Walkabout

The term Walkabout comes from the Australian Aboriginal. The idea is that a person can get so caught up in one's work, obligations and duties that the truly important parts of one's self become lost. From there it is a downward spiral as one gets farther and farther from the true self. A crisis situation usually develops that awakens the wayward to the absent true self. It is at this time that one must go on walkabout. All possessions are left behind (except for essential items) and one starts walking. Metaphorically speaking, the journey goes on until you meet yourself. Once you find yourself, you sit down and have a long talk about what one has learned, felt and done in each other's absence. One talks until there is nothing left to say -- the truly important things cannot be said. If one is lucky, after everything has been said and unsaid, one looks up and sees only one person instead of the previous two.

-Source Unknown

One day I will be able to get out form under my expenses and then I will begin my walkabout.  I read books and dream about this adventure.  It keeps my dream alive.  It helps to make sure my dream will come true.  It is almost a formidable desire.  I have been thinking about this for sometime now.  More like a decade +.  I was close once.  But now I feel so far away from my dream.  Right now it is about keeping it alive in me and KNOWING that one day I will get to do this.

I am undertaking a new adventure that I hope will help me prepare for this walk.  I have tried to get back into the accounting world since I was laid off in the 2008 down turn without success.  So I have taken a nanny job.  This certainly will help me to get into shape.  I will have a 7 year old and a 4 year old.  I have this job for 2 years until the children are in school all day.  During this time I will work on writing my book, getting into shape and selling my home and paying off my debts.

THEN I am leaving for Spain.  I will go with at least a 3 month visa so I can really do a true walkabout, with no constraints.

Buen Camino

b

It's beginning to Rain in Colorado

In various places around the state the rain has finally started.  It should hit Ft Collins soon.  We are all looking forward to it.  I am thinking of going out and dancing in the rain.

But first, we had an outstanding 4th of July this year

The kids getting ready to show off their decorating skills

Water ballons flying

Lots of water balloons

Yesterday we danced from the water balloons flying all around.  It was great fun and we all got soaked.  We have an unusual way to celebrate the 4th around here.  The kids get to decorate their bikes and themselves, then they proudly bike around the cul d sac showing their skills and decorations.  Lots of clapping and cheers, then all the kids have their sweet snacks.  Then out came the buckets of water balloons.  Little ones shooting at your feet, the next size up goes for your body but it gets really fun when the older kids start.  That's when you really get soaked.  Lots of water down the heads and over the bodies.  Of course the best fun is getting them back.

My grand daughters entry

And more water balloons

After lots of laughing and water we ran out of balloons and out comes the cups to dip in the buckets and really soak your foe.  We headed home for some lunch, a nap and then more water balloons.  My grand daughter thought it was such fun that she wanted to' do it more'.  After a quick trip to Walmart we had a new supply of water balloons.  We played toss games and just flat out soaked each other.   A little bit later and once again I needed a change of clothes. 

We had planned on taking in the fireworks south of here but the wind changed and the smoke from the fires rolled in.  We decided to stay home as my daughter is pregnant and she is not able to breathe all that smoke.  We set up a real neat 4th of July in our living room.  We made a typical picnic dinner of hot dogs, brats, mac. salad and special 4th of July cupcakes that my 4 year old grand daughter helped to make.


 She decorated then in red, white an blue sprinkles.  Then we put out a fake fire in the middle of the living room floor, closed the curtains and got out all our light wands.  When the Macy's 4th of July fireworks began, my grand daughter danced to the music and we saw some awesome firework.  Since we were home we got to see a 2nd set of fireworks from Boston.

We went outside after and found that the winds had changed, the smoke had moved out.  We were further gifted with the last big set of fireworks from the ones we had intended to attend.  My grand daughter sat on my shoulders and cheered them.  It was a great end to the day we had to  create because of the smoke from the fires.

I forgot to take pics of the fireworks so added last years photo here.  I hope your 4th of July was great fun and for you that do not have a 4th of July celebration I wish you a happy time for your next celebration.

Something has shifted in me and dieting and exercise have become primary for me.  I have several days now of reduced food consumption and walking in the evening.  Soon, the temps are going down, I will be back out hiking again.  I have decided to sell my house next spring and do the Camino next summer.

buen camino
b

I want to share with you a great article I found

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Pilgrim Blogger

Mani Feniger

Stretching Beyond My Comfort Zone

Posted on  June 29, 2012 by Pilgrim Blogger

In May 2009 I packed my bag and flew to Madrid to join the crew of The Camino Documentary. Nothing could have seemed less plausible to me. Just a few months earlier, I had turned sixty-four, I was not in great physical shape, I did not like to fly long distances, I rarely went on a trip without the companionship of my husband, and I had spent the last year tracking my daughter’s blood counts and diet as she recovered from a serious health issue.

But when co-producer Theresa Tollini told me she was going to Spain to work on a documentary about the people who walk the Camino de Santiago, and she would like my support, I immediately said “Yes!”

My daughter was healthy and planning a June wedding, and I was eager to go on with my life. But I carried the stress from the prior months of worrying and watching and I couldn’t turn the corner to my own new beginning. I had an insight that the Camino would lead me back to myself. Little did I know that the greatest lesson I would learn from the Camino was the blessing that comes from being uncomfortable.

