Jenny Heesh yesterday posted her first part of her account of her time on the Camino administering first aid to pilgrims.

Here is the 2nd of the three part series, entitled Blisters. 

For those interested in walking the Camino, or for anyone who wants to walk long distances, there is some very handy information in this post.

PART II – BLISTERS
Jenny Heesh

The day after Mike’s departure David and I began the first aid work in earnest.

Our first stop was at Puente la Reina at Albergue Santiago Apostol.  It is a large albergue – with dormitory accommodation, smaller rooms for those wishing to minimise the sounds of the “snorechestra”, a restaurant, bar, laundry and a pool.

It also has a powered campsite for caravans and motor homes, plus an area for tents.

We had our own albergue on wheels – a two-berth caravan with kitchen and bathroom facilities – which meant we could be self-sufficient wherever we were.

We stayed at Puente la Reina for several days and gradually got into a routine of providing first aid at the albergue from late afternoon and into the evening.  We met many injured pilgrims there – it was a great stop for first aid, being a few days’ walk from St Jean, the starting point of the Camino for many pilgrims, and people were beginning to experience problems.

The first night at the albergue we worked for over four hours straight, treating blisters and handing out first aid supplies.

During the evening we treated an Australian pilgrim, Jane, who had a “trifecta” of first aid problems.  She had blistered feet, sore knees and a bad cold.  David treated the blisters, gave her anti-inflammatory gel for the knees and Olbas oil for her blocked airways.

We met up with Jane again in Los Arcos two days later and she was to become instrumental in the help we gave to a Swedish pilgrim, Kerstin, a couple of weeks later.

During the day we walked into the centre of town and would chat with pilgrims as they passed through.  Often David would open the first aid pack and give out supplies such as band aids etc.  We also drove out to various villages on the Camino in the area to help anyone who needed it.

We found a lot of the problems that pilgrims had could have been prevented.  We saw dozens of pilgrims with blisters which had formed from wearing the wrong sized boots, badly fitting boots, or simply not treating a hot spot as soon as it formed.

Boots were often laced too tightly.  David rearranged the lacing on many pairs of boots – loosening the front section of the laces, with his fist stuffed inside the boot to spread it out, from the front to the third eyelets and then tying a half knot at those eyelets, and finally loosely lacing up the rest of the boot.

He showed pilgrims how to put the boots on correctly.  He told them to kick the heel right back into the boot, tie up firmly so that the rear of the boot is held firmly with the foot, and, with the half knots at those mid eyelets, the front of the boot never tightens up but stays more open, allowing the toes to move freely.

We also found that many pilgrims would lace their boots up tight in the morning and leave them untouched until they finished walking at the end of the day, ignoring the increasing pain – some did not even know that their feet became larger during the day.

David recommended stopping at least every two hours, to take the boots and socks off and have a break, to put their feet up, then put the socks back on alternate feet (so that seam pressure points are moved) – for many this was the end of their daily discomfort or pain.

David always treated the blisters by draining them.  The blisters become larger if they’re not drained.  Firstly, he made sure the foot was clean, after which he used a disposable scalpel to make two tiny V-shaped cuts which allowed the blister to drain completely.

He would then spray antiseptic to get into all the crevices and inside the cut sections, and then covered the blister with fabric plasters.  These adhered much better than waterproof plasters and also allowed the skin to breathe.

The treatment worked really well – almost instant pain relief for most pilgrims he treated.  We also gave pilgrims a supply of plasters to keep them going until they could get to a pharmacy.

We saw many pilgrims with knee problems and shin splints.  The only sure cure for this problem is to stop walking which obviously was not an acceptable option for most pilgrims.  These problems were difficult to treat – all we could do is recommend the RICE method – rest, ice, compression and elevation.

David gave out sample-sized quantities of anti-inflammatory gel and showed pilgrims how to massage the ligaments and tendons gently but deeply to help with pain relief and recovery.  We never handed out pills of any kind – we would always recommend that the pilgrim consulted a pharmacist for oral medications.

