Day 58 - Bercianos - September 11 - Day 11 of 15

Day 58 - Bercianos - September 11 - Day 11 of 15

In all the time I have spent in Spain there is one thing, and one thing only, I do not like. Moscas, flies! I have tried last year and this year to find some sort of spiritual peace with the flies but, thus far, have been unsuccessful. Rosa and Merusa have taken steps to reduce the fly population, but with an ancient door open from 1:30 pm to 10 pm you can't completely eliminate them. But I try. Today I was trying to take a siesta and one fly kept dive bombing me it was as annoying as a mosquito. I had to pull the sleeping sac over my head to get to sleep. 

So I woke up from my nap thinking about flies and wanting to kill them. I enjoy the hunt and satisfaction of swatting them with the fly swatter (matamosca, literally fly killer.) there were lots of opportunities when I woke up. As I was enjoying the fly safari I was thinking I was probably not ready to be a vegetarian if I still like killing flies, I don't eat them, but I kill them. Me, the person who watches where she puts her feet on the Camino, so as not to step on snails or spends precious walking or café con leche time squatting down and cheering for a caterpillar to get across the path before it gets squished by a foot or bicycle tire and never gets the opportunity to become a butterfly.

So I'm smushimg a fly and wondering if his friends will miss him and whether or not flies have friends.  Then I fed my mind some coffee and it settled down. This gives you a small glimpse of what it is like to live in my mind. Many years ago I decided it was never too late to have a happy childhood and so I started having one and the more I had one the more I decided, like Peter Pan that I didn't want to grow up. It was during this time that my mind became untethered from seriousness, appropriateness, proper, rules, etc. I had decided early in life that I didn't want to be a lady. Adults said things to me like, "Nancy ladies don't run in the hallways, Nancy ladies don't climb trees, Nancy ladies don't wrestle with boys." "Heck," I thought, "ladies don't get to do any of the fun things." There were two girls on our block, me and the girl down the street. All the rest of the kids were boys. The girl down the street took piano lesson and singing lessons. She wore dresses all the time. She was always clean and her hair was always combed. Can you guess who I didn't want to play with? I've never spent a moment of my life trying to be a lady. 

I have an a mind that just kind of wanders around like a mutt dog snooping for interesting tidbits. I sleep with my bears. I don't pay too much attention to what I wear. It is rarely a skirt or a dress and never anything uncomfortable. I sometimes embarrass my children or grandchildren. And I'm rarely concerned with what other people think of me. I do care what i think of me and them and that I behave in a manner that doesn't cause harm, well, except to flies. lol I have a poem on my wall that some of you are probably familiar with. It starts, "when I am an old woman" and goes on to describe all the freeing things this woman would do. Why wait until I am an old woman?

Oh yeah, there was no excitement today. We cleaned, we cooked, pilgrim went and new pilgrims came, the sunset was fantastic. What an unusual day. ;)