Do you think there are any protocols on the Camino?

For instance, talking on the phone while you’re walking.

A couple of times I got some very filthy looks from other pilgrims as they passed me, while I was on the phone to my wife. I got the distinct impression it was something you just shouldn’t do – talk on the phone while you’re walking.

Then there’s the top bunk and the bottom bunk.

Isn’t there a protocol that the younger pilgrims should offer up their bottom bunk to the more elderly, and take the top bunk themselves? If so, it seems to be a protocol that isn’t followed very assiduously.

Touching someone while they’re sleeping.

I saw a pilgrim physically try and wake another pilgrim during the night, because she was snoring loudly. The snorer – a woman – was visibly distraught at being touched by this man in the middle of the night in a darkened albergue. Isn’t it a protocol that you don’t touch someone while they’re sleeping?

Do you know of any other protocols?

I finished my two day water fast this morning –

Two days of just water and Chinese green tea. Last night I watched Anthony Bourdain in Dubai, eating the most glorious food. Man, it was tough!  🙂

(Why did I feel compelled to watch that show last night??)

I weighed myself this morning and in the two days I’ve lost 8.5lbs, or nearly 4kgs. That happens every time I do a two day water fast. I usually lose that amount. It’s largely water, because I’m not ingesting salt, and my body isn’t holding onto water.

I feel great. I don’t feel at all hungry. I could continue this water fast for another 2-3 days without much trouble, but there’s no point. It’s done what I wanted it to do – it’s cleansed out my body, stopped my routine of eating at certain times of the day, stopped my double espressos, and it’s brought my mind back under my control – rather than under the control of my desires.

So now I have my mind back, I can transition into my juice fast phase.

This morning I’ll have an apple and kiwi-fruit juice for breakfast, probably carrot and celery for lunch, and maybe beetroot and pear for dinner.

Tomorrow is Jennifer’s mother’s birthday – she’ll be 83 years old – and the family traditionally has a big dinner for her birthday. Roast lamb, baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and home-made cakes. Yummy. Jennifer’s sister, who lives next door, is almost a professional grade cake-maker.

So tomorrow night will be tough. But that’s okay. I’ll join in, I just won’t eat.

They all think I’m weird…

Why does anyone walk the Camino a second or third time? Or more?

Why put yourself through that hardship and pain?

I ask myself this question, because yesterday I went for a 5km walk with the aid of a very expensive knee brace, and now I'm starting to think about getting my fitness back so that I can walk the Camino again.

Why?

I'd be fascinated to throw this out to you blogees – why have you, or would you, walk the Camino a second time, or multiple times?

Is it the cameraderie? The friendships you form? The challenge? The joy of walking and exploring a foreign country? Is it the food and wine? Is it the uncertainty of your experience that's exhilarating? That you're unsure if you'll make it, or if you'll get a bed each night, or if you'll come down sick or injured?

Or is it something deeper, more profound? Are you seeking a spiritual experience? A religious experience? Are you looking for answers? Are you hoping the Camino will sort out a particular problem?

It's easy to say: All of the above. But if you had to give one reason why you'd walk the Camino again, what would it be?

After you've told me yours, I'll tell you mine!

Having now finished the book, I feel like I’ve completed the walk. I didn’t realise, but I needed to write the book to make sense of what I’d done.

I didn’t set out to write a book when I started the Camino. The thought never crossed my mind. And even during the walk it was never a consideration. I was too focused on getting through each day.

It was only later, after Jennifer and I spent some time in Portugal, that we began to talk about it. Jennifer was quite adamant that I should write the book, and do it immediately – while everything was still fresh in my mind.

When I returned home I began to equivocate. Whilst I’d been working on a novel for some time, I’d never written non-fiction. My screenplay writing has all been drama, principally thrillers but a couple of comedies.

And writing a screenplay is a completely different craft to writing a book. It’s as different as playing golf to playing cricket.

It was an intimidating prospect, made more so because I’d seen what my daughter had gone through when she wrote her memoir, Only in Spain – which took her four years to write. (It’s been released in Australia and will be released in North America pre-summer.)

It was daunting. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a bad idea. These books don’t make money, and I’m judged by everything I put my name to. If I did it, it would have to be good – not something just dashed off, riffing off of my blog.

It had to be a stand-alone piece of original writing.

And that takes time – time I could better spend writing a new screenplay, which is my core business. So I decided not to go ahead with it. It would be too hard, and take too long.

