I’ve really had to deal a lot with NOT judging people today. Some pass me in nearly new tennis shoes. Some pass me with NO bags at all, holding hands (kind of sweet, but still NO bags-none!). Some playing very weird music and stopping at every little thing to pet it or touch it. Someone asked me today if the pain in your feet ever goes away, and I said, it depends. He said they told him it would go away after three days, but what did he know, he said, he’d only been walking since Sarria (the 10 km mark on the Camino Frances) and hadn’t walked three days yet. 

I will not judge. I will not judge. We are all having our own Camino and they look as different as the people who walk the Camino.

It is also hard to think it is about over. One more day on the trail and then Santiago. I can hardly believe it. And the next day may be just as mentally tough knowing that this is the end, of this Camino, anyway.

I keep thinking of how this might change me. I feel it is hard to say, but I bet I’ll change. I know the day I climbed that mountain (I think the Swiss still classify it as a hill) from then on I wasn’t going to take a lot of crap from anyone. But when I was nearly brought to my knees with pain from plantar fasciitis, I wasn’t ever going to give anyone grief about their shortcomings. Sitting on the side of a rural highway in nowhere Spain (or insert  any foreign country) bawling your eyes out,knowing you still have 10 more rough kms  to go makes you feel a lot for others in terrible positions.
Like, a few times I’ve felt homeless, not sure of the next place I would sleep and how that drives some anxiety. Like when I did give up my bag for transport: Yea! I didn’t have to carry my bag! Yikes! I don’t really know who’s carry my bag and if it will arrive where it’s supposed to. And then what if it didn’t? Sometimes I thought, yeah, take the bag! I have my basic credentials on my body and if I have to, I’ll walk this thing without anything–see reference above. Again, maybe I shouldn’t judge, maybe their bags were stolen and they are too in love to care.  Wouldn’t that be nice.