Thoughts on Pain

It has been cold and windy the past couple of days, so I haven’t gotten out as much. I know, I know, I’m finding excused already. I’m a wimp in the cold and I’ll have to toughen up! There are a few simple little things that I have learned in the past couple of weeks.
1. Pain hurts a lot more when you think about it.
2. Pain moves to different joints.
3. It is easier to walk with someone else because you talk and forget about the pain.
4. It is harder to walk with someone else unless you have the same pace.
5. It’s good to take a bit of spare change when you walk in case you meet a homeless person.
Certain parts of my legs are seeing more action than they have in a long time..... hence the pain. And the stiffness that follows the pain can be great fun. The only answer for this is to get out and walk some more. I’m going to assume that this pain\stiffness cycle is going to get better and before you know it I’ll have the legs of a 20 year old. Well maybe 40?

First Week!

It's been one week of walking. I'm starting to like this. I had some problems getting my pedometer to measure the distance right and found out today that when I thought I had gone 7 km it was really 12! Shows my judgement on distance! I think I input my stride wrong or something... also I found out that it depends where you where it because the front of your waistband does not measure you steps right. You might wonder why it matters to me to know how far I've gone, but when I think of walking the whole way across Spain and realize this means about 25-28 km per day and I really want to know just how far(difficult) that is! I know that I've walked at leat 30 kms this week and that's not bad for a beginner :)

Defining my Purpose

Today I walked 7km. Not sure If I should have pushed myself that far because when I started out I had the usual nagging pain in my left hip which, by the time I got home, spread throughout my whole leg and ankle. I am going to start doing some yoga stretches to sort this hip thing out. I'm sure I can do it; I just have to keep going.

As I walked into a strong icy wind, feeling my face go numb and the jab in my hip with every step, I asked myself, "why am I doing this?" I need to have a purpose or else it feels pretty stupid. Fitness has never been a huge motivator for me, so that's out. I have finished reading Sue Kenney's book My Camino and now reading The Pilgrimage by Paolo Coelho. I had thought that walking the road to Santiago would be such a fabulous thing to do, but reading Sue's book scared me a bit. It is obviously not easy to walk 700 km, but when you hear just how hard it really is.. well I just got thinking, "I don't know if I could do this". I don't like the idea of trying something and failing... of walking the 1st 100 km and giving up, so I sort of gave up on the idea altogether. But by the time I finished the book I immediately downloaded The Pilgrimage to my Kindle because I want to know more.

As I walked today I thought; What's the harm in setting a goal? I'd sure like to spend my 55th birthday on the road to Santiago and that will give me a year to get in much better shape. So now I have a purpose. Camino de Santiago in April 2011.

Passion and Purpose

In her book My Camino Sue Kenney states, I believe passion is the driving force that aligns with one's purpose. Without purpose there is no passion. Without passion there is no purpose. I have been passionate about many things in my life. It is always a joy to spend hours and hours doing something I'm passionate about. My passions have changed over time and I find that when I get interested in something I like to buy all sorts of books and 'things' that seem to support the 'passion of the hour'. I have relicks representing passions of years gone by all over my house. There is the bottom drawer of my bedroom that holds aromatherapy oils; there are the dozens of books and hundreds of homeopathic remedies that I purchased during my homeopathic studies. Homeopathy is still a passion for me, but I realize now that I did not have to spend the kind of money I did in order to learn about it. At one point I was passionate about organizing my kitchen cupboards so I spent hundreds of dollars in Tupperware. I've given most of it away because I don't have room for it now.

Right now my passion is walking. I know that I have already purchased an expensive pair of shoes and think there was no choice about that. As Daisy and I walked this morning I ask myself.... "what is this frenzy I go into when I get passionate about something?" Whatever it is at the time becomes my purpose and makes me love life even more. Sue Kenney says until she could define her life's purpose, she was content to use passion in the areas of her life that were important to her at the time. Is that what I have been doing? Searching for my life's purpose, hopping from one passion to another and spending loads of cash along the way? I am determined to not turn walking into another mindless spending spree. I see all the paraphanalia out there on the clothing racks.... yes I could go nuts.... but I will not. In fact I found a very nice little back pack in the spare bedroom closet this morning that will do just fine. Children leave many things behind when they leave home. I do not know who it belonged to, but whoever it was left a baggy in the outside pouch containing a small quantity of an oregano looking substance. It did not smell like oregano though. The non-oregano has now been disposed of and I have a free bag.

