Day 12 – walking with angels and lessons – Date: 4.26.2025

I completed day 12 and am taking the day off tomorrow from walking.  Not because I want to but because I need to.  I have an open sore on the bottom of my left foot.  I tried to get a rest day added to my itinerary but my provider said my itinerary is set and can’t be changed. So, I am staying in the hotel tomorrow morning until checkout, having lunch with a friend in Burgos and then taking a taxi to my next city. I need to nurse my foot back to health. It doesn’t hurt like it used to but it’s an open sore so I need to watch it so it doesn’t get infected. I walked 18 miles yesterday and 12 miles today. The good news is the 12 miles today did not make the wound look any worse and I got to the pharmacy to get bandages, cream and the jell inserts for my boots. This wound is about the size of a half dollar so it’s not a small little area. And it’s on ball of my foot that takes a lot of pounding. I’m not even sure how it got like it did and in all my training I never got any injuries. But this trek is no piece of cake and the terrain can be pretty daunting.

I had another angel today while on the trail.  I met her along the route when she asked me to be the lookout while she did her business (she doesn’t have a funnel).  “Of course” I said!  Less than an hour later she saw me sitting on a bench and stopped by to see how I was doing.  Today was an easy 12 miles but I am so worn down that none of it felt easy.  I was proud of the 18 miles I walked yesterday but sleep was so-so last night and breakfast was dismal.   I stopped 2 hours later and ate something with eggs so I got some protein but 2 hours later when my newest friend found me on the bench, I was completely drained of all energy.  My normal pace is slow and today I was practically walking backwards it was so slow!  She gave me a huge bag of nuts.  She could tell I needed something and I took her offering because I knew the salt and the protein in the nuts would really help me out.  I also ate one of my own protein bars and I did feel much better.  The kindness of strangers.  An hour earlier I didn’t even know her and she so easily parted with her treasure.

I knew I was walking today on this open sore.  I had it bandage pretty well and used ointment to prevent an infection but still it’s a lot of walking.  I asked God to take care of my foot for me and the reply was “Of course.  I’m always taking care of you.”  I acknowledged this and said I was grateful.

Yesterday during my 18 miles I saw that derogatory sign about the Jewish star and the swastika again.  I was bothered by it again and when I started thinking about how it appeared so many miles from when I first saw it, I heard in my head again “Put yourself in the circle too.”  I am learning you can change any negative incident/thought/experience into something positive or something to be grateful for just by looking for the positive.  I like exercising that muscle as I think it gets stronger as I use it.  I walked away with that inclusion vs. exclusion lesson from Day 5.  I said a prayer of gratitude to my higher power for his/her subtle way of showing me I still need to work on learning this lesson.

Blisters: 3

Traumatized toes: 2

Passports: 2 maybe going to 3

– regular US passport

– Camino Pilgrim passport (you get it stamped wherever you stop)

– My wound is so big it might need it’s own passport to leave Spain!

Lessons: many and the latest is learning how to take care of myself even when all I want to do is walk.

Buen Camino