It was a cold, dreary Saturday morning in January when my dear friend texted me.
"Hey girlie, I have a proposal for you ..."
It was an invitation to travel to Spain with her and 4 of our dearest friends to walk the ancient and beautiful Camino de Santiago.
Over 100 km of walking in a week. In Spain. With friends.
I turned to my husband who knows me all too well and read him the text.
He thought for just one brief moment and said, "You must say yes."
My husband is not overly spontaneous. He is more on the thoughtful side, leaning toward counting the cost before leaping. I lean that way, too.
I don't necessarily love traveling unless I am with my family.
But this ... this invitation felt too glorious to decline.
Within the hour I said yes.
Fast forward several months, miles and miles of training walks, a few blistered and shattered toes and I was all of a sudden on the Camino, surrounded by birdsong and greenery and ancient walls and blue sky and pure, glorious gorgeousness.
My heart was bursting.
My soul was singing.
My joy was barely contained.
And all I could think to myself was:
This is what happens when you say yes.
This is what happens when you say yes.
Alice, this is what happens when you say yes!!
Is there a glorious invitation in your life right now?
What might happen if you say yes?
Why not leap?
Why not?
I'll have to admit. I've put off reading your posts about the Camino until today. Last year, on my 70th birthday was to have been The Day I put my foot on the path to walk the Camino, the entire Camino. The covid year of 2020 was to be the year of my training. I found during that year, that my right knee was not as strong as I'd like, and x-rays showed severe arthritis had pretty much destroyed any dream of walking the Camino in 2021. Until I had the whole knee replaced, until I then did all the necessary things one must do to get back to that kind of walking endurance. It was such a disappointment. However,I was so happy for you when you told me that day in your driveway about this upcoming adventure for you, and I loved the way you explained your expectations about it...none!! So I was pretty sure that you'd have a wonderful meaningful trip because of that. Still, I looked at FB pictures but just couldn't read your posts. Until today. Today the sun finally came out after far too many gray, wet, dreary days. After having that total knee replacement almost 3 weeks ago, knowing the sometimes painful work I have ahead of me to get my knee back, I was feeling a little down. At least today I I could finally get myself down 26 steps from my 3rd floor apartment and head outside to take a walk in the parking lot...about as far as you could get from the Camino. But it felt so good to be outside and I decided when I came back up I'd read all your Camino posts. They are wonderful to read Alice. And give me that old itchy feeling that the Camino is still something I want to do, even if scaled back a bit. Your posts have gone straight to that part of me, that wanderlust zone that fills my soul! So, i'll keep reading these Camino posts to inspire me as I do another year of in town Camino miles on my road to recovery. Thanks Alice.
❤️❤️❤️