But then I had that dream – such a vivid and disturbing dream. Of being in the Santiago Cathedral with a rifle, and shooting out the huge stained glass window. I woke up, distressed, and looked at the clock. It was 3:33am.

That was it. That was the kicker. I knew at that moment I had to write the book. I’d been directed to write the book, and I had to get on with it. There was no question about it.

I started that day.

As some of you might know from this blog, I wrote fast but I worked long hours. I didn’t stop for weekends. I just kept writing. I would start at 4:30am or 5am and write until 6pm. Some days I wrote 4,000 words, which is a lot. It seemed I never wrote any less than 2,000 words a day, which compared to the pace of my writing for my novel, was twice as fast.

It flowed. I didn’t have to think about it. And when I got to the end, at about 90,000 words, I then began the revisions. And then Jennifer came on board for the editing.

I chose to write in a light tone, because I think for me that’s the best way to tackle weighty issues. There are some Camino books out there that are light, but never scratch beneath the surface. They’re flip, superficial, and some of them are glib.

This is a pilgrimage, and it has to be respected as such, and whilst I’ve taken a humorous approach to some of it, at no time have I lost that deep abiding respect for the Camino, and what it stands for.

It is a memoir of a spiritual journey.

And now it’s done. And it occurred to me that the book has finally completed the walk for me. When I reached Santiago, I felt no sense of achievement. I was confused. Anyone who’s read the book will know that I didn’t actually even want to walk into the square. I stayed in a bar and had a beer, reluctant to walk the last kilometre to the Cathedral.

This is why I had to write the book – to understand the significance of the pilgrimage.  And of what I’d done. I feel now with its publication that it’s put a full stop on my Camino Frances, April/May 2013. I’ve finally finished my walk.

If you want to buy the book, you can do so here:

Amazon
Smashwords

If you want a free copy, the offer is open until the end of the week. Email me at billpgsblog@gmail.com. All I ask is that you respect the IP, and you write a review. But only if you love it!!

I’ve just come back from a 5.2km walk – the first walk since my Camino.

I wore the brace, I walked briskly, and I was pain free.

It was so wonderful to get back into the rhythm of walking. I’d forgotten how much I loved it – just the feel of the movement of my arms and the crunch of my boots.

To use an old surfing term: I’m stoked!

This post from Jennifer:

This morning Bill had to make a difficult business decision. We sat and he talked it over with me. He weighed up the pros and cons carefully telling me all the issues involved. As I was listening, it occurred to me that there must be an easier way.

The mere fact that he was weighing pros and cons meant that he didn’t know what he should do. Each scenario he put forward had its merits but none came with a strong knowing that it was the correct way. With the weighing came a big burden. 

Bill usually makes his decisions easily, following his PGS.

In this instance he was reverting to logic, because the decision had quite major financial implications. And it was complicated by a number of factors – including a loose friendship which had developed during the process of getting this project together. It’s always difficult making a business decision where there’s a personal element involved.

I wondered: Rather than using his logic, which doesn’t always make the right choice, why not try something different?  Why not allow his wisdom, that greater part of himself that is all knowing, to lead the way? 

So I suggested asking for a sign. Why not? See what happens. How does he do that? That’s up to him. He has his own communication system, his own way of giving permission to his higher vibrational self to step in and help him. 

He just has to be aware that he’s asked for a sign, and look out for it. Because it will come. And when it comes, he will know it. 

Is this the wrong way to approach a major business decision that could have substantial financial consequences? If Bill trusts his PGS, then it should not be a problem…

It has to be better than weighing pros and cons.

I got my brace today!

It came in from the US, landed it cost $630. If I’d brought the same brace here in Australia, it would have cost $1200 + freight. I got a local physiotherapist to fit it – the fitting cost $45.

And so now I can start walking again. The physio recommended short walks, slowly increasing the mileage.

I feel like I’m getting my life back!

As we get older, we tend to contract.

We get tighter in our bodies. Our muscles contract. Our minds contract too.

We tend to hold on to fixed beliefs. And if we’re not careful we reject things that are new. New ways, new ideas. Even new things. Some us shy away from the effort of change.

Contraction is sly. It creeps up on you. You don’t even notice you’ve contracted your thoughts, your body, your world.

