Camino de Santiago Portuguese - Day 14

• Summary of the Day: It’s hard to believe we’ve been here now for a full two weeks. So many miles! I’m sitting in our room on the second floor of the Chocolate & Mente Hostel just north of Redondela. It’s quite beautiful here with the Vigo River in full view from the back of the building.

  We originally had planned to only walk into the city of Redondela today, but this place wasn’t too much farther north, so we decided to stay here. This part of the Camino, closer to Santiago, has more Pilgrim infrastructure, so more cafes and places catering to pilgrims. We stopped for lunch at a little cafe on the very long hill coming down into Redondela. It was only later in the day that we discovered that walking down to this Hostel from the Camino (much higher up) would be 1 km straight down the mountain. It had already been a very hilly day walking up from O Porrino, so navigating yet another steep ascent was exhausting. We had only intended to walk around ten miles today, but we ended up doing more like fourteen. The good news is that our day walking tomorrow will be that much shorter because we are only walking to Pontevedra. At this point, we’ve passed the hundred-mile mark (105), and Santiago is only about another fifty-five miles away. To think we could be walking into Santiago next week sometime is quite thrilling.

  At the moment, we are washing our clothes in the bathtub because we’ve started running out of clothes since we each only have enough clothes for three days. Jonathan is trying to rig a clothes line by attaching it to the wall-mounted TV bracket and the hinge on the closet door. We’ve been fortunate to have access to a washing machine from time to time, and that has really helped. Sandy has really been enjoying all the different animals we’ve encountered as we’ve been walking. There are dogs everywhere but also sheep and goats and horses, and chickens. There was one goat today who looked like he came straight out of the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

  
  

• What we planned to do: We planned to walk just outside Redondela, but we ended up walking up every hill we could find.

The Day's Focus

• Topic: Where I “am” always looks different than it did before I got there, and that’s equally true of where I’m going. Often, I can only imagine what’s up ahead or around the corner. Sometimes what I find there can be very disheartening. How can there be another hill!? But sometimes what I find is beautiful beyond words, and the struggle with what I wasn’t expecting and didn’t like is the price I paid for it.

• Word for the Day: Perspective

• Scripture: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." - Isaiah 55:8

• Spiritual Practice: How are the current challenges you’re facing merely a path to something amazing that God wants to reveal to you or do in you? Ask him for his perspective on it.

Moments and Images

• Images from the Way Today: 

Beautiful Spot of the Day

Sunset over the Vigo River, taken from the Hostel we’re staying at

• Spiritual Meditative Moment: Ok, it wasn’t a meditative moment, but when we first got to our room in the hostel, I didn’t move for a long time. It’s an interesting fact that meditation and exhaustion share some of the same characteristics.

  
  

• What Church we Visited

  

  We passed by this church, but it wasn’t open so we didn’t go in

• People we experienced: We met a delightful older couple from Ireland on the Camino outside of O Porrino. It’s quite amazing the number of people clearly in their seventies and beyond out here walking. It’s pretty inspiring.

• Unexpected Surprises:

  These sheep are being chased around by these geese.

Animals /Nature or Local Life:

This is Sandy’s animals of the Camino gallery.

Reflections and Learnings

• Reflections from Today: Most of the time, I want to be prepared for what’s up ahead or around the corner, especially if it’s painful or difficult or challenging. But what if the best way for me to prepare for those things is simply to ask God for his perspective on the path he’s called me to and the grace to agree with his plan as I walk there?

• "Well, that was hard.": I thought the Himalayas were in Nepal until we started walking today

a couple of kilometers of this?

• "What helped me today": Walking in the company of others, especially in difficult places.

  
  

• "Something I learned": 

  The  TV mount on the wall in your hotel room can be used for other things

• Insight for the day: It’s more important to be focused on where you’re going than “how” you’re doing getting there. The how can look pretty bad, but the getting there can look pretty much the same either way.

  
  

• "Mystical occurrences": How about this? When I could finally stop walking today, I felt like I was in heaven.

Video from the Camino today

Looking towards Redondela

Daily Conclusion

• A View of Our Compostela

Sometimes  it’s hard to know which way is up on the stamps

• Gratitudes (1–3 things I'm thankful for):

  Having dinner at the hostel and not having to go back out

  Just having the strength to make it today

  The wonderful fresh fruit salad we had at lunch

  All the cute dogs we saw today

  Cool woods to walk through