If you’ve ever witnessed Childbirth, live or on video or even just a story told by one of your horrified friends, you would have to wonder why on earth a Woman would ever choose to poop a 9 pound cannonball out of her hoo haw a second time when it hurt so much the first time.  Am I the only one that ever wonders about this?

The obvious answer to any of us that has experienced pain of any kind is that we are wired to forget really bad stuff.  I’ve been on countless trips where it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong and yet, after I was home for a few weeks (or months if it was really bad), the horrible experience inevitably morphed into something far more palatable and sometimes even down right amazing.  My trip on the Camino de Santiago was one of those experiences.

At some point during the trip Tim, my husband, asked me if I would ever do the Camino again.  I think what he meant was slightly different than what is on the surface of the question.  I don’t think he meant would you re-live all of those amazing experiences again even if it did hurt but what I heard at the time was “would you beat the fuck out of yourself for 34 days to do that again?”.  My answer was this:  Doing the Camino once is an amazing spiritual experience.   Doing it twice is self flagellation.  At the time I meant every word of that.

So here I am home just a little over a month and I find myself wondering “what if?”.  The Tour Operator I went with has added a Spring full Camino trip to her offerings and increasingly I find myself considering it.  After all, anybody can walk 500 miles.  Walking 1,000 miles however is something completely different.  I think.  Actually, I wonder what it would be like to launch into the Camino actually knowing what was ahead.  The first time I did it I had gone out of my way to know absolutely nothing about the trip except how many days it lasted and where it started and ended.  I had also lost some of the experience because I was out of shape, afraid that my body wouldn’t be able to hold up under the beating, and my knees did threaten to hijack the experience only a few days in.  What if I was actually prepared?

Right now the idea is just that; an idea.  I have made contact with Judy, the woman that runs the tours and I’m also reaching out to a select few people that I think might enjoy the challenge as well but their attendance is not mandatory.  I’m giving myself until after the New Year but in the meantime I may go ahead and book some flights with miles so I can change my mind, I might pick up a few pieces of clothing that I really wished I had with me in October, and I might make sure that I keep walking so the beginning of the Camino wouldn’t be such a bitch his time.

I might actually do this.

So stay tuned.  I’m off to Mexico next week for my Birthday then it’s Christmas and then it’s New Years and then it’s decision time.  If I do it again the plan is to write much more and post much less video.  For those of you that really want to hear what I have to say after I’ve walked 2o miles in the mountains when it was either insufferably hot or blowing freezing rain, I’m going to hope that the second time around I will have more stamina so I can share just how much fun – or not – it is to do the Camino a second time.

Buen Camino (Perhaps coming soon)

Joe Jeter  December 7, 2014