Still 264 km to Santiago de Compostela
A friend from Sweden that I met at the pilgrim's forum sent me a very nice note. She said she had some concern because I have not sound as enthusiastic in this blog as I was at the beginning.
I think she is right. The last few days have been hard times. First the last couple of days walking the Castilla-Leon plateau were hard. Specially the day we had really strong cold head winds with hail first and then rain and nowhere to hide. Then the severe attack of vertigo I suffered in Villadangos when I could barely stand and with pretty horrible nausea and with a visit to emergency to seek medical help. Indeed I was discouraged.
Today It is the 3rd day of rest at Astorga and I am feeling better. My wife as usual is a solid rock of strength for me with her unconditional support no matter what. My mood is improving. I am finding that the discouragement at this stage, here, at the end of the plateau is not unusual. Medical visits and forced days of rest are also common for pilgrims.
They say the pilgrims go through three different crisis, the first one is physical, when the body reacts to this unusual excess of exercise. Boy oh boy! Did I have a physical crisis with my extreme exhaustion that needed medical attention and kept me in Pamplona for 3 days.
The second crisis is emotional and here I am living it now. The discouragement that comes after 3 weeks of walking and the monotony of the plateau (and on top of that my vertigo). I think I am past that one.
The third crisis is a spiritual one so I better get ready for that.
It looks like my experiences are not unusual. So tomorrow we start to walk again. We are being prudent planning for only 10 km. If I get tipsy we can always call a taxi and come back to Astorga. God willing we are on the move.
Today by chance we got to the cathedral half way through mass so we had a chance to be there for communion. After mass walking around the cathedral I found a beautiful image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is very dear to me. In fact I am very devout of her. I felt that she was telling me just as she did to San Juan Diego: Am I not here, I who am your mother?
So now I feel I have full support from my Mother Mary and with my dear wife by my side I am ready to take on the mountains of Leon and Galicia. Cruz de Ferro here we come.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, mother Mary, help us, stay with us and please pray for us sinners.
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