We showed pilgrims how to walk with half-length steps, to minimize joint and muscle strain, standing as if they weren’t carrying a backpack and they felt better instantly.  We also stressed the importance of walking at their own pace – not that of their friends, and not to overdo the daily distances – and to use a hiking pole or staff for stability.

Jenny Heesh, most of you might know, is a regular on this blog.

She is part of the Camino Angels triumvirate, the other two being Britta Huttel and Janet Mostyn.

Let me put this as plainly and as forcefully as I can – Do not go drinking with these women. They are dangerous. Particularly around Sangria. They will have you saying and doing things you will later regret. 

Now, that being out of the way –

Jenny wasn’t able to come with Britta and Janet on the India tour because she’d locked in a biking Camino. Which in some respects I’m sort of thankful for, because with Jenny and those other two altogether, plotting their misadventures, the spiritual tour could have turned into a spiritual tour.

Anyway, her biking trip though was thwarted when she took a fall on a training ride several months beforehand. She injured herself quite severely.

But Jenny is nothing if not determined, courageous, and unstoppable when she sets her mind to something. So she segued her biking trip into something perhaps even more special, as she details below in the first part of her post.

Her post is broken up into three parts, which she has delicately entitled Bikes, Blisters, and Blood Poisoning.  Did I say she’s a cheerful thing too?

By the way, if you’ve got a weak stomach, or you have a propensity to hurl at the sight of really disgusting photographs of physical malformations, then I’d advise you to read these posts with your eyes shut…

(Happy New Year to you all by the way!!)

BIKES, BLISTERS AND BLOOD POISONING
My first aid journey on the Camino
Jenny Heesh

PART I – BIKES

Ironically, my first aid journey on the Camino last September began with an accident. 

For well over a year I had planned to cycle with my friend Mike on the Camino, from Pamplona to Finisterre.  Mike and I had both invested in new mountain bikes which we planned to bring with us from Australia. 

I loved my new bike, christening it the “Camino Dreambike”.  It had more gear combinations than I would ever use on a dozen caminos, let alone ONE, plus hydraulic disk brakes and a bell that would have been music to the ears of any walking pilgrim! 

Last April, several months into training, a cycling accident ended my camino plans.  A crosswind buffeted the bike so badly that I lost control and fell, my shoulder taking the brunt of the fall.  I broke my collarbone and scapula and in May, when no bone knitting was evident, I had surgery to pin and plate the collarbone. 

The injury, though not major, was nonetheless painful, both physically and emotionally.

An unexpected offer in June turned the way I was dealing with the injury around completely.  My friend David from the UK, knowing that the bike camino could not happen, offered me the opportunity to help him carry out first aid on the Camino. 

I accepted his kind and generous offer straight away and quickly whipped into planning mode for the new and very different camino.

David is a veteran first-aider who has provided first aid, pastoral care and support to pilgrims on the Camino, generally twice a year since 2006 – all on a voluntary basis.  His first aid caminos are funded partly through the profits from his online Camino shop – http://stores.ebay.com.au/pilgrimsupplies.  He uses his own savings to fund the balance of the cost.

I flew to Spain on 1 September, joining up with Mike in Madrid before we both travelled by train to Pamplona where David was waiting for us.  There were two spare seats in front of us so we commandeered them for Mike’s bike, which received some rather strange looks from the train conductor and other passengers in our carriage! 

On the train we met Roni from Oklahoma, who was to be the first pilgrim we helped.  Roni was a graduate student who was doing her Ph.D. dissertation on the way that technology affects pilgrimages on the camino.  As well as making her own pilgrimage, she planned to conduct interviews all along The Way for her dissertation. 

She had arrived in Madrid from the USA early that morning and wasn’t looking to a three-hour wait for the bus to Roncesvalles, her starting point.  Arriving so late in Roncesvalles meant that the chance of a bunk at the main albergue – Refugio de Peregrinos de Roncesvalles – was not good. 