I had expected to help in any way I could, especially interviewing participants, a role I had played in two other documentary films. But assisting the producers of a film like The Camino Documentary meant being ready to do whatever is needed – finding places to eat, keeping track of pilgrims, carrying equipment, taking notes, handling money, washing dishes, buying sweatshirts when the weather became unexpectedly cold and a thousand other tasks, big and small. And the truth is, I was in an unfamiliar place, didn’t know Spanish, and had never worked on an international film crew before. I was used to being a competent therapist and writer with a successful career. I was not used to being a beginner, and I often felt very insecure—which restaurant would suit a crew of people from several different countries? How do I find my way back to the film location? This pack is too heavy. I am too slow.

The experience was humbling and profound. You can stay in your familiar environment where you feel in control but that is not where you grow and savor life. I was not always comfortable during the three weeks I spent with the film crew, but I felt tenderly alive, vulnerable in a way I was not accustomed to. Maybe that is what the Zen Buddhists mean by Beginner’s Mind.

I remember a day when the fog rolled in near the top of the Pyrenees and the world around me felt still and peaceful. I remember a day when the film crew walked on ahead with the pilgrim they were filming, and I let myself fall behind and walk by myself for hours. The layers of tension and worry fell away as I watched the tall grasses blow in the breeze and felt the solid earth beneath my feet. The days of walking and sharing loosened tight places in me and made me feel fresh and alive.

When I returned to California, I discovered that my heart had opened and I looked at all aspects of my life as a pilgrimage. My daughter and her husband got married a few weeks later in a beautiful garden overlooking the Santa Ynez Mountains, and as they walked back down the path hand in hand, I silently whispered to them, “Buen Camino.”

Pilgrim/The Camino Documentary Staffer Mani Feniger
Author of The Woman in the Photograph
USA
www.manifeniger.com
Walked parts of the Camino during the production phase of The Camino Documentary in 2009.

.

 Reprinted with permission of The Camino Documentary blog Moderator 07/3/12

 

Paulo Coelho Shares a way to Travel Differently

Travelling differently by Paulo Coelho I realised very early on that, for me, travelling was the best way of learning. I still have a pilgrim soul, and I thought that I would use this column to pass on some of the lessons I have learned, in the hope that they might prove useful to other pilgrims like me. 1. Avoid museums. This might seem to be absurd advice, but let's just think about it a little: if you are in a foreign city, isn't it far more interesting to go in search of the present than of the past? It's just that people feel obliged to go to museums because they learned as children that travelling was about seeking out that kind of culture. Obviously museums are important, but they require time and objectivity - you need to know what you want to see there, otherwise you will leave with a sense of having seen a few really fundamental things, except that you can't remember what they were. 2. Hang out in bars. Bars are the places where life in the city reveals itself, not in museums. By bars I don't mean nightclubs, but the places where ordinary people go, have a drink, ponder the weather, and are always ready for a chat. Buy a newspaper and enjoy the ebb and flow of people. If someone strikes up a conversation, however silly, join in: you cannot judge the beauty of a particular path just by looking at the gate. 3. Be open. The best tour guide is someone who lives in the place, knows everything about it, is proud of his or her city, but does not work for any agency. Go out into the street, choose the person you want to talk to, and ask them something (Where is the cathedral? Where is the post office?). If nothing comes of it, try someone else - I guarantee that at the end of the day you will have found yourself an excellent companion. 4. Try to travel alone or - if you are married - with your spouse. It will be harder work, no one will be there taking care of you, but only in this way can you truly leave your own country behind. Traveling with a group is a way of being in a foreign country while speaking your mother tongue, doing whatever the leader of the flock tells you to do, and taking more interest in group gossip than in the place you are visiting. 5. Don't compare. Don't compare anything - prices, standards of hygiene, quality of life, means of transport, nothing! You are not traveling in order to prove that you have a better life than other people - your aim is to find out how other people live, what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and with the extraordinary. 6. Understand that everyone understands you. Even if you don't speak the language, don't be afraid: I've been in lots of places where I could not communicate with words at all, and I always found support, guidance, useful advice, and even girlfriends. Some people think that if they travel alone, they will set off down the street and be lost for ever. Just make sure you have the hotel card in your pocket and - if the worst comes to the worst - flag down a taxi and show the card to the driver. 7. Don't buy too much. Spend your money on things you won't need to carry: tickets to a good play, restaurants, trips. Nowadays, with the global economy and the Internet, you can buy anything you want without having to pay excess baggage. 8. Don't try to see the world in a month. It is far better to stay in a city for four or five days than to visit five cities in a week. A city is like a capricious woman: she takes time to be seduced and to reveal herself completely. 9. A journey is an adventure. Henry Miller used to say that it is far more important to discover a church that no one else has ever heard of than to go to Rome and feel obliged to visit the Sistine Chapel with two hundred thousand other tourists bellowing in your ear. By all means go to the Sistine Chapel, but wander the streets too, explore alleyways, experience the freedom of looking for something - quite what you don't know - but which, if you find it, will - you can be sure - change your life. Welcome to Share with Friends - Free Texts for a Free Internet