Another Saint

Today I travelled the approx. 30 k from Calzadillo de los Hermaillos to Puente Villarente. I left the albergue just before 6 because I knew the distance was long and I was concerned about the heat. Usually, wif I leave around 7 in the morning the air is cool and sometimes cold. This morning at 6 the air was already warm. I tturned out to be a very hot day. I have decided that each day I will try to complete my walking by 2:00 in hte afternoon. After 1:00 the heat starts to become quite unbearable, and it stays very hot well into the evvening. Staying here at the albergue is a man from Belguim called Herriman. He is 64 years old and three years ago suffered a stroke, and four years ago lost his wife. As a resuslt of hte stroke, he does not have full use of the right side of his body and has a little difficulty with speech. Herriman walks wiht a cane and has thus far covered almost 2000K on the Camino. His plan is to make it Santiago. Herriman is quite the theologian and philosopher and shared his view on what a "real" pilgrim is campared to the "tourists" on the Camino. In his opinion the real pilgrim is the one who is here exploring the inner life and listening for God and watching for God. The toursist are competing to see how many kilometers they can cover each day. Because of his stroke, he is only able to cover about 1 mile/hour., and if he can will try to cover 4K in a day. He states that this allows him to see everything around him and to consider what is going on. He also cannot wear his boots because they are too small. Instead he is walking in soft canvass shoes. This he says allows him to feel every rock along the path. The rocks he compares to the sins in our life of which we must be aware. We try to avoid the bigs ones, but it´s the little ones that often cause us to hurt others. Herriman does not believe in coincidences, but believes that God brings people together for a reason. He talked about the various people God has introduced into his life along the Camino to help him when he needed it. After finishing the Camino, Herriman will got to Fatima and then on to another destination. I wish you could meet him. He is trully an amazing man. I´m well. The blisters are healed and I jsut have a couple of small (but annoying) sore spots on my feet. Other than the heat, the walking is very relaxing and enjoyable. Seeking to stop walking each day at 2:00 will be a good personal care move on my part. Since this "winter girl" is not so keen on hot weather any way, starting early in the morning and ending early in the day will serve both my body and mind well. Others (perhaps the "tourists" push thmesleves to try to cover as much distancce eah day as possible and push themsleves in the afternoon heat. Personally, I do not think this is a wise thing to do. Pilgrims have been known ot die on thCamino from heart-attacks and pushing themsleves too hard. On hte more challenging roads, thare are civil patrol guards patroling the route for any pilgrims who are having difficulty and need a ride. Well, I´m a little more than half the way to Santiago. I cannot beleive how fast time has gone by. My pilgrim passport is half full of stamps. Many of these are ones I collected from churches and other palces along the way that were providing stamps just for stopping by. I bought another passport in case my ohter becomes full before I reach Santiago. We often say that we are like children when it copmes to collecting all these extra stamps. One day a band of Us stood outsied the window of the Unitversity of Navarre because the guard said that we could obtain a stamp there. And we did! I will arrive in Leon tomorrow and will stay there an for my rest day (for real this time!) Blessings.