Pioneering Spirit

You don't choose a life.  You live it.  "The Way"

We stayed in the hostal where the movie "The Way" was filmed.  

Martin Sheen and Emilio Estavez passed through here in 2011 and signed the poster.

Sunflower fields of Spain

People wonder what do you as you hike, hike and hike for miles on end? 

The easy answer is people stop for water breaks, take off the shoes, pick sunflower seeds and many people take a siesta...but there is more😀. 

The coolest thing I have seen is what people do with what is simply there in that moment.  Then, it is interesting how they play and get creative with nature which is all around them and then the stories of the Camino are created.

Camino art

We came across a forest clearing out of the blue. Year after year of hikers resting, has now created a rest stop like no other with totem poles, signs and creative pieces of art made out nature's elements - wood, rock and more. 

Thousands of crosses on the fence  

This is a long section of fence near the highway.  People have created thousands of crosses in the fence for a mile by finding a couple of twigs.  

The mystical story for those on Camino is that our hiking trail is divided by the fence to the highway to separate the natural world from the modern world.  Hikers and speeding traffic go past each other with very different destinations in life at that moment.  Thousands of crosses dangling on a fence with no words but the message is huge and powerful.  Life is a pilgrimage like no other.

Leave a piece of yourself

Where people get all these ideas and the things they use to make from their backpack is quite surprising.  Maybe it is a clever way to lighten the stuff out of the backpack that weighs you down without a trash can nearby.

Find your hometown. 

Find your hometown and tell us how far it is from the heart of Spain. Great way to meet new people on break.

Rock pile messages  

Leave a hope, fear, dream or prayer amongst a huge rock pile as you walk the Camino.  A great way to mark a moment, set yourself free from your challenges or remember someone special in your life.  Write it, put rock on it and keep walking to Santiago.

Shadow pictures

Capture the moment of those early morning walks with 33 consecutive sunrises with your shadow as your guide to the next Camino moment.  Mornings are the most beautiful moments of a Camino hiker's day.

Wayfinding

Take the heavy stuff off your life's backpack and use a stone to mark it.-

Wall as a canvas

Go hikers Go. Keep on walking and put some pep in your step! Santiago is only another 21 days away. 

Don't always be serious. Laugh a lot! 

A pioneering adventuring spirit is about having a mindset.  A mindset that says I am willing to put myself out there and see where it goes.  I may succeed or I may fail but that is beside the point.

It is simply putting yourself out there. Daring to tempt fate and circumstance and finding yourself basking in the sun of accomplishment or even freezing from the consequences of poor planning or failure.  To have tried is the most important thing on the Camino. 

A pioneering spirit is grounded in mission, purpose and reaching beyond with a huge dose of resolve.  

It is about seeing the world before you with new eyes.  The same world but now with new possibilities, opportunities, aspirations and potential. 

A pioneering spirit releases the gifts of the imagination such as creativity, innovation, resourcefulness, invention, whimsy and wonder to name a few.   

In short, a pioneering spirit is like the sun in nature.  An energy source from within you that makes what first appears to be the same old thing something completely different and transformative.  Same view but very different perspective.

Are you open to a pioneering spirit in your life?

This adventure project is to celebrate a life-long journey with Usher Syndrome - a devastating disease that robs its victims of their hearing and vision progressively decade by decade.    There are no treatments or cures.  After 33 days of hiking, my guides and I will be arriving in Santiago on September 17th to celebrate Usher Syndrome World Awareness Day.  If you are interested in supporting this project. You can go to:  www.classy.org/billbarkeley

Thanks for reading and feel free to share with the world.

Persevere Through Challenges

When I travel the world doing storytelling / public speaking engagements I talk a lot about that the beauty of life is the very struggle of life...day in and day out.

It is in the midst of our struggles, that we can find our own purpose and resolve.  Struggles refine us, hone our skills and forces us to make decisions around determination, persistence, resilience and whole host of other fruits to be harvested and drawn on to sustain us when the backpack of life gets heavy.

As our rope team looks at the past 8 days hiking on the Camino de Santiago, we have struggled, had to change and adapt to what faces us (each hour and day) as we cross over the Pyrenees and the sprawling mountain ridges traversing the length of Spain.   

The difference between the possible and impossible is often found in the gifts of struggles and barriers known in such words as creativity, resourcefulness, teaming, curiosity, learning, innovation and more.

Here's how we are going up and down the never ending mountain ridges and valleys: 

It has been 90 or above just aout every day. 

Our big successes in leading and being a deaf-blind hiker have come here:

Profile of a deaf-blind perigrino

The team and the technology  

It is so hot we are getting up at 5am.  This means Bill sees nothing.  I strap on my LED lamp light and use it to see the feet of whichever person is guiding me that morning.  This is big for me to at least know what direction we are going.

On the left, Jack has a small silver microphone on his lapel. This is a #Phonak Roger mini-microphone.  When Jack (and the other guides) walks, he talks to me about about curbs, sewers, ditches, trail slope, trees, cars, bikers and his old girlfriends.  The latter information I could do without.  LOL

The #Phonak Roger microphone is a Bluetooth microphone that sends the wireless voice signal into my #Phonak Compilot - the silver device around my neck on the right.  

The signal is re-purposed and sent hands-free directly into my hearing aids.  This crystal clear voice signal is a lifeline for me when it comes to not getting hit by someone or something both on and off the trail.  

On-road trekking

Sure poles take pressure off the knees,  especially when walking for 33 days.

But, there is a big story in those poles. 

Poles help me navigate and take in many sensory inputs.  Walking on a road I can glide the edge and stay on the road and fall in the the ditch that may be there.  This combined with the white line keeps me tracking without veering to the center line.   

Tough Trekking

When we get to the rough patches the poles are my stabilizers.  Instead of foot placement first, I do pole placement then the foot follows.  The rocks and scree are always shifting, so rolled ankles and leg injuries are always possible.  

As we go up, poles are securing the next level. As we go down, we are trying to not fall forward so I can tell how large of a step to take, determine the slope and pitch and make a safer downhill descent. 

In the forest, trees and branches love to find the head. I use my #Columbia Sunglasses from VSP Global to protect my eyes and I raise the poles up high above the elbow and let the poles push branches away.  The guides behind have learned to duck lest they be side-swiped! 

Note: 

This adventure project is to celebrate a life-long journey with Usher Syndrome- a devastating disease that robs its victims of their hearing and vision progressively decade by decade. There are no treatments or cures.  After 33 days of hiking, my guides and I will be arriving in Santiago on September 16th in celebration of Usher Syndrome World Awareness Day.

If you are interested in supporting this project, you can go to www.classy.org/billbarkeley

Thanks for reading and feel free to share with the world.

#USHEQX

#BILLSDEAFBLINDCAMINO