I have often agonized over making decisions, afraid that the wrong choice would send me off a cliff—real or metaphorical—and do irreparable harm. So, before I left to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain, I bought maps to ensure […]
Have you noticed how most news stories are “breaking” or feed our morbid curiosity? They are designed on purpose by desperate and declining news corporations to hook us by showing the worst of humanity, ideologies that hurt people, and dire […]
This isn’t just the next installment of my Camino journey—I also have an exciting announcement and an invitation to you at the end of this post! When I wake up, I get to choose. I want to get an early […]
My mother would kill me if she saw me doing this. I am perched on the side of a hill that has turned into a sort of bouldery cliff, on mission to find other pilgrims watching tonight’s sunset. I’ve been […]
In summer of 2021, I walked 73 miles from Santiago de Compostella, Spain to Muxia and Fisterra on the Spanish coast. Though much shorter than my previous Caminos in 2013 and 2016, it was a poignant journey of transition and […]
“Every time I’m lost, I find myself.” ~ Sabrina Musumeci My plan is to walk 17km to Quintáns and stay at a 1-star hotel unironically called Plaza. 10.5 miles. At 17 miles, Muxia is too far for me to walk […]
This is the random stuff that goes through one’s mind when there’s no one around and nothing to do but walk: rain shadows, snail analogies, and human evolution. I’ve just left my cozy nest at Casa Pepa full of coffee […]
The hallway echoes in the early morning light with footsteps and clinking packs. The group of French pilgrims leave around 6am as promised. One at a time they go, stopping to use my “private” bathroom which I neglected to lock […]
I wake. I sit up in bed. I put my feet on the ground. OW! WHAT IS THIS PAIN?? OW OW OW! Oh my God, OW! This, dear reader is the day after walking 15 miles without training. My feet […]
Today is my first day of walking. Not my first day after training or slowly working up to long distances. No, no, it’s my literal first day of walking after a year of physical inactivity and pandemic anxiety. It’s a […]
“You don’t choose the Camino. The Camino chooses you.” It chooses you even when you had your sights set on Ireland, a multi-day hike near the sea and milky cups of tea with a friend in Galway. At the bottom […]
I’ve been asking some big questions lately. Maybe you have too. Why does it seem like the world is falling apart? How do I deal with the fear I feel — about the planet, our leaders, my health, the future? […]
“I’m up and down,” I told my Irish friend when she asked how I was doing. She reached cross the pond just to check in, so I shared: “The death toll here is beyond comprehension, and it colors everything I […]
This is Beatrice. I noticed her picking at the abandoned strings tied to a tomato cage we’d left upside down and forgotten. Last spring, she and her mate built a gossamer, sparking nest from found treasures still hanging from the […]
Numbers equal strength. Last month, my social media team and I created an ambitious, 15-point plan to double the number of AoCC subscribers. Our plan includes: a new website and website copy professional marketing branding and logo design social media […]
