Musings

Life, work, play and yoga

Slowing Down

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After the multi-year adren­a­line rush of a high-tech career, I’m down-shifting: learn­ing how to slow down and savor each moment as it comes. I’m test­ing out what it might feel like to be retired — what­ever that means these days.

Bak­ing arti­san bread at home (French boule style)

Pur­pose­fully down-shifting is a form of mind­ful­ness prac­tice in its own right. It’s harder than it looks.

Slow Mo, Slow Cooking

I’m try­ing out how it feels to pur­sue slow-paced, inher­ently time-consuming activ­i­ties, such as:

  • Bak­ing no-knead, slow rise arti­san bread — a process that takes 24 hours or more
  • Knit­ting shawls and sweaters — projects that take weeks to com­plete
  • Plan­ning, shop­ping and prepar­ing slow-cooked meals, gourmet din­ners that sim­mer in a slow cooker for 6–8 hours
  • Learn­ing how to adapt a vari­ety of dishes to the slow cooker
  • Walk­ing for 4–6 miles most days

This lifestyle is slower, but not bor­ing. I wake up each day happy to under­take mul­ti­ple hands-on crafts, tasks and projects.

Food for the Brain

On a less pos­i­tive note I haven’t fig­ured out how to keep my brain as actively engaged as it used to be. This is a chal­lenge for some­one who earned her liv­ing as a con­sul­tant and excelled as a big-picture thinker…

But it’s more than just an iden­tity cri­sis. I don’t want to end up like my mother, addicted to cross­word and sudoku puz­zles. My hus­band and I are talk­ing about down­siz­ing, so I’m not ready to buy or learn to play the piano.

Sci­en­tists say that using a sec­ond lan­guage keeps the brain plas­tic and youth­ful. Before embark­ing on a high-tech career, I was flu­ent in French and pass­able in Span­ish, but those skills eroded through lack of use.

Last year I worked to regain some French lan­guage skills, while prepar­ing for a 3-week trek across south­west­ern France. Now that I’m back in Seat­tle, it’s not so easy to speak French on a reg­u­lar basis, so I rely on Net­flix and French movies as a fall­back.

Clearly I need to find some activ­i­ties or pur­suits that engage my brain as thor­oughly as my crafts, hikes and slow-mo cook­ing engage my hands and eyes.

Reflections on My Camino

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pedestrian bridge to Bouziès

After 2+ weeks of walk­ing, leav­ing the Célé Val­ley

It’s Camino sea­son again, and it’s also long past time for me to write about my own expe­ri­ence along the Chemin de St. Jacques last year.

In 2016 (much like other pil­grims) I dis­cov­ered how liv­ing a slower and pared-down life, savored at walk­ing pace, can be a tran­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence. It was such a pow­er­ful expe­ri­ence that it’s taken months to blog about it.

Last Sep­tem­ber I accom­pa­nied a friend on a 3-week trek along old pil­grim­age routes in south­west­ern France. We hiked a 150-mile seg­ment of the Via Podi­en­sis, a little-known set of trails in rural France (GR 65 and 651.)

We walked 10–15 miles a day, car­ry­ing just hik­ing poles, day­packs and the day’s sup­ply of water. We opted not to carry camp­ing gear or back­packs; instead we lux­u­ri­ated in a bag­gage ser­vice that shut­tled our duf­fels from one guest house to the next.

Was this pil­grim­age a truly life-changing expe­ri­ence?
In many ways, yes…

Six months later I’m still think­ing through what I learned from this pil­grim­age, what the journey’s teach­ings sug­gest for the next phase of my life… Despite my joy in telling sto­ries or talk­ing about it, I’ve been unusu­ally chal­lenged in writ­ing down my reac­tions to this pro­found expe­ri­ence.

GR 651 sign­post in Bouz­iès

So what have I learned so far? Here are a few of my take-aways, listed in no par­tic­u­lar order:

  • Spend­ing lots of time and energy on a pro­fes­sional career has lost its attrac­tion.
  • Talk­ing with peo­ple, shar­ing expe­ri­ences — in per­son and face to face — is pow­er­fully com­pelling. Why have I allowed social media alter­na­tives to dis­tract me from those basic truths?
  • Long walks, in rain or shine, need to remain a reg­u­lar fea­ture of my life — if not daily, at least many miles walked through­out the week.
  • Suf­fer­ing and dis­com­fort are unavoid­able, but can be accepted and tran­scended. They do not need to be all-consuming.
  • I do not need so many things to be happy.

Walk­ing offers a life­long path to hap­pi­ness and well­be­ing — and as my sis­ter says, may help me stay “younger each year.”

Walk­ing 35 miles or more each week has become a won­der­ful com­ple­ment to my on-going yoga prac­tice. Walk­ing offers many med­i­ta­tive qual­i­ties, but it’s also eas­ier to share with my hus­band and friends than a yoga prac­tice.

Going Off the Beaten Track in France

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cahors_pont_valentreIf your heart is set on a pil­grim­age or walk­ing tour in France, and you don’t want to pay a com­mer­cial tour­ing com­pany, where can you look for help with travel plan­ning? It’s not always as easy as you might think.

Hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple will hike the month-long trail across Spain’s Camino de San­ti­ago this year. Mean­while, only one-tenth as many pil­grims will tra­verse the French trails that lead to the SJPDP trail­head for the Camino Francés (from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port at the base of Pyre­nees and then across north­ern Spain.)

FB group for le Chemin du Puy

FB group for le Chemin du Puy

Because the audi­ence for French pil­grim­ages is 90% smaller, it takes skills and com­mit­ment to find rel­e­vant and timely resources to pre­pare for those walk­ing tours. The best guides have been writ­ten en français, and require at least inter­me­di­ate read­ing and com­pre­hen­sion skills in French, sup­ple­mented by Google Trans­late and other inter­ac­tive trans­la­tion dic­tio­nar­ies.

Scarce resources for niche travelers

The French trail sys­tem for camino pil­grims is off the beaten track, far from the larger or well-known cities.

In these out-of-the-way loca­tions, ser­vices are pro­vided by family-scale or very small busi­ness enter­prises, located in ham­lets with few other options. The travel sea­son is short, May to Sep­tem­ber. Change is a con­stant, given how hard it is to earn a liv­ing at such a highly sea­sonal busi­ness, with fund­ing com­ing from such a small pop­u­la­tion of tourists and vis­i­tors (many of whom are on very tight bud­gets.) As a result inns, cham­bres d’hôtes, gîtes and bistros that appeared to be thriv­ing last year may no longer be in busi­ness this year…

For peo­ple who want the com­fort of room reser­va­tions before arriv­ing in France, advance plan­ning is essen­tial. Luck­ily, my hik­ing buddy has done this before, knows the con­straints of the Chemin du Puy, and thus made sure to book room reser­va­tions months in advance. She also knew where to look for help.

Spe­cial­ized Face­book groups offer help­ful, some­times per­son­al­ized and up-to-the-minute resources for aspir­ing pèlerins — a god­send for Eng­lish speak­ers. For exam­ple, I’ve joined the FB group devoted to the Via Podi­en­sis (the Way of St. James that begins in Le Puy). Group mem­bers (past, present and future pil­grims) share pho­tos, pack­ing lists, rec­om­men­da­tions (or places to avoid), prayers and so on. On any given day there’s a lively Q-and-A con­ver­sa­tion tak­ing place.

Some mem­bers pub­lish links to their blogs and travel mem­oirs. A few ded­i­cated vol­un­teers share detailed work­sheets with tips and links to lodg­ings, cafes, bistros, phar­ma­cies and other essen­tial resources for pil­grims.

These online travel resources are invalu­able for French pil­grim­ages, due to the fast-changing nature of les héberge­ments.

When Facebook is not enough

I spend almost an hour most days keep­ing up with my FB groups’ lat­est updates, but now I want less “ran­dom” point­ers…  With just six weeks before fly­ing to France, I make time to work through a hand­ful of books/guides, and prac­tice my rusty French.

Here’s what’s on my active book­shelf right now:

  • From Here, You Can’t See Paris: Sea­sons of a French Vil­lage and Its Restau­rant, by Michael S. Sanders, © 2002
  • Miam Miam Dodo: Saint Jacques de Com­postelle, Le Puy-en-Velay / Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (GR 65), 2016 edi­tion
  • TopoGu­ides: Sen­tier vers Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle via Le Puy (GR 65, 651, 652)
  • Chemins de Com­postelle: Le Puy-en-Velay —> Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Miche­lin Guide), largely focused on maps
  • Advanced French, Hugo edi­tion, DK pub­lish­ing, © 2009
  • South­west France: Dor­dogne, Lot, Bor­deaux (Cado­gan Guide), © 1998

These are not books you’re likely to find on the shelf of the typ­i­cal book­seller. Even Ama​zon​.com may take a few weeks to deliver some of the French guides. Half the books on my list were sourced from over­seas book­sellers so I had to wait 2–4 weeks for their deliv­ery. If you want sim­i­lar books on your shelf, it pays to plan ahead…

Bon chemin à vous!

100-Day Milestones Toward the Camino

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In 100 days I’ll begin a 3-week pil­grim­age, hik­ing centuries-old trails in south­west­ern France. I started train­ing for this jour­ney in Feb­ru­ary, test­ing boots and equip­ment, and embark­ing on some nec­es­sary con­di­tion­ing.

At the halfway point for prepa­ra­tions, I note con­sid­er­able progress made, as well as unex­pected con­se­quences:

  • 10+ pounds lost since Feb­ru­ary
  • Feet stronger, but a half size larger

Los­ing weight was not an explicit goal, but it’s a pleas­ing out­come… Except for the fact that my pants no longer fit, and much of my wardrobe is now too baggy.

The First 100 Days

Woodland trails near Seattle help with conditioning for the trek

Wood­land trails near Seat­tle help with con­di­tion­ing for the trek

I’ve been train­ing with a hik­ing buddy in the Cas­cade foothills. We walk together 4–5 times a week, solo oth­er­wise.

