So in one week I will be climbing up one side of the Pyrenees and down the other.  That's the plan   I have been thinking about this since August and while my thoughts and emotions have certainly run the gamut, I have found a new thought cropping up today.  Namely, why would anyone want to do this?!?!  I am definitely buoyed by all of the comments that I have been reading on the guest book.  Thank goodness I have that set up or I would probably be a wreck today.  When I get centered, mostly what I am feeling these days is barely contained excitement.  I have gone through fear, trepidation, excitement, fear, nausea, dread, breathlessness, and abject fear.  I think I have worked the fear out of my system, and have had a good couple of weeks just being excited.  Mostly I am feeling so fortunate, so lucky, so thrilled to be part of not just walking the Camino, but being part of Lydia's documentary.  Her vision is so inspiring - to bring the Camino to the world.  Her experience of the Camino last Spring was a religious experience, although perhaps the better word is 'spiritual' since she is not aligned with a traditional religion.  The Camino is a global melting pot unlike any other-people from all over the world living humbly together enjoying scenery, food, ancient treasures and camaraderie, regardless of what country they are from or even if they share a common language.

I had been reading Shirley Maclaine's book while Lydia was walking, but have since found some that I like even more.  Particularly Tim Moore's Travels with my Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago and Jack Hitt's Off the Road.  They both made me laugh out loud.  Jack Hitt's book in particular; I thought it was interesting that he actually got into a fist fight with some of the other pilgrims during the pilgrimage.  So much for the "Spiritual" part of Spiritual Pilgrimage.  You might think that would have made him alter his pace so as not to continue walking with them, but no, they all just continued onward, accepting it as just another part of the adventure of the Camino. Really!   Who does that?!  I can only hope that my Camino does not include that particular adventure, or at least that the other pilgrim is even scrawnier than I am.

My days are busy this last week.  I didn't realize how much work went into making a website.  Or I guess I did, which is why I never thought I could do one.  So when my husband told me that with the help of godaddy.com it really could be a DIY project-in fact he had done one-I thought it would be a matter of pressing some buttons, choosing some color schemes and watching the pages fill up with witty, pithy blog entries that I am able to type effortlessly from my keyboard.  The reality has been that I have to make all those decisions.  NOT my favorite thing to do.  I always like to go to "committee" with everything.  And since now my "committee" is strewn across this country from my sister in DC to my neighbor, to my parents in NY, to....well, you get the picture.  My committee isn't even in the same time zone, much less aware that they are actually a committee.  They are just my committee in my own mind, they don't know that they're my committee (I guess they do now).    I have tried to wheedle the godaddy telephpone support team for into a quasi-committe, but they are not that interested in making my decisions for me, they just want to help me wend my way through the backroads of website design.  I think their biggest challenge is helping me  without actually yelling at me "What are you, an idiot?!!" while they wait for me to catch up to every single thing they tell me to do.  I'm still waiting for the witty, pithy blog entries.

Anyway, as I was writing this a delivery came!  Flowers from my parents with a card-"All our love and good wishes for your big adventure" from my mom and dad.  Brought tears to my eyes and delight to my heart!  As a society, we need to start sending flowers more often, don't you think?  Not only did I get flowers today, a notice left on my door earlier alerted me to a package that my sister said would be arriving today.  She described it as we were having a tearful  "I love you sis" moment, which is easy to do when you have an inspiring, beautiful and generous sister like I do.  I will have to upload a picture of it when I get it from the post office.  That should only take me a couple of days during which time I will make the acquaintance of several more of the support team

Sarah is my 'real' sister, but I have several others.  Sarah has met some and I think she approves.  One is Sharon, who I am on my way to see shortly.  When she is not doing her thing as an actress and all around creative person, she is helping me to look my best on the Camino, and is going to work on my hair.  Sharon is creative in everything that she does - for instance, it wasn't enough that she worked with a partner on writing some incredible events from her childhood into a movie, she also wrote some of the songs for it.  Just like that!  One of her favorite sayings is that you should do something that scares you every day of your life.  Deciding to do the Camino has made that pretty easy.  Oh yeah, the Pyrenees...now why am I doing this again?!