Tag Archives: advice

The Train That Is Me

I had this whole other blog post planned for this week. (Actually, I had it planned for last week, too…) But a few days ago my Camino friend Roy Howard posted this quote from Mark Nepo on his Instagram page, and every word of it just nailed me: “Like most people I know, I struggleContinue reading “The Train That Is Me”

Progress (Almost Wordless Wednesday)

“If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”  — Barack Obama   When Eric and I set out from Le Puy, Santiago de Compostela seemed impossibly far away. A thousand miles? It was easy to get discouraged and believe I couldn’t do it. But the thingContinue reading “Progress (Almost Wordless Wednesday)”

The Ugly American

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about a story that will be in Walking to the End of the World. Linda, my developmental editor who was generally right about everything, expressed some concern about keeping this anecdote in the final book. She worried that it would make me seem too critical and would turn readersContinue reading “The Ugly American”

3 Camino Mantras for 2017, Part 3: Choose Your Focus

  The walk from Castet to Romieu was 30 kilometers (18 miles), a distance we’d walked before, but longer than I ever wanted to do in a day. We’d looked at the maps, though, and talked to our friends on the trail, and decided that a longer walk day while the weather was good was theContinue reading “3 Camino Mantras for 2017, Part 3: Choose Your Focus”

3 Camino Mantras for 2017, Part 2: Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose

I spent a lot of time last week trying to sort through how to make 2017 into a better year than 2016. Not having an election is obviously a good start, but I’m looking for things that are a little more personal. And my most meaningful, personal lessons came from the 79 days I spentContinue reading “3 Camino Mantras for 2017, Part 2: Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose”

Three Camino Mantras to Carry into 2017, Part 1: Practice Acceptance

I tend to approach the world as if everything is negotiable, everything happens for good reasons, and the people who are kind and fair will be rewarded. We can probably blame four decades of reading novels with happy endings for that.

When You Get Sick on the Camino

The first day of summer brought me a gift: the first head cold of summer. I’ve spent the past week on my couch, going through a full box of tissues, drinking gallons of green tea, and catching up on Season 3 of The Americans. I could do all of that, of course, because this summer I’mContinue reading “When You Get Sick on the Camino”