👣 Noire Pilgrim: Praying with My Feet

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Hiking Shoes

My feet are my only true worry for my pilgrimage on the camino. They have to carry me and my backpack over 1400 kilometers! During my training I have had only two blisters but my toes hurt like crazy many times. I am still trying to find out why.

Let me take that back. When my body or any part of me aches, I can stay put – in bed or on the couch – until I heal. On a long “hike” like the camino, basic training in the military, or even a catastrophic weather event, resting to heal is short-lived. Well, the process may be postponed until the urgency is no longer an emergency!

Personal healing

Triage takes place in our minds. I believe that health and healing are related to our thoughts about it. I believe that my recovery depends on a little self-care, medical intervention (aspirin, muscle ointment), and, hopefully, no debilitating injuries.

My pilgrimage, however, is an attempt to heal and recover every single day without a stint on the couch or bed. Each day, regardless of the injury, I must be ready to walk and walk and walk.

My Hiking Shoes and Me

So far, after more than 1000 miles – yes miles – walking at home, I have tried many shoes.

During the last two years, the shoes included:

• a pair of waterproof low-top hikers,
• two pairs of hiking trail shoes,
• a pair of high-top hikers.

All of them have been sufficiently broken in. I purposely walked 200 miles on each pair, more or less. I experienced sore feet and toes from using them all.

Still, I must make a decision about which shoe I will wear on the camino.

The Choice

Note: I replaced the original insole with a quality hiking insole. Another set of insoles will be in my backpack.

Socks.

Oh Yeah, Socks

Hiking shoes are not complete until hiking socks are added. I am bringing 4 pairs for walking (different cushion thicknesses). A pair of slouchy socks for sleeping in and indulging my feet each night will be added to my bag.

A Little Help

Walk alone, across mountains or through forests. You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery. You are no longer a role, or a status, not even an individual, but a body, a body that feels sharp stones on the paths, the caress of long grass and the freshness of the wind.

When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings. Always the same thing to do all day: walk.

But the walker who marvels while walking (the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of olive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills) has no past, no plans, no experience. He has within him the eternal child.

While walking I am but a simple gaze.

– Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking

Baadaye

Shirley J ❤️

This and several posts this summer will chronicle my pilgrimage in Spain where I will walk the 1400 kilometer-long camino Mozárabe. Read my announcement here.

Here are the follow up posts about my feet after the camino:

• Praying With My Feet – Part 2

• Praying With My Feet – Part 3