The more I know, the more I know I know nothing!

There was no internet last night in El Burgo Ranero so I could not write a blog for last night. I'll blog twice today, once for yesterday and then again for today. And here we go:

2 nights ago in Terradillos de Los Templarios, right after I wrote my blog, the twelve of us sat down for dinner to celebrate Antonello's 24th and Hideo's 62'nd birthday. We're all sure that Hideo is travelling with a fake passport and is really 42...the man is legendary for sure! :) Hideo bought us all champagne before dinner and we tosted for their health and happiness. Our dinner was it's usual loud self and then Hideo stood up to make a toast. His toast was so beautiful, he beared his soul about how happy he was with the Camino and how greatful he was for our part in his journey. He said that after 17 days he had already gotten more out of this journey than he ever thought he would get from the whole Camino. Even though Jiney had to help translate parts of his speech, it was so amazing that it touched all of our hearts. Thank you Hideo!!!

After dinner Laura, an Italian girl that I massaged the night before, asked if she could give me a Reiki session. I graciously accepted. She told me after the session that I was in total balance and it seemed like I didn't even need Reiki. She also told me that I had the most energy she had ever felt before. It was a good session :)

I didn't sleep a lot that night, actually very little. There were only four of us in the room that night, me, Jiney, Katrin and Hideo. But still I had to pee like 5-7 times over the night. The physiotherapist in Santa Maria told me to drink even more water than I already do and I've been doing exactly that. Either it's working and this is the result or I'm drinking too much water. And I never do too much of anything...like everybody knows ;)

Katrin tried to wake me early in morning but I had to get some rest. I woke up rather late, again compared to Camino goers that is, and had breakfast alone a little after 8:00. I was alone when I set off on the day's journey, our goal the 32,4 km walk to El Burgo Ranero. I found a beautiful bench with a stone circle in front of it that reminded me of the stone circle with the 10 stages that we saw a few days earlier. I sat down there for prayer and meditation and had such an experience that I was there for an hour.

When I stood up my mind was so open, for a lack of a better word, and my brain again became it's own think tank. There are so many things that crossed my mind especially a quote I heard some time ago: "The more I know, the more I know I know nothing!". Someone told me that Einstein had said that but it dosn't really matter who said it; there's wisdom in those words. Every time I think I have life ALL figured out my mind becomes rigid, I close myself off from other possibilities and my life ends up in a big mess. Knowing that I don't know everything is truly the greatest thing I've learned. The more I learn the more things I hear about that I know nothing about; things I didn't even know existed before. The more I learn the bigger the world gets and the more I realize that I truly know so little. So, in affect, the more I know, the more I know I know nothing! I have so often thought that I really had figured out life in one way or another, only to have my whole idea revolutionized a short time after that. I thought how important it is for me to keep an open mind, to be willing to try new things, to listen to others even though they have another opinion than mine and to be willing to change my views if I'm presented with something that appears to be the truth. It is with a closed mind that I have made most of my mistakes in life. Every morning in prayer and meditation I ask that my ideas of the world be taken from me, that what I THINK is true be taken from me and that I get to have a new experience. The results have truly been amazing; people, places and things that I previously had one idea about have ended up meaning something completely different to me!

A great man named Vilhelm passed me that morning, he didn't recognize me. I met him in Zubiri on my second day and he was kind enough to wake me the morning after. But that day he strolled past me and when I called him he told me that he hadn't recognized me; I looked like I was Spanish and bore little resemblance to the man I was on my second day on this journey. Vilhelm is from the Netherlands and he actually started his walk there. His total journey will be more than 2600 km's and he will have travelled for 4 months. His view on the Camino is amazing. He says that the most important part is to find a rhythm and not to have any peaks on your journey. He did walk 44 km's one day but that was only because the Albergue he was going to sleep in was already full and he had to walk to the next town. He tries to walk about 25 km's a day. He says people often try to compete with themselves and test their limits, but he says that is unnecessary; the Camino wil do that for you. Sometimes it will do it in the form of weather, sometimes physical pain, sometimes other people. The most important thing to realize in his opinion is that you don't have control. The Camino is in charge!

I had been walking rather slow before I met him. Ever since Santa Maria I have not been able to tie my shoelaces tight so I'm rather loose in my shoe. It was recommended to me by the physiotherapist and every time I try and "disobey" him I end up in a lot of pain. But I had been pain free from the tendonitis for a day at least and I intened on staying like that. But there are at least 3 disadvantages to having loosely tied shoes. The first is that I don't get all the ankle support I could get. The second is that my shoes fill up with pebbles and gravel. And the third I'll tell you about at the end of the day. But I was walking slowly mainly because of number 1, little ankle support. Up until this point I had been relatively free from any pain in my right foot. But my ankle seems to need the support, count on it even and there was some pain in my ankle right there and then. But when Vilhelm arrived, to my surprise and pleasure, I found out that I could walk much faster.

Lunch in Sahagun was great. I cought up with Antonello, Sascia, Simone, Katrin, Jiney and Hideo there. The city is beautiful and I love how easily a Pilgrim can navigate a big city like that. All we have to do is follow the yellow arrows and the conch shells that lead the way.

After Sahagun I travelled rather fast and my think tank was on again. I didn't listen to any music until the very end but rather enjoyed the fact that almost anything and everything was racing through my brain at the speed of light. At the end I felt a pain just below my big toe on my right foot and I turned the music on then to try and dull the pain.

When I finally arrived in El Burgo Ranero after the 32,4 km walk I was tired and the pain had gotten worse. I found this amazing Albergue, with a beautiful lawn (no kidding, it looked like a high priced vacation resort) named La Laguna. I discovered that the pain was in fact a blister, my second one and hopefully my last. It was bigger than the first one and there was no physiotherapist to help me with it. I got a needle from Tomasz and for the first time I popped my own blister, yay me! Which brings me to the third reason why loosely tied shoes aren't so good: chafing. There is a bigger chance for blisters if your foot is moving around in your shoe while you walk and since I can't tie my shoelaces too tight I ended up with a nice one.

Attila the Hun cooked a great meal and the 6 of us, the dutch guy, Molly, Kesha, Tomasz and I had a delicious pasta ala Attila. Afterwards we had a great discussion about why we were doing the Camino and if it wouldn't be an entire blog post in itself I would surely tell you Attila's reason for being here.

There was no computer there so the night was pretty much spent hanging with my friends. I should have done some yoga, but I didn't feel bad at that moment and I did get some great moments with my friends.

Antonello arrived pretty late. He, Simone and Sascia went the wrong way twice that day. They had, again, tried to drink red wine in the sun much to their dismay. The path these days mostly concists of long stretches with almost no shade and the sun has been extremely hot recently, sweltering being my favorite word these days.

My mind was still on hyper mode when I went to bed. So many thoughts raced through my mind and I just couldn't fall asleep. As I lay there I really felt that I had lost a lot weight on the journey. Losing weight was not a goal for this trip, I knew it was going to happen but it wasn't a goal in itself. But it felt good to know that I had lost so much weight. Thoughts of this and everything else raced through my mind and I got very little sleep that night.