I’m reading these blogs of people currently walking the Camino – and they’ve been walking through rain, or mud, or extreme heat.

I had none of that.

I had maybe two days rain, tops. And the temperature was always cool and refreshing. For the 31 days of my Camino, (28 days walking, 3 rest days) the one day it poured with rain coincided with my rest day in Santo Domingo. The other couple of rainy days, the rain was light and intermittent.

I said jokingly to Steve that I took my weather with me – but I also said I never worried about the weather. If it rained, it rained. If it was sunny, it was sunny. It only ever affected what I wore, and whether I covered my backpack.

I walked the entire Meseta in glorious weather. Only on one day – near Sahagun – did it threaten rain. A storm came and went, and it made the walk very theatrical for me, and I put my rain jacket on for about half an hour, but that was it.

Steve left about three weeks after me, and he had bad weather. So I did my walk in this little pocket of amazing weather.

Here’s the thing though – back in Australia several weeks out before I was due to leave, I was watching the forecasts and they were predicting lousy weather. Lingering snowstorms, rain, cold temps etc.

I seriously considered bumping back my trip by… yes… three weeks. If I’d done that, I would have missed that window of fine weather I had, and I would have walked with Steve in the rain. Because the alternative date I was looking at was around about the time Steve left SJPP.

But my PGS told me to stick to my dates, even though it appeared I’d be walking through horrendous weather. That’s why my pack was loaded up with gaiters and thermals and snow gear. None of which I used. I got to Pamplona and posted them on ahead.

So, funny the way things turned out. Probably if I’d met Steve I would have thought him a meth-dealing biker, and he would have thought me a film-type wanker.

This way we met on the net and we’re good mates!!

Today I drove 8 hours to see a movie.

GRAVITY, with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

In 3D, and IMAX

I figured the movie cost me $120 – ticket price, parking, gas, road tolls, meal.

Was it worth it?

YES!!!

It was truly amazing.  A great cinematic experience.

If you go see this movie, see it in 3D. Better still, see it in IMAX.

You will feel as though you’ve spent 90 minutes in space. A terrifying 90 minutes in space!

My father instilled in his children this maxim: do what you love. If you do, you'll be good at it and it won't seem like work. If you're good at it, you'll make money.

I kind of fell into what I ended up doing. I started out studying Medicine. But I was spending so much time writing and photographing freelance articles for magazines that my studies suffered, and I switched across to journalism.

I mention this today because I am driving 8 hours to see a movie.

That's how much I love what I do.

There's no cinema in Mudgee. And whilst there are cinemas in towns about an hour and a half away, I want to see this particular film on the huge IMAX screen, in 3D. So I've driven to Sydney – eight hours there and back.

The film is GRAVITY, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. It's directed by a very exciting director – Alfonso Cuaron. He made a film that I thought was spectacular – CHILDREN OF MEN.

I read the script of GRAVITY several years ago, before it was cast, and off the page it read as an amazing movie. Today it opens worldwide, day and date. I'm excited!

In ten days I spend a week addressing students at the University where I'm an Adjunct Professor. They are soon to graduate with a degree in Fine Arts, Film & Television. And I will tell them: do what you love.

Be Still, My Heart.

I am a contemplative nun. That means the primary focus of my life, every day, is prayer and meditation. I believe deeply in the power of prayer – I’ve  seen so many blessed, mysterious and miraculous things happen as a result of prayer that I would be a fool to feel otherwise!

When I am not praying for the world and the people living in it, my directive is to live prayerfully. To live loving, as much as I am able, as Jesus did, and as He tried to teach us to do. Part of that loving manifests in spiritual counselling and teaching others how to find God within and all around themselves. There is nothing in this life that I would rather do, and I count myself blessed to be able to live the life I want and need to lead.

Most contemplatives live under a vow of silence in their own convents and monasteries. Some live alone in private, rural settings that are conducive to contemplation. That’s what I had been doing until my son became a quadraplegic and I was given dispensation to have him come and live with me. So a lot of my time now is taken up with the 24/7 care a paralysed person needs.

You can do anything, or live any kind of life, prayerfully, and having him at home hasn’t  diminished my life in any way – in fact, I am indescribably richer for it.

