Providing Once Again

 Been awhile since I posted.  Recent events have made me rather withdrawn, so I've been keeping silent.  Anyway, I was along the canal at 32nd St/Stanford, harvesting a few mesquite beans.  I've been waiting for beans to turn golden.  Most have been green, but there's a few ripening.  I found a good tree and was close to filling my bag when a man walked past along the canal.  He stopped to chat and it turned out he'd lived along Stanford Drive not far away.  We chatted about the area and some of the old places...Hitching Post bar, Cudia City movie set, etc.  We introduced ourselves...his name was Bill Sperry, and he hikes the canal almost every day.

What made this so exciting was just meeting someone out of the blue, just like along the Camino.  And it came at the right time, when I've been feeling depressed and negative.  I was badly in need of good conversation, something positive.  Once again, out of nowhere, the Camino provides.  Something to reinforce my belief in humanity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How did I get here?

Image
 I've hiked a Camino previously, in May 2019.  It took me 16 days to travel from Leon in northern Spain almost directly west to Santiago de Compostela where the remains of St. James are supposedly buried.  And then another four days to hike to Finisterre on the coast, where I proceeded to lose my phone.  (That's one of my better Camino stories, but I'll save that for another time.)  Hiking the Camino was one of the greatest experiences in my life.  The scenery was great, but it's really about the people you meet.  All ages, locations, walks of life.  I basically hop-scotched across northern Spain for two weeks with a South Korean woman I met.  It's how the Camino works...you see some of the same people for several days, then never see them again.  Or see the same people all the way. Anyway, I kept thinking I'd do another Camino or hike some day.  And I completed part of the Fife Coastal Path in May 2023.  So this is in my blood...
Read more

On Fire

Image
 I've been monitoring the fire situation in Portugal/Spain for almost three weeks.  Very hot, very dry and LOTS of fires.  Northern/Central Portugal, northern/northwestern Spain (including Galicia) are greatly affected.  Early in August the Portuguese government issued a proclamation closing off access to forest paths, which likely included parts of the Camino Portuguese.  In the last few days I've read of locations along the Camino Frances that I walked in 2019 that have been closed.  As of today you can't walk from Astorga to Ponferrada.  That's several days worth, including the Cruz de Ferro.  Casa Susi, an albergue in Trabadelo where I stayed, has posted pictures of the fire and smoke. I get information from different sites.  I try to follow any locals who are currently on the trail, like on the local APOC chapter's Facebook page.  Another good source of info is the Camino Forum.  There's a couple sites (Gronze for one) that sho...
Read more

Nerves, and Overcoming Them

Image
I posted the following in the group's WhatsApp thread this morning.  It drew a hugely positive response.  Like 10 💖s.  I debated whether or not I should speak up and post something like this.  Guess it doesn't hurt to open up and be human once in a while! There's a lot of nerves and fear in our world these days.  Some warranted, but a lot of it is in our minds.  "Predictive anxiety" as my therapist calls it.  We play a movie in our heads.  And we've been conditioned to play what's often a negative movie over the last few years. Why not play a positive movie?  We only live once.  Why not enjoy the trip?  Look at the positive side, making new friends, discovering new experiences, seeing new places, tasting new foods.  There will be challenges...blisters, achy feet/knees, people you may not get along with, maybe your pack gets misplaced.  But somehow, some way, the Camino will provide. _________________________ I see the fee...
Read more