hard days and more

some days are hard days.
some days are soft days.
the day before yesterday was a hard one for me. In every way it was a challenge - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
Physically I was struggling with a cold in my nose, and the cold in the weather, plus my leg muscles seized up after only about 10 kilometers. Every step was excruciating.
Mentally I was finding it hard to just stay in the present and I kept on hoping that the destination place would be around the next corner - it finally was, but after about a hundred corners it seemed.
Emotionally I felt exhausted by the effort of communicating.
Spriritually I persisted in resisting offers of help from Diane.
I was stuck in a frame of mind that was saying to myself:
"You have to do this yourself. Everyone has hard days - get over yourself. Other people need help, but you have to do this on your own."
After Diane asked, and encouraged, and finally demanded that I stop and figure out what was happening I began to be able to quiet those voices and receive her help.
She ended up carrying my pack and hers for about 4 kilometers to our final destination. I could not have walked any further with it myself, and I hobbled those final steps to the albergue.

That night we took a private room in a small albergue instead of a group room.

The next day was a soft day. Gentle walking, gentle hills, gentle rain, still as cold but somehow more bearable. But most of all I was gentle with myself.

Some lessons have to be learned over and over and over - at least for me. Perhaps for you?

We have arrived in a beautiful town today called Atapuerca. You can find it on a map! It is a Unesco World Heritage site.