd hate to think you'd go on this journey and be cursing your foot the entire time. More to the point, no one needs to understand why you're doing this but you. But you already know that. Hope you're well. I hadn't checked your blog out in awhile. Now I'm gonna see if there were any other posts I'd missed. I just remembered I hadn't read your blog in awhile and, just for me, I got a little excited thinking, yeah, there'll definitely be something new to read by now.

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  2. Hello Kerstin, I found your blog link which you posted on the Camino forums. I too want to walk the Camino and had planned to do it this May, but a shoulder issue and a loss of the desire to walk caused me to postpone for a year. Since you are walking at the same time of the year that I hope to go, I will be following your journey with interest. Last year I had a similar pain in the foot only in the ball of the foot, called Morton's Neuroma. It was extremely painful but for the most part has settled down. Still pain once in a while, but the Dr gave me some inserts for my shoes and it seemed to help. I started a blog about my camino which won't be seeing many posts for the time being. Check it out if you care to. There is a great link to a video a previous pilgrim made that rang true with my reasons for walking. www.walkingmycamino.blogspot.com
    Anyway I will be following you journey with interest and wish you a Buen Camino.

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