I woke up thin one day, hardly noticing until it was made clear to me. The first indication came in the form of a slight wardrobe malfunction at my morning coffee break. When I unclipped the hipbelt of my pack, I didn't realize that the weight of my pack had the effect of a plumber's belt on his jeans... a bit cool back there and several patrons noticed. I must more snugly tie the drawstring on my spandex-y hiking pants.
More notable has been the reaction of the priests, nuns, village ladies and even the barmen. They've all been foisting food on me like I'm a growning teenage boy. It's been like this since last Wednesday, the same day as the wardrobe malfunction.
I'd put on weight over the summer in preparation of the first series of mountains I knew I'd have to cross. Put some fuel in reserve, was the plan. It worked. Those mountains are behind me and I'm lean and strong again - down about 15 pounds - and forever miniature, eye to eye with typical 10-year-olds. Eating more won't make me the size of an average adult.
I'm being given a lot of food, so much I can't eat it all... this is the current content of the deli I'm now carrying: two sticks of salami, 3 bocadillas (1 egg and potato, 1 cheese, 1 serrano ham), a round of sheeps cheese the size of three hockey pucks, a tin of mackerel in olive oil, a 200-gram bar of milk chocolate and whole almonds, and a sleeve of chocolate-covered tea biscuits. In the fruit section that are the outside mesh pockets are 2 clementiness, 2 oranges, 1 lime, 1 apple, 1 pear, 1 pomagranite and an assortment of nuts in the shell.
For the mid-morning coffee break this morning, I opened the bag of goodies the nuns sent me off with and found 2 pots of yoghurt, 1 pot of chocolate pudding, 2 hardboiled eggs, 2 muffins, 1 tomato and 1 cucumber. I had to eat it all, none of it really suitable for carrying. I wasn't even hungry.
This is definitely an off-camino condition. I encourage the feed-the-pilgrim campaign, I just wish I were more up to the task of eating it all. I've begun looking around for potential guests for the candlelight supper I'd like to host. I foresee a cycle here - the more food I'm given but can't eat, the more I'll have to carry, the more weight I'll lose, the more food I'll be given. Wash, rinse, repeat. A pilgrim with too much food - life's not so bad here on the trail!
The Route Day by Day
Next Pilgrimage - Estimated Start Date 01 November 2016
Pages
- Current Home Page
- 2007-2008 Via Francigena
- 2008-2009 Aachen to Santiago de Compostela
- 2009-2010 Route of St Andrew
- 2010-2011 Royal Road to Mexico
- 2011-2012 Route to Jerusalem
- 2012-2013 Buenos Aires to Mexico City
- 2014 Day by Day Saint Louis to Chimayo
- 2014-2015 The Amber Road
- 2015-2016 North American Martyrs
La Fe Catolica Viva
A wee bit about me...
- Winter Pilgrim
- I love to simply travel, I love to travel simply. I lived in Europe for the last 8 years and learned enough German and French to be adequately conversant. I picked up a bit of Italian while walking to Rome. Languages certainly help make travel simpler.
I became a pilgrim in October 2007
My name is Ann Sieben. I'm American by birth and global in existance. I was in
In December 2007, I began a longer pilgrimage from
After that, I found that there were still many miles in my legs. I chose a route with Aix la Chapelle (aka
The life of a winter pilgrim suits me just fine. As winter approached, I prepared to walk the next ancient path discovering the world at a comfortable pace, meeting people, experiencing an interesting world in a slightly non-traditional way. Another winter, another walk; I walked from Kyiv, Ukraine to Patras, Greece along the general route of St Andrew in the first century.
A silent pilgrim does the world no good, so I've given talks and spoken to many diverse groups about these pilgrimages. A recurring, slightly cynical, comment was often made - 'sure something like this might be able to be done in Europe, but not in the US...it's not in our culture, no one would open their door to a pilgrim.;
It saddened me to hear this, and I disagreed. To demonstrate that North Americans are just as kind as Europeans, I set out last autumn from my home in Denver, Colorado to Mexico City on yet another historical path. The early Spanish settlers established a Royal Road from Mexico City as far north as Taos, New Mexico, a little over 100 miles south of Denver. What a success!! Americans are just as friendly as Europeans. So are Mexicans.
Just when I thought my pilgrim life was a thing of the past, the Arab Spring allowed inspiration to enter my heart with the possibility to walk across the history of North Africa. While full of trials and tribulations - barred from entering Algeria, prematurely expelled from Libya, and hurried across the Sinai - the fact that the world is really full of good people was underscored with more great success.
o City, this time through South and Central America. Follow along...Shortly after arrival at the pilgrim destination, I was inspired again by the Empress of the Americas and am compelled to make a long journey again to the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexic
Be a pilgrim =)
Posts
5 comments:
I find the learning not to eat like a pilgrim afterwards, the most difficult part of the whole deal!
MATTHIEU DE lAMAZELLE started from Paris may 18th. He finally succeed in crossing Syria through Alep & LATAQUIA AND IS GOING TO ENTER Lebanon today, Should be in al Quds and of the month. Ultreai and Shalom to all Jerusalem Pilgrims !!! andreweill.fr
Sounds all too fabulous - being thin and having too much too eat. Sounds as if everything is as it should be - no snow to walk through or ice to chop. We miss you, but so happy you are putting one foot in front of the other (all too quickly)!
If you have the time, it would be interesting if you could say a little about choosing your route.
You only walk on standard pilgrim paths sometimes, the rest of the time you make your own way, which of course is excellent. But does this mean you are mostly road walking?
Maps or GPS? - (which everybody seems to have now, bar me).
Ta!
¡Hola Ann!
Uno o dos días más y se abrirá todo un nuevo mundo para tí,¡sólo para valientes y decididas como tú!
Que el Dios de los cristianos, musulmanes, y judios, que es el mismo y único Dios, esté en tu camino en África.
¡Buen camino!
Post a Comment