All this focus on my feet got me thinking about the common cathedral congregation, and all the time they spend on their feet, as well as how important it is that they care for them, and have help caring for them. I don´t know what that will mean, but it´s hightened my awareness. I've also been looking for insights from my experience in albergues and on the walk to understand better the experience of the common cathedral congregation in shelters, on the streets, and moving about the city of Boston or beyond. I'm aware of how difficult it is to arrive at a new albergue each day and have to learn a slightly different routine from the one I stayed in the night before. It would be easier to stay in one place, as it would become familiar and comfortable. It takes inner resources to get up each day and leave that comfort (not to mention the warmth of a bed), and move on in the cold. It´s difficult to live by someone else's rules, and some people choose not to. One albergue told us that we couldn´t get up before 7am, but that we had to be gone by 8am. There was no one there to enforce that, so many people left at 5:30 or 6, as they were accostomed to doing. I haven´t had any problem with the quite and lights out times, as I'm usually in bed much earlier, but others would rather stay out in the bars. We're all adults, and want to make our own rules, but in order to get along as a group, and meet the most peoples' needs, we have to have some guidelines, and they aren't always agreeable to everyone. Then there are all the practicalities of sharing sleeping space (most of the rooms are bunk beds, and some rooms are larger than others) and bathrooms. I am quite thankful for my earplugs, as the snoring can get really loud, especially in the co-ed dorms. For the most part people are respectful, but it´s hard to share when you're tired and hot and want to shower NOW, not when someone else is through. Also, some of the albergues are cleaner than others. We haven't yet run into any fleas or bedbugs, but we've heard stories, and seen evidence of bites. All of these are things I don't have to contend with in my comfortable home. The difference, though, is that I can get on to Camino blogs and rate the albergues that I´ve stayed at, to let future pilgrims know which ones were outstanding and which ones to avoid. People staying in shelters don´t have that liberty. On my walk today, I tried to imagine what it might be like if there was a secret shopper for homeless shelters. The person would show up unanounced, just as any other consumer would, and stay the night (hopefully on a night when they wouldn´t be taking a bed from someone who really needed it), then write about their experience or share it with the director of the shelter - how were they treated, what was the facility like, how was the food, etc. These are the kind of thoughts I have when I´m walking.
I also imagined a Wellness Group that I might run at Ecclesia - just a support forum for people who are trying to make positive changes for their wellbeing - a group to help them be accountable to themselves.
The next two days, we'll be going over a big mountain (the 2nd largest of the whole Camino, or at least the part that we're doing). So, I think that tomorrow night we´ll be on the top, then then next night at the bottom. Apparently, there´s not much in the way of services or towns during this time, so I may not be able to write tomorrow. Blessings to all!
