Black and white

This morning I woke up to Molly trying to wake me, per my request. I pressed the snooze button on Molly and went back to bed. They woke up at 5:00 in the morning and walked while the stars were still in the sky, enjoying it immensly. I tried to explain to them that every winter it's quite easy for us Icelanders to experience this but I guess they'll have to come to Iceland and experience it for themselves. Sascia also tried to wake me and at that point I just turned off the alarm, no point in snoozing twice.

I awoke a little after 7:00 and they had all left. My blister had filled up with liquid again and I had to pop it a second time. The first time I obviously didn't make the holes big enough and my skin regenerated. Damn my awesome body! ;)

Our goal for the day the 39,6 km walk to León. I set out at about 9:00, after prayer and meditation and was lucky enough to catch up with Colin Powell (yes his actual name) and Paul. We walked together for a while, talked and laughed enjoying the fact that all three of us spoke quite good English. Then I decided to get my strut on and did my power walk. The first stretch was 13 km's to Reliegos and then I had my lunch. I'm glad Colin and Paul caught up with me as I was half way through lunch since I hadn't gotten their contact information. That was probably the last time I'll see them on the Camino, my pace being a bit faster then theirs. So hopefully we'll stay in contact. God bless the internet! ;)

In Reliegos I made a bad choice to try and tighten my shoelaces some more. I made another bad choice after that which was to use the new found ankle support and stability in my shoes to walk even faster, power walk ala Gulli. That would have been fine for a 20 - 25 km walk but not 39! Because of the shoelaces my tendonitis pain returned and because of the super speed the last km's of this walk were indeed a pain. On top of that, walking on my new blister wasn't really a peach and there was no shade in the last stretch and that was during the hottest time of the day. And man was it hot today. Time and time again I prayed for some wind, just any wind, just something to cool me a little down. This being my 18th day of walking at least 20 km's a day there are of course some other minor pains, but they didn't count for much when matched with the others.

Despite the pain and the fact that I listened to music almost the entire time to try and dull the pain, my mind raced all around as usual. A part of me wished for simpler times, when I was a kid and I saw the world in black and white. It's such a crushing moment when you realize that the world is composed of different shades of grey, that your idols are not perfect and that the bad guys also have good sides to them. But I'm not so sure that this is in fact a bad thing. In a black and white world you have no choice in the matter of how to see things. Things are either good or bad, there is no in between. But in a world filled with different shades of grey you have a choice to make; are you going to see the bad in even the nicest person or are you going to see that even the most wicked of us all have something beautiful to offer? All of us have good and bad in them, that's part of living in a world of different shades of grey. None of us are perfect. That means we have a choice of how we see the world, because we have free will. This notion changed my life in such a way that I'll never be able to explain it. I became a totally different person and despite the fact that I have not always held this notion in high esteme, what I did was powerful enough to change me forever. I was 14 and I realized that we all have good and bad in us and that my job in life was to find a way to bring out the good in everyone, regardless of who they were. This gave me wonderful 4 years and ever since when I apply this principle in my life it get's so much better. So my thoughts of black and white today were twofold: 1) That the beauty of living in a life of different shades of grey is that we get to choose how we see life 2) That since I know we all have something good inside us and when I do what I can to bring that out in people, my life gets drastically better.

When I got to León Molly, Kesha, Tomasz and Andreas were already there. Andreas is a cool German guy I met the night before. He used to be 20 kg's overweight and he started running to lose weight. Not only did he lose the weight but he got addicted to running and now he runs marathons. He's recently gotten into running Ultra Marathon's which is any distance further than the 42 km's in an official marathon. His furthest Ultra Marathon was 62 km...so far! Go go Andreas ;)

I arrived at the municipal Albergue at around 18:00 and after a shower, some chatting and the normal routine I've been enjoying blogging. Blogging is probably one of the best things I do on the Camino. I'd love to say that I do this for you beautiful people but in fact this let's me re-experience every day and fully receive all the gifts the Camino has to offer. I could just write a journal if that is the only thing I wanted but I'm so greatful for blogging. Sharing your amazing experiences with others is so giving and humbling. It truly brings me to the mat and helps me get real with what truly happened and what's really going on. Thank you for being such an integral part of my Camino experience beautiful people.

I have no idea where Antonello, Simone and Sascia are. They wanted to go here to León and they are nowhere to be seen. I wish them well and hope/know they're having a good laugh somewhere.

I'm going to go check my clothes and see if they are dry. I've been sitting here in the lobby of the Albergue on my underware, my shorts recently washed and my pants still wet from the night before. So stay awesome beautiful people and I hope you turn your focus on the good in this world of different shades of grey; it's the same world, you just have more fun living it! :)