We introduced Roni to David and as soon as he heard about Roni’s wait for the bus he offered to give her a lift to Roncesvalles in his car.  After dropping our gear off at our hotel we all headed straight to Roncesvalles, with Roni managing to secure her place at the historic albergue. 

Meeting Roni, and getting to know her a little, was an absolute delight and it was a wonderful start to my camino. 

While at Roncesvalles David and I began work as a first aid team and I experienced my first taste of the work that would be our focus for the weeks to come.

At the albergue David made an announcement in several languages that we were offering first aid at no charge for anyone who needed help.  There were several pilgrims who did, so we spent around an hour carrying out first aid before we said farewell and “Buen Camino” to Roni.

The next day Mike and David reassembled Mike’s bike in readiness for his departure the following morning. 

David and I waved goodbye to Mike – our shouts of “Buen Camino” bouncing off Mike’s helmet as he cycled away on a sunny Pamplona morning.  I had mixed emotions seeing him leave – disappointment at the thought that I was unable to join him on our planned camino – but at the same time I was very excited and happy to be undertaking a completely different camino – a first aid camino.

Part two coming tomorrow…

Around about this time of the year, I post my favourite photos of the year.

Notice I don’t say best – because there’s no such thing as a best photo, just like there’s no such thing as a best film.

It’s all subjective.
It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

2015 was a big year of traveling for me – what with all the filming on my PGS Intuition film. And when I’m filming I find it hard to take photos not related to the filming.

My head is elsewhere.
So is my eye.

Anyway, here are the shots that stirred my soul. They may not stir yours; in fact, you might think I’m nuts selecting some of the shots that I have – but these ones I quite like…

This time last year, I posted a blog –

All I Did this Year

In that post, I chided myself for not having done very much in 2014. And I set myself an agenda for what I wanted to achieve in 2015 – this year. Here’s what I wrote last year:

This time next year I want to be able to answer that question – What did I do this year? – by saying:

• I wrote a new book
• I walked the Via de Francesca with some wonderful friends
• I finished my PGS film
• I finished the first stage of the online course with my university
• I finished my Indian honour killing film – DEFIANT
• I wrote a new screenplay

So –

• I DID write a new book. Photo Camino. In fact I wrote TWO new books, with the recent publication of WHITE WITCH BLACK WITCH: Initiate.
• I DID walk the Via de Francesca with some wonderful friends, and we had an amazing time. Not only that, but Jennifer and I also hosted the Mother Ganga Tour – being a spiritual tour of India. And we did that with some amazing friends too.
• I DIDN’T finish my PGS film, but I nearly finished filming. Production took me to the US (twice) Italy, Turkey, Bhutan, and India.
• I DID finish the first stage of my online course with my University, the Queensland University of Technology. I’ve been working all year with my incredibly talented web designer, and only a few weeks ago we finished and delivered the first stage to QUT.
• I DIDN’T finish my Indian honour killing film. In fact I didn’t start it. But financing is edging closer.
• I DID write a new screenplay – and that’s now out to distributors.

So I got through some of my agenda but not all of it.

This time next year, I want to again answer the question: What did I do this year, by saying:

• I finished my PGS film.
• I wrote and published the 2nd part of WHITE WITCH BLACK WITCH.
• I wrote another book on the Camino.
• I started my Indian honour killing film.
• I mounted a 2nd Portuguese Camino Tour.
• I mounted a Wild Atlantic Way Tour on the west coast of Ireland.
• I mounted a 2nd Mother Ganga Tour.
• I began the 2nd stage of the online educational resource with QUT.
• I set up a new film, based on the new screenplay – which in fact is about the Camino.

If I achieve all that, I will be a happy little bunny.

People say – how do you manage to do so much in a day. It’s simple. I set an intention, I focus on that, and then I set myself small achievable goals that cumulatively will allow me to achieve the big goal. Then I go about achieving those small goals.

One thing that I learned on the Camino, and which I talk about in The Way, My Way, is that you can achieve huge things if you do it incrementally. Step by step. You can walk across Spain if you take one step then another then another, and another.

