Cadavedo to Villaperde
Distance: 17.2 miles (27.6 kilometers)
Total Ascent: 140 meters
Difficulty: 2
Calories Burned: 4,088
As I’ve mentioned previously, I have tried to set an intention for each day of my Camino to help me to think through things and organize my thoughts, feelings and actions for the day with purpose. Today held two separate intentions for me.
My first intention, set as we left our Albergue this morning at 6:30 am, was to stop focusing on reaching a specific destination each day, and instead land when our bodies tell us the day is over.
It is so easy to get stuck in a quota-mode on the Camino. Everyone has a book or an app that shows you the towns you should be reaching by each day’s end, and the Type A in me is intent upon reaching or beating the goal every day. That was nearly my sole focus yesterday. And as a result, I ended up reaching a dusty, sleepy town-let (it wasn’t nearly big enough to be called a town) at 1:30 pm, checking into our very basic albergue (worse than any college dorm I’ve ever seen), and sitting through a rain storm at the only restaurant in town.
We did have the good fortune of meeting Mari (Germany) and James (England) while at the restaurant, a newly formed couple who met on their first night of the Camino, and had a blast telling stories with them for a couple of hours, but I realized that my purpose seemed a bit shallow yesterday. When I wasn’t hiking with Andrew, I didn’t stop to enjoy the view as often, and was so focused on finishing. And I didn’t like that about myself.
So, when we set off today, we did enjoy the path, got stuck in a rain storm, and fell into the cutest port town of Luarca. But then I couldn’t help myself, logged onto Booking.com, and found a mansion for us to sleep in for the night in Villaperde. So now we had a goal again. And in order to reach it, I now have a painful blister on my left ankle. Intention #1 – failed. I’ll try again tomorrowJ
But my second intention may take more than a day and might deserve more focus. As Andrew and I were talking, I told him that I want to set an ongoing intention to release toxic feelings and start anew. I have realized on this Camino that I have been holding on to some feelings of hurt, over lost friends and misunderstandings. I have been thinking about these things every day and noticed that they have become quite heavy for me.
I then began to think about why these people have done or said the things they have, and sought to learn their perspective and lay down my hurt. We talked for a while about one of those friends today, and I feel like I’ve come to a really good place with my thoughts. And I intend to work through them, one at a time, for t
