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Location Date Santiago 1374361200 San Payo 1374188400 Arzua 1374102000 O Coto 1374015600 Hospital De La Cruz 1373929200 Barbadelo 1373842800 Triacastela 1373756400 La Faba 1373670000 Villafranca Del Breizo 1373583600 Ponferrada 1373497200 El Acebo 1373410800 Santa Catalina 1373324400 Hospital De Orbigo 1373238000 Leon 1373151600 Mansilla De Las Mulas 1373065200 Hermamanillos De La Templarios 1372978800 Terradillos 1372892400 Carrion De Los Condes 1372806000 Board Ills Del Camino 1372719600 Hontanas 1372633200 Burgos 
1372546800 Atappuerca 1372460400 Villafranca 1372374000 Santo Domingo De Calzada 1372287600 Najera 1372201200 Logrona 1372114800 Torres Del Rio 1372028400 Estella 1371942000 Puente La Reina 1371855600 Pamplona 1371769200 Larrasoaña 1371682800 Roncesvalles 1371596400
But seek first His kingdom & His righteousness & all these things shall be yours as we'll.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the days own trouble be sufficient for the day.
Mathew 6: 33 - 34
The Invitation
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have, I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
I doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
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Another 6am start, the running repairs to my blisters to be completed. I got the blister pierced last night and a tread was left in it to allow it to continue draining overnight. Once I removed the tread this morning I had to ensure that it was drained as much as possible before putting compeed on it. Running repairs complete we set out for the 20km walk into Burgos, the second largest city on the Camino. I walk with Kate, a 23 year old teacher from New York, for the first two hours before we stop for a coffee break. I then walk alone for the next 1.5 hours as I can see Burgos gets closer and closer. I wonder why I have a dislike for cities as I approach Burgos. The only reason I can think of is having spent 5 years in a city boarding school. Whatever the reason I would have been happy to catch a bus to take me right through the city and drop me on the other side. But this too is part of the pilgrimage walk and it has nothing to do with Burgos and all to do with me! I decide that I don't have an answer to my question right now so I will just live the question and walk into the city and try and enjoy whatever Burgos has to offer me! We meet up in the suburbs, Emma (Ireland), Kate (New York), Conny (Denmark) & Tinker (Canada) take the bus the last 10km into Burgos. I walk in with Farmer John (USA), Brian (Ireland) & Anny Sandra (Canada). My right ankle is getting very sore but I manage the walk anyhow.
12 days, 300km done, 500 to Santiago!
The centre of Burgos is really beautiful and I spend a lot of the afternoon sitting in the square in front of the most wonderful cathedral I have ever seen! It's just lovely to sit in the glorious sunshine watching the world go by.
- comments
Mairead "Travelling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it." Cesare Pavese " land of searing sun Forget the blistered feet I say KEEP WALKING " Mairead Sheehan!! My attempt at a haiku for you TP xx
Mary Lowney If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Mary Lowney If - by Rudyard Kipling