And you don’t give up. That’s the key to it. You persevere, until you get there, no matter the blisters, the aching knee, the rain, how long it takes and whatever obstacles you might face. You keep on going until you get there.

I’ve now stopped thinking about outcomes – about the results of my endeavours. I now only think about the endeavours themselves, and achieving them with the utmost integrity.

I’ve learned to give over the outcomes to the Universe.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if what you do is successful or not. The only thing that matters is that you do it. And do it the best you can…

Hey you all –

my book White Witch, Black Witch: Initiate is now available in paperback on Amazon.

What a great Chrissie pressie!!

Remember tomorrow (or the day after in the rest of the world other than Australia) was the birth of one of the greatest blokes ever to have lived and died and lived again.

Love to you all – you magnificent folk you.

Bill

I’ve just received a book through Amazon which I gifted myself for Christmas.

It’s called INTUITION: SOUL-GUIDANCE FOR LIFE’S DECISIONS.

It’s written by Sri Daya Mata, and is part of a “How to Live” series of books which use the teachings of Paramahansa Yoganada, author of AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI, to apply spirituality to one’s everyday life.

It’s a small book. Could easily fit into the back pocket of your jeans. But it’s packed full of wisdom. Here are some interesting excerpts:

Intuition is soul guidance, appearing naturally in man during those instants when his mind is calm. The goal of yoga science is to calm the mind, that without distortion it can hear the infallible counsel of the Inner Voice. 

Question: Faced with the many difficult choices and conflicting options that are a part of life in the day-to-day world, how can we discern whether a decision is the right one or whether it merely seems right because of our personal desires and an attachment to our own inclinations? 

Answer: First of all, we all have to realise that for most people, the vast majority of their actions and decisions are tinged with personal desires. That is normal. That is human. What the great ones teach is that we should first concentrate on replacing harmful desires with wholesome ambitions that unfold our highest nature. 

To know how to choose correctly in any given situation, we need to guide our judgements by the power of intuition. we are all endowed with this “sixth sense,” but most persons do not use it. Instead they rely on the reports of the five lower senses. But those five senses do not always supply the right data so that we can make the right decisions. They have limited scope and power, and they interpret things according to their own likes and dislikes rather than according to what is true. 

To know what is true you have to go within. If you do so daily, you become more balanced, calmer, your discriminative insight awakens. Discrimination, which like intuition is a quality of the soul, enables you to discern the things you ought to do when you ought to do them.

It is by meditation that these soul-faculties are developed. 

Guess what – we here on this blog have made more than 15,000 comments since it started up in April 2013.

We clicked over the 15K mark on the last couple of posts.

That’s a lot of chatter between us, isn’t it!

Somehow I think there’s a lot more to talk about too – this next year, and beyond.

I miss Sister Clare…

Sister, if you’re reading this, you are welcome back here any time.

That also goes for any dwarfs too…

Lynda Lozner and her husband Dale live near Seattle.

Lynda has been an active participant on this blog almost from the get-go. And this year she and Dale joined us on the Indian tour.

Jennifer and I had met them both earlier when, on a trip to the US last year, we drove up from LA to spend a couple of days with them in their neck of the woods. It was wonderful to meet them after getting to know them through this blog.

Lynda wanted to write something about this blog, and the community that’s developed around PGS. Each day it both surprises and delights me that you guys hang in there with me on this blog.

Sometimes I write some crazy stuff. Sometimes I write some ordinary stuff.

What particularly pleases me though is that through this blog, friendships have developed – not only our friendship with you all, but also as Lynda points out below, friendships between some of you that have nothing to do with Jennifer and myself.

So here are Lynda’s thoughts, which she entitled ~

In April of 2013, I was reading Ivar’s forum in preparation for Dale’s and my Camino for August to October 2013. I came across Bill’s post on his thoughts of his first ten days on the camino.

That, I believe, for me was the birth of our present Camino family. The writing was so engaging, the walk painful, the humor hilarious.  I checked the follow button and it opened a whole new family for us.