We’ve pro­gressed to hik­ing 8 miles with ease, with 10 or so pounds in our day­packs. We pre­fer hilly wood­land trails, and will tackle some moun­tains later this sum­mer.

Fit­Bit reports that we’ve already hiked hun­dreds of miles in the Cas­cade foothills.

The North­west foothills offer a good train­ing ground. The ter­rain is var­ied, often muddy, with fre­quent ascents or descents — sim­i­lar to what I’ll encounter in France. I’ll have to look fur­ther afield to find analogs to France’s lime­stone cliffs and loose scree.

45 Days on Cape Cod

Now I’m vis­it­ing Cape Cod until we return to Seat­tle in early July. Con­di­tion­ing here requires cross-training to com­pen­sate for flat­ter and less chal­leng­ing ter­rain. So bik­ing, kayak­ing and yoga get added to the mix.

Feasting on ocean views while training for the Camino

Enjoy­ing ocean views while train­ing for the Camino

Get­ting back on my yoga mat will help rebuild core and upper body strength — which have declined dur­ing the intense 100-day focus on hik­ing the North­west trails. Bik­ing will help with car­dio. Kayak­ing with upper body strength and bal­ance.

Sur­pris­ingly, I find myself miss­ing the North­west: the cooler misty weather, the softer wood­land trails, the ver­dant hill­sides and for­est glades. Here on Cape Cod I face uneven paved roads, heat and humid­ity, and tick-infested wood­lands that dis­cour­age off-road walk­ing. For­tu­nately it’s easy to find unpaved roads in the vil­lage where we’re stay­ing, so not all my train­ing will be pound­ing on pave­ment.…

My walks are often blessed with ocean or bay views and con­stant bird­song, but there’s a chal­lenge to walk­ing solo. Mostly men­tal…

Staying disciplined, despite distractions

Stay­ing dis­ci­plined, despite dis­trac­tions

Sus­tain­ing the dis­ci­pline of daily train­ing walks is harder than expected when stay­ing in a vaca­tion spot with­out a hik­ing buddy. There are mul­ti­ple dis­trac­tions, like overnight guests, and con­ve­nient excuses to avoid walk­ing, like heavy down­pours or time con­flicts. I have to drag myself away from inter­est­ing con­ver­sa­tions to find time to walk for two hours.

Walk­ing solo, the miles pass more slowly beneath my feet. Rain is more of a has­sle. I’m eas­ily annoyed by bit­ing flies or the heat that rises from the asphalt roads. I miss the wood­land trails, the for­giv­ing feel of packed dirt or organic mate­r­ial beneath my boots.

It rains harder here. Yes­ter­day I expe­ri­enced the down­side of breath­able sneak­ers: it takes them no time at all to get water­logged dur­ing heavy rains. So today I learned how to dehy­drate sneak­ers in a low oven when they didn’t dry enough overnight…

On a pos­i­tive note we’ve launched our kayaks and have already pad­dled for a cou­ple of hours in windy con­di­tions, so arm/shoulder con­di­tion­ing is well under­way. I’ve also returned to my yoga prac­tice, through classes and at-home asanas, so the cross-training has become real­ity rather than an abstract con­cept…

And it’s a good thing, too.

Every time I read the blog posts from pil­grims now trekking the Célé Vari­ant of the Via Podi­en­sis, my com­mit­ment to con­di­tion­ing gets rein­forced. This will not be “a walk in the park” next Sep­tem­ber…

The Quest for Happy Feet

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When I agreed to go on a 3-week walking tour in France this fall, I assumed my beloved Lowa boots would join me on that journey. We've been together for many miles over the past 15 years... But all it took was one long walk on woodland trails … [Continue reading]

On the Path to Our Camino

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Several of my most recent posts have discussed my intent to walk a segment of the Via Podiensis. The Via Podiensis (or le Chemin du Puy) refers to a network of trails that lead from central France toward the starting point for the Camino de … [Continue reading]

Training for the Trek Begins

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Last month I wrote about plans to walk a 150-mile stretch of Le Chemin du Puy, a French pilgrimage trail, later this year. It won't be an arduous journey, but each day's trek will entail 10-15 miles of walking across somewhat hilly terrain in south … [Continue reading]

Virtual Valentine to Mom

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This Valentine Day's weekend was a time to remember Mom. My memories were triggered by the sound of sewing shears cutting through fabric on the dining room table. I was cutting out pieces for a meditation cushion, using a fabric remnant from curtains … [Continue reading]

A Vintage Old Lady for Valentine’s Day

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My 25-year-old Pfaff sewing machine is coming home from the tune-up shop this weekend. She needed repairs to her presser foot, and adjustments to tension and stitching precision. The repairman also cleaned the moving parts and removed the gunky oil … [Continue reading]

Every Journey Begins with the First Step

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My friend Jane is planning another self-guided walking tour in southwestern France, and wants me to join her on a two-week trek along the Chemin du Puy-en-Velay, a branch of the Camino Santiago (or the Way of St. James). This has been a beloved … [Continue reading]