how am I travelling?

Considering that I am (28+14=) 42 days into a 60 days adsence from my comfy home of 20 years, I am doing very well.

I can't deny that of late counting down the days is keeping me happy (looking forwards to the Next Big Adventure). But my daily routines are keeping me elevated, such as:-

   * locking onto the goal of walking being my job. I get up & without delay, get ready & hit the road.

   * walking the majority of the day, never less than six hours, sometimes closer to ten. I just never slack off.

   * stay positive & on task. I font dwell on doubts or troubles, & when I attained my major goal ( a Compostela for my Camino Francis ), I pretty well immediately flagged a second goal that had a challenge & personal merit - the Porto Camino. Already, I have a third target to reverse the Frances towards Madrid until times expires.

   * I stay disciplined, as alluded to above, I stay on task & don't waver.

   * praying & visiting churches have been a mainstay of my daily routine. I hit the rosary beads often & keep repeating my goal for each specific Camino. When a church is open I get in & soak up the solemnity & meaning to add weight to my personal practice.

   * Reading "Pilgrim's Progress". This might seem odd, but one of, if not the main theme of the narrative is that The Way is littered with danger & distractions that the Pilgrim must struggle to overcome. Each day I see Pilgrims jumping buses or taxis or slacking about, & take extra caution to avoid taking the easy ways out. I recall reading about things like " Hill Difficult" & how weak Pilgrims moaned & complained & look for easy ways to avoid the effort. A parallel saying: "the way to hell is easy. The way to heaven is hard". So, I embrace the hard moments as character building & with practice, the hard becomes easy. I push myself; climbing every Hill Difficult without stopping & at times, when conditions are right, jogging slow. 

   * I hope. I hope that what have achieved, what I hope to achieve in the next fortnight, will boost my confidence that I can achieve other great things in life. After living with The Human Dragline for decades & being busy in various caring roles, confidence wained or really, the opportunity to play hard has not been present. 

   * I build in small rewards. Early on, I developed a reward that every three days or do I would sit down to a prepared " mixed salad" at a bar. This offered a solid feed & needed nutrition with little effort. I reward myself with positive or rewarding self talk, positive affirmations if you like. After that day's work is done, I scrub up & hit the cot to rest, report my modest daily achievements to those at home then scroll through trashy posts as I listen to the three daily quizzes on ABC podcasts.

   * Today I realised that reading while walking is very enjoyable. It can only be done in ideal conditions, straight runs on smooth ground, in dry weather, but the rewards are quite good. There is only so many stone buildings or fences, water, mountain or forest views, that you can admire, while reading stirs the mind & imagination in new ways. 

Great stuff.