Over the last 2 2/3 years some have joined and some have left but our core family has remained the same. With Bill at the head and Jen at his side, our family must now number in the thousands. I know for many of us that morning coffee is best consumed with a post from Bill. It is this family of pilgrims that I am proud to call friends.

Dale and I were honored to first meet Bill and Jen as they passed by our way 1 1/2 years ago. Actually, I believe they detoured WAY out of their way to meet us. We knew before hand that we could call them friends but this solidified the feeling.

This September we were fortunate enough to join Bill, beautiful Jennifer and four others from the blog on a spiritual tour of India. Meeting Jill, Marie, Britta and Janet was an awesome highlight. However, it really felt like we already knew each other as we had bantered back and forth on the blog for two years as well as shared a number of emails.

Thanksgiving and Christmastime usually bring about thoughts of family and I just wanted you all to know how much I appreciate you all and how fortunate I feel to call you all family and friends.

I think Bill has attracted a wonderful group of people that truly are lovely, honest, caring, thoughtful good people. Looking forward to someday meeting Arlene, Jenny, Steve, Ingrid, Ken, Angie, the Landers Express and others.

Some of you know that my daughter Stacey, a single mother of an eight year old and fifteen year old, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer a year ago, In April she was told she was cancer free. However while we were in India, it returned with a vengeance and to add insult to injury she was in a near head on car accident last month.

She spent a week in the hospital and is now home but still in horrific amount of pain.  Throughout this year I’ve had numerous calls from Bill, Jen and several others offering thoughts and well wishes. I’d like to thank you each and tell you how much those calls and emails mean to us. We are blessed to be able to call you all friends.

I’ve often wondered why we got to meet Bill and Jennifer. It seems odd to me that someone writing a blog would travel 1,000 miles out of their way to meet Dale and me. Especially someone that is an author, film producer and director.

We do live within 30 minutes of the “set” of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” series. (David Lynch is Bill’s favorite director).  A dinner was had at the famous diner but that was not enough reason for this meeting. No, I think it was to solidify the friendship and set us on our way to learning more about our spiritual side and higher self. All, maybe to be able to help and guide my daughter.

Britta has been very helpful with chants, email conversations and even mailed two books all the way from Australia to help me with my quest on acquiring spiritual knowledge. Jill too has offered help and guidance with some good alternatives to the horrible chemotherapy that Stacey is getting at the moment.

Arlene and I have twice weekly conversations on life in general. Janet has been very supportive as well with emails and reminder pictures of India. And Jenny, well Jenny is hilarious! Always brings a smile.

What started out to be a “Camino Family” has turned out, in my opinion, to be an all around wonderful family and group of friends.  Bill, thank you for your support, friendship and blog. You truly deserve the best !

Merry Christmas (or as you Australians say Chrissie) to All

Lynda

I think when I walk. 

Hurts more than blisters, sometimes, let me tell you. 

At the moment I’m doing about 12-15kms a day, about 5 days a week.

Maintenance level. 

Usually when I walk I listen to audiobooks. Two hours to immerse myself in someone else’s intellect. I would hate to walk for two hours and do nothing but walk for two hours. 

At the moment I’m reading Salman Rushdie’s Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty Eight Nights. I chose the book intuitively, using my PGS, and once again it didn’t let me down because the book is a highly imaginative and esoteric work on the nature of faith, religion, science, and the nature of the universe. 

Consistent with themes I’m exploring with my intuition film, but in a fictional realm. 

In the course of thirty years writing drama – screenplays for movies – there’s one thing I’ve learned about creating characters: the most interesting characters are defined by what they’re afraid of. 

What they fear the most. 

Think about the classic comic book heroes – Indiana Jones is scared of snakes, Superman is scared of Kryptonite. I could go on and on. It’s the flaw in their heroic nature that makes them interesting, makes them human. 

