To-Do List(s)...

First off: Thanks to everyone who's following this.

We appreciate your comments, either posted or shared via email, phone, in person/in passing.

And we're sorry for the delay between our last post and this one.

We can only plead "Crazy-Busy"...

so many things done, so many left to do.

For instance:

College trips: been and back.

Decision: made. (San Francisco State!)

Notice of intent to register: submitted.

Housing deposit: slammed down (symbolic cloud of moths flurrying up from empty wallet...)

Knowing that's one big hurdle cleared: Priceless.

(...notwithstanding aforementioned tiny flurrying moths...)

We now turn the Family Battleship toward the next Big Event:

Son Nick's Graduation from Humboldt State University in two weeks. All energies (outside of actually making a living) now focus on organizing the impending transfer of personnel and supplies from SoCal and CenCal to NoCal to celebrate The Great Day. (Memo to self:

warn Grandfolks that ceremony will likely be more headily fragrant than what one might experience at, say, Pepperdine, Southern Methodist, or BYU... )

After that, we turn to Caity's HS graduation, with the Clans regathered in and around our house (and me, for some reason, Chairing the Sober Grad Night Clean-Up Committee...).

After THAT, I plough through the lists of things that must be done to make sure everything at work and at home is prepped, finished, paid or relegated before we leave so that life runs smoothly while we're gone...

And, simultaneous to all this, Caity and I are checking things off the "Camino List": walking, buying, borrowing, walking more, sewing, reserving stuff when possible, memorizing options when not, walking even more, cramming (info), practicing (bad Spanish), and WALKING to get ourselves in the best possible condition -- physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, etceteral -- for our Camino....

Then, finally....we go!

Jeez.

Makes me wonder...a thousand years ago, when someone prepared to go on pilgrimage, what did the To-Do list look like? Maybe:

Feed pigs

Feed cow

Feed chickens

Feed spouse and kids

Remind Sp&Kds to feed pigs, cow and chickens while away

Lay in plenty of feed for pigs, cow, chickens, Sp, Kds

Patch old cloak

Find really big stick

Dig up those few farthings/francs/pesetas hidden under bed

Secure blessing from Parish Priest...

and...Ambulatore, baby!

Sure, I'm being facetious...I'm sure it only seems like it must have been simpler...

Actually, I suspect that Simplifying is challenge for many modern-day pilgrims. I know it will be for me. My days are so Busy, so full of Stuff; all of that weighs me down and stresses me out...but it also kind of props me up, too, persuades me of my importance (...a feeling as heady and habit-forming as anything they're smoking up in Humboldt!...)

In this a world where one is constantly on-call, ever-connected via the FaceTwitSpaceTube social matrix, and occasionally cranky because a volcanic eruption in Iceland has upset our luncheon plans in L.A., how difficult will it be for me to unplug from all that noisy voltage and focus only on meeting the needs of the moment. To let go, and pack light?

Saint Augustine wrote: Solvitur Ambulando..."It is solved by walking".

Yeahwell...here goes.

Oh, yes -- one more thing crossed off the "Camino List":

Our Credencials Arrived!

We ordered these, for a small donation, from "American Pilgrims on the Camino". They don't replace our US Passports, of course, but they do identify us as Pilgrims, eligible to stay at albuerges and refugios. There's plenty of space for all the pilrgims stamps, or "cellos", that we'll be collecting to prove we walked the last 100 km to Santiago to receive the Compostela.... and, beyond that, the 78km to Finisterre.

So,

during the next 6 weeks,

as we fly around at turbo speed,

trying to complete all the

tasks and duties and responsibilities

still crowding our many To-Do Lists...

...we can finger these occasionally to remind ourselves that soon, all this Crazy-Busy will be left behind, and we'll be walking at the heart's pace.

one down, one to go: second try

Sorry about that last publish, technology is so tempermental....

Anyways, I got my backpack!!! My lovely, wonderful, adoring relatives-by-choice -- uncle Tony and aunt Hilary and cousin Annie -- graciously bought me a new hiking backpack for my graduation present! It's so high tech too, it's even got a waisty belt type thing that was put in a microwave and molded perfectly to my hips, and it has like 12 compartments, and 103 dangly straps. (Obviously, as you can see, I am not the most knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff, but luckily wearing the backpack is not as difficult as finding the right one.)

Anyways, it's beautiful, and wonderful and I'm so very thankful to them for my beautiful wonderful backpack.

One more step closer to the Camino! (Now we just have to get mom's.....)