But this week I’m  trying to get ready to go on Retreat. It’s enough of a job making sure ministry committments are provided for. Many of us have also written and prepared lectures. Now I also have to make arrangements for my son’s care while I’m  gone, and it has to be done with delicacy to preserve his dignity, boost his confidence and help him to find pride in just how much he can do for himself. An emergency nurse who understands that can be hard to find.

It’s not going well. I keep running into obstacles and out of time! I feel extremely stressed, and to frost  the cake, I am moving onto my third night of painful insomnia. Instead of feeling filled with joy and expectation about my Retreat, I am bad tempered, overtired,  snappy, unpleasant,  angry at times, and a little resentful. This all makes me feel even worse!

Some of you may remember my mentioning a very special, sensitive friend of mine who has a gift for asking probing and revealing questions. Recently she asked, “Sister, what is in your heart today?” It stopped me cold because of course I saw that the one and only thing in my heart at that moment, was ME.

Which is why everything was going so badly. I was so intent on doing things right that I forgot to do them lovingly, and prayerfully. I forgot to live from my heart and my spirit and my faith. I forgot to listen for the Holy Spirit and my “PGS”. Thank God that we have the option to go on a Camino or to a Retreat, and find our centre again.Thank God for the blessing of sensitive friends!

How is your week going?  What’s  in your heart, today?

This is a reprint of a story that first appeared in London’s Telegraph newspaper. It puts a face and a voice to the crippling state of Spain’s unemployment problem –

Next time you walk through a village or town, give some thought to the situation – and how the Camino is at least providing some revenue to the places you visit…

A young Spaniard with three degrees has become the face of the country’s ‘‘lost generation’’ after an online rant in which he complained that the only work he could find was cleaning lavatories in London.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/three-degrees-yet-i-clean-a-lavatory-the-tale-of-spains-lost-generation-20131002-2urqo.html#ixzz2gbkBlSaY

Jennifer was cooking dinner again tonight.

She went outside to get some fresh herbs, and the saucepan she was cooking with caught fire.

I regard this as the Universe paying her back for yelling at me last night.

In John Lennon's words…

Instant Karma!

There is currently a thread on Ivar’s forum on Best Books on the Camino.

Now, me being such a humble self effacing bloke can’t really get on there and thump my own drum…

But, I’m sure you’ll agree that my book is brilliant and groundbreaking, and will no doubt feature prominently in next year’s Pulitzers… and given that I’m from a British colony the Booker Prize is surely not out of the question.

(I think the Nobel Prize is a bit lofty at this stage, but Nobel Prize winning books are really boring anyway…)

Anyway, it would be inordinately crass of me to self publicise on Ivar’s forum about what a great book The Way, My Way is. But, you my PGS family could….

Please…..

http://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/best-camino-books-nonguide-books-in-english.4852/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PilgrimageToSantiagoDeCompostela+%28Camino+de+Santiago+de+Compostela%29

Susan has been tirelessly working at kitting out Sister Clare for the Portuguese Camino Tour next April. She’s just posted an update on the forum – here is what’s left:

http://pgsthewayforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=135&p=899#p899

There are some extraordinarily generous people out there, and Sister, you should know that you are loved and admired… You have a special gift coming to you for this tour too, which Susan has coordinated. A gift from a very generous and kind man.

Susan, you are a marvellous person. Thank you.

Bill

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I love my wife very much. And that I would do nothing to hurt her. Or even rile her. And that I regard her as a highly evolved spiritual being.

Well, all that went out the window last night, literally.

She was cooking fennel. Grilling it. For a fennel and avocado salad we were going to have for dinner. The fennel looked like it was singeing – burning. So I suggested I put some olive oil in.

She said no, it didn’t need olive oil.

I watched the fennel get more and more singed. So while she was preparing the avocado, I got the oil can and put some oil in.

Smoke went everywhere, and I thought the pan was going to burst into flames.

Jennifer went ballistic.

She screamed and yelled at me.

I laughed, and told her she should go meditate.

And I marvelled at how years and years of spiritual practice can so easily be put aside in a moment of genuine anger and frustration.

I acknowledge, I can be difficult to live with at times…