Who I Am

I am a mother of 5 children. If I were to pick a single phrase purpose, that is it. I became a mother 27 years ago and and I will always be a mother, but I am at the point of re-defining who I am in this journey of life. If someone were to say, "tell me about yourself", what would I say? Am I my job? I hope not. What am I other than the mother of 5 children? Don't get me wrong.... I am very grateful for that honour, but the thing is those children are now young adults and need to follow their own path ..... experience their own successes, hardships, challenge and adventure. They don't need me hovering over, fretting, and trying to control their destiny. It is time for my mind to open and to pay attention to where the universe is leading me. It is time to broaden my focus and to look about, beyond the walls that I have erected; It is time to walk.

Walk for Conan

This morning I got out to buy myself some shoes. That New Balance Outlet has some nice stuff and I bought WO1520GT's. A nice walking\hiking shoe that is waterproof and all I know is that their comfortable. I also picked up a pedometer so I can tell how far I'm going ... but mostly because I like gadgets.

I didn't get out for my 1st walk until it was dark this evening. Daisy and I got about 3\4 km away from the house when it started to rain pretty hard and since its a cold tonight, it felt like ice pellets. That's when I got thinking about the list of things you should take on a walk. I do recall reading somthing about that on thewalkingsite.com .... must revisit and make sure I'm prepared next time.

Our walk tonight was for Conan. Remembering great times we had with him.... Daisy jumping on his head to get him worked up, all the fun he had at the dog parks trying to hump other dogs, the worst smelling farts on the planet, never came when you called him ... stubborn as a mule. We love you Conan. It's only been one day, but we already miss you a lot.

Conan

Journeys do not always proceed as we wish them to. I am very sad that today will be our last day with our Rottweiller Conan. He has bone cancer and it appears to have spread to his bowels too. No words express the sadness we feel to see him go. Conan loves to watch animal shows on TV. His favourite of course is Planet Earth. Today he is watching the bears, but gets too excited sometimes when the animals are in danger, so we have to fast forward those parts. Conan has been loved for 8 years by all our family and friends and by his new little sister Daisy too. See picture at the bottom of this page of our baby. We'll miss you Conan.

Beginning

I hate exercise. I really do. I would consider myself a very lazy person in the physical sense. Mentally, not at all. I have a passion for learning and reading and researching and learning some more. I don’t watch television, consider it a sedative for the brain, but do enjoy a good movie. This blog is NOT about exercise and getting fit. I suspect on the way that may happen, but this is really about something more. I am turning 54 years old in April ’10 and for anyone who has reached the age of 50 you have lived enough years for many things to have happened. Great things, not so great things, sad, funny, amazing, disturbing, secret, boring, wonderful things. I guess you could say that I’m at a cross-roads and feel that I can’t move forward until I sort out all the things….. all the thoughts that perhaps are holding me back. Walking will be the way that I do this. I’m not sure why or how yet, but I’m very sure that it needs to happen.

I met Sue Kenney at the Women’s Lifestyle show here in London ON on Saturday. She wrote a book about walking 780 kms on the Camino de Santiago when she was at such a crossroads in her own life. Well I would love to tell you that I am in rigorous training and I am going with her in May when she returns to the Camino, but that would be insane. First off, I am a bad dog owner and do not even walk my dog enough. After hearing Sue speak on Saturday I took my golden doodle ‘Daisy’ for a 1 km walk. Today is Monday and my shins hurt. For one thing I don’t even own a pair of walking shoes yet and I’m in pretty bad shape. Not that I’m over-weight, but my muscles have been accustomed to very little physical work and prefer to be dormant at my computer or my lazyboy couch. I’m reading Sue’s book now and I will also watch the documentary that she produced. I will be updating on both those things soon.

My first mission is to buy a pair of walking shoes. I have been Googling many brands and hope to get out tonight to buy myself a pair. (I love Google!) Hopefully I will have a picture posted soon of me in my new walking shoes! Well it’s a start 