can you believe it!?!?!!  i only have 3 or 4 more days to get to santiago!  i can hardly believe it myself.  there are markers now along the way that give the distance in kilometers, which now read less than 100.  i am feeling great, with no physical problems and i easily walk 25 - 30 km per day, and even more sometimes.  i am writing from portomarin, and i will walk about another 22 km ( i  walked about 9 to get here).  it really is amazing to think that i have come all this way.  how did i do it?  partly thank to you.  i was talking with a quebecois couple and they said when they started walking, each morning they would think, who should we pray for in their family.  after a few days, they changed it to , who is walking with us today?  i have had all of you to walk with this whole way, and i think that is how i have done it.  there were definitely times when i didn´t think i would make it - and i do still have a few days to go - but i know that it was by walking with all of you that i get myself this far!  i am even considering the possibility of walking to finistere, which would be another 3 days walk.  i won´t decide until i get to santiago.  in fact, i am trying not to think any further in advance than my next step.  i realized a few weeks ago that the last kilometer or so before arriving in a village seemed to be the hardest.  i thought about it, and realized that when i am walking during the day, i am just walking, and enjoying every part of it; the scenery, the wind, the smells, the air, the other pilgrims,  all of it.  but when i was walking the last kilometer, i was not on the way, i was already ahead in the village, thinking about eating, or shelter, or who would be there, or whatever.  i wasn´t on my way.  so now, i don´t set my sights on a town to go to as a destination, i think more about time.  as in, i think i will walk until about 6 pm tonight.  i do have to think a little about the town, but i make sure that enjoy the last km as much as the rest by really being ON my way even in the last few steps.  and so it will be with santiago.  i am enjoying my walking so very much.  i really feel like galicia is almost like a different country, the look and feel of it is so different from the rest of  spain.  the earth almost feels spongy to walk upon, and the smells are heavenly-earth and cows, and grass, and flowers....it is amazing.

this morning i got started early and walked through mists that shrouded the nearby hills and mountains while touching each field with a soft magic.  the white flowers almost seemed like tiny sources of light in the mist and gently morning light.  the forests i walked next to were dark, making me think of fairy tales and trees that could talk...

it is time for me to continue walking.  i have miles to go before i sleep, and today will be a day of winding my way through small villages and working farms.  as always, you walk with me.  keep me in your prayers, as you have so generously done for all this time.  thank you thank you thank you-
peace and blessings,
a