Exercise can cause us to contract. How tight are our bodies after exercise? We push and jar our muscles and circulatory systems into stress, so that later they will cope with stress better. But the end result is that our body contracts under that stress.

When something shocking happens, we tend to contract for protection. We can very easily find ourselves espousing values and social policies that are tight, limiting, constrictive. We allow our Governments to take away our freedoms. Some us want to close our borders.

We tighten up.

When you’re under pressure or stress, your breathing becomes tight. Your breaths become short and sharp. This is your body contracting for protection.

As well, as we get older we tend to contract our circle of friends. We surround ourselves with people who reinforce our point of view. We don’t like to be challenged, most of us. This self-perpetuates our closed world view.

What we should be trying to do is expand into this big glorious world.

Instead of getting smaller and more hunched as we grow older, we should be getting taller, and straighter. Instead of shutting down we should be opening out.

The Camino is expansive.

It opens you up to new people, new thought, new ideas, new ways of looking at the world. With that more expansive thought, your physicality changes.

You feel yourself growing taller as you walk. You feel yourself becoming straighter under the weight of that pack, which grows lighter the longer you journey.

Your breathing is deep and rhythmic. The air is clean and pure. It cleanses your chakras. You glow, inside and out. You can see it in the faces of those pilgrims around you. They glow too.

If you feel that you’re suffering the symptoms of contraction, the best medicine to take is a pilgrimage walk on the Camino.

So my book, The Way, My Way,  is now up on Kindle. It’s selling for $5.79. In a few days it will also be up on iBooks, Nook, etc. It’s also available at Smashwords.com

For my PGS mates, I’ll give it to you for free. I only ask two things: it’s for your use only so please respect the Intellectual Property Rights; and secondly, can you please post a review on Kindle, and Goodreads.com – and Smashwords too if you can. That will help get the book to a wider audience.

The free version will be a pdf – same text as the Kindle version, except the photos aren’t in color, and it doesn’t have the cover.

if you want a free copy, please just email me at billpgsblog@gmail.com – and I’ll email it back to you. I’ll keep this offer open for a week.

Here is the Amazon site for the book –

I hope you enjoy it!!

… makes Bill a dull boy.

Hmmmm.

I ran out of gas yesterday. I needed to step away from the blog for 24hrs and just regroup. Re-energize. Rethink things.

It’s springtime here now, and I haven’t been able to walk because of my crook knee. It’s getting me down. Walking always was a great stress reliever. It was always a meditative time. A time for myself, where I couldn’t be contacted, or connect to others. It was a quiet private compartment that I could crawl into for 2 hours or so.

I miss it.

Also, I discovered there were major formatting errors in my book when it went up on Kindle yesterday. I was so excited to see it finally published, then I had to haul it back down again and go back to the formatter. The preview copy he’d sent me was all okay – however when it went through the upload to Kindle, for some unknown reason all the italicised text came up bold. I was very disappointed.

And then to cap it off, my footy team got hammered last night in the preliminary finals. The poor blokes had played their hearts out all season, and were just exhausted. The team they were playing had had a rest week, and they were everywhere on the field. The good thing is the team that beat us will now be in the grand final for the first time in their club’s history, so I’m pleased about that. But it was heartbreaking to see my time so thoroughly mauled.

So when it came time to write a blog, I felt I had nothing to give. I said I felt empty, and that’s exactly how I felt. I’m sorry if I came across whiny – and I thank all of you who sent me kind and caring messages. it was very sweet of you.

Last night I slept 9 hours. I never sleep nine hours. I must have needed it. This morning I got up and instead of immediately hopping onto the internet, I did two hours of yoga and meditation. And out of that meditation. certain things became apparent. I have to change some things, if I’m going to remain productive and relevant this next decade of my life. I have to :

1. Do a minimum of 1hr yoga each morning.
2. Not go on the internet until I’ve done my yoga.
3. Do a minimum of 30 mins on the bike each day, and increase that as my knee improves.
4. Do a fast and reset my body and mind.
5. While raising money for the PGS film, write the book.

After the yoga and meditation this morning, I felt rejuvenated and refreshed. Recharged. The long sleep helped too. And then I got notification that the book was now up on Kindle, and the formatting errors will be automatically rectified in a day or so.

Now I feel great. I am aiming at having the PGS book done by Christmas, I hope. End of January latest. And with the sizzle reel, I am confident the money for the film will be found.

Sorry for the wobble. Thank you for your love.