Then there’s Woody Allen characters, who are full of paranoias. The Jason Bourne movies, where the central character is driven by a fear of not knowing who he is. Often in movies it’s the fear of death, of loss, of rejection, that drives the central character, and the narrative. 

In drama, what the character fears often defines that character more so than their heroic qualities. It defines what they do in the movie. 

Yesterday for half my walk I turned off Salman Rushdie and I thought about this. I thought about fear, and it occurred to me that it also defines us. As people. 

Sometimes the fears are overt – we fear heights, or cramped spaces, or crowds. So we avoid these places. I know a person who is terrified of cats. Goes into a panic when a cat comes near. I know a couple who are scared of poverty. So they’ve become misers. They’re mean, and ungenerous. They hate Christmas because it’s a time of giving. 

These are obvious and demonstrable fears. But it’s the more insidious fears that rule our lives on a much deeper level: Our fear of what’s different, our fear of loss of control, our fear of lack, our fear of rejection, which is allied to our fear of growing old. One of our greatest and most universal fears is our fear of dying. The ultimate fear of loss. 

These are the fears that keep us in jobs we hate, that keep us in relationships, both personal and professional, that are destructive, that keep us from fulfilling our true potential in life. 

These are the fears that define us, define what we do, define the way we look at the world. On a societal and community level, they lead to racism, bigotry, misogyny, violence, greed.

It’s called Survival Mode. Most of us live in Survival Mode, and we build fortresses around ourselves to keep our fears at bay. 

We accumulate wealth, we stay within a close circle of friends, we don’t venture out, physically and metaphysically. we reject what’s different politically. We become fixed in our views. We don’t allow ourselves to be compassionate, or generous, or loving. Because that could be construed as weakness. Or it could lead to lack. 

We might think we’re living successful lives, but is living within Survival Mode really living a full and happy life? 

I’m astonished at how many people  I meet who, once you scratch the surface, are unhappy. They might have a house worth millions of dollars, they might have the latest model SUV, and travel in style around the world, but underneath it all is a snakepit of fears. And a deep abiding unhappiness. 

I meet a lot of people with very little who are unhappy too – who are pockmarked with fear. 

Interestingly, there are two concepts that I’ve discovered while making my intuition film that kill fear stone dead – the first is the concept of SURRENDER 

Surrender is a really scary concept because, by its very nature, it requires you to let go, to relinquish control, to put yourself into freefall. For you to truly surrender, you need to TRUST, which is the second concept I’ve discovered.

Trusting is just as scary as surrendering – perhaps more so – because to trust you need to be fearless. 

Truly fearless. 

To trust, to surrender, to be fearless, you need to believe in something greater than the here and now. You need to believe in something greater than a fat bank account, a million dollar mansion, a huge four wheel drive that keeps you protected on the roads, or a political system that keeps immigrants away. 

Most people think that they need to live in Survival Mode until they have enough, and then they can shift into a more loving, generous, and more compassionate way of living. 

It rarely works like that. Survival Mode is a hard mode to break. 

Some do – Bill Gates is a great example. But you don’t need to be one of the richest men in the world to break out of survival mode. All you need is to surrender, trust, and be fearless. 

And to do that, you have to believe that you are being guided towards your highest good, towards your true potential, and that you are protected in ways that right now, you may not understand, but are there for you anyway.

In making my intuition film I have had to trust, I’ve had to surrender, and Jennifer and I have had to be fearless. And later, when the film is done, I will reveal how we’ve been protected and guided through the process. 

I know it works. 

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Full disclosure: We have a dog.

His name is Toby and he’s a chihuahua.

I state this because I believe there’s been some talk off blog amongst you folk about the possibility of us having a dog.

Yes, it’s true.

When we travel, he stays with Jen’s mum. She lives the next house over.

I’ve trained Toby to be an attack dog.

He bit me the other day.

It bled.

I was so proud of him.

The way I figure it, if you’re that small, you’ve got to have attitude.

Toby’s got attitude.

Try to pat the cute little fella and he’ll take your finger off.

I’ve trained him well.

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