“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.”
-Thomas Merton
A friend posted this on FaceBook today and it sums up exactly how I feel I have lived most of my life. In the last few years I have lost that ability to embrace challenges fully. I am hoping to find myself again on the Camino.
As I am starting to gather the very limited items for my journey, (it is advised to keep your backpack around 20 pounds), I decided to make myself use things I already have because after wearing the same two pairs of pants and two shirts for 30+ days I am sure I will just want to throw them out! Those things that I have to purchase, I want to have some meaning to me. 
Yesterday I bought my hat for any cool weather or “bad hair” days. A delightful woman at the Olympia Farmers Market knitted this hat and proudly explained the care and reason for the sizing to me. I will think of her efforts when I use it on the Camino. Interestingly, I had gone to purchase a hat many times lately from a retail outdoor store. Such a simple purchase, but I could never get to the counter with the beanie. I feel very satisfied.
On the 4th of July I went to one of my favorite places, Wynoochee Falls. There I found my rock(s) to take to Rabanal del Camino, where originally pilrims were asked to bring a stone as large as their sins to lay at the base of the cross. Today many pilgrims have different 
religious, spiritual and personal reasons for walking the Camino, so stones are left by pilgrims from their home town or with a loving note honoring a loved one. Besides, I couldn’t possible carry a rock the size of my sins and make it over the Pyrenees. I suppose that was the reasoning behind the original request. No pain no gain.
My rocks are from a spot that always warms my heart with the memory of my mother and of Randy, my husband. It is where we went on one of our first dates…the beginning of my adult journey.