DAY 156 - SAN GIORGIO DE NOGARO TO PORTOGRUANO: 20.7 MILES (41,400 STEPS)

25 September, 2011

20.7 miles (Total: 1510 miles) 41,400 steps (Total: 3,332, 601 steps)

One of the things which I am reminded of, having grown up in the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall, is the Italian/Roman love of straight roads, aided no doubt by their construction before the advent of planning appeals. They were straight of course as a security measure, so that an advancing army couldn’t appear from around the corner.  If I was an advancing army I would probably want to appear from behind a tree rather than march along the main road, still the Romans did manage to maintain a pretty big empire, so I will just accept that they knew what they were doing…..

Anyway, when you spend an entire day walking on a straight road towards a distant horizon two things happen: the first is that that you use up your iPod battery life fairly quickly and the second is that you get a chance to think about things that sometimes you don’t when you are watching out for turnings or wondering what is a round the next bend.  My thoughts were these:

That I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere or doing anything other than this right now:

I am totally committed to a campaign in which I passionately believe- Truce. A truce which I believe could transform communities; give respite to the victims suffering in conflict zones and strength the peace-making capabilities of the United Nations.

I spend every waking hour thinking of new ways to advance the campaign and broaden the adoption of the truce.

I never once wake up wondering ‘What am I going to do today?’ I often wake up thinking ‘How on earth am I going to complete what needs to be done today?’

I never once go to bed thinking, ‘What have I done today?’ I always go to bed exhausted, but with the goal of the walk a few miles closer and the goal of the truce a few emails and telephone calls closer.

I don’t have time to worry about where I am going to sleep tomorrow night because I just have to worry about where I will stay tonight. I don’t need to worry about how I am going to walk from (a) to (b) tomorrow because I am too busy walking from (a) to (b) today.

Every call and contact with friends and family from home is a precious moment and savoured to the full. I give thanks for richness they bring to my life in a way that sadly I seldom stopped to think when I was at home.

I notice things when I walk that I would never notice when I am rushing to catch a train or to make a meeting—the people going about their business, their perspectives of the world and life, the flowers in bloom, the colours of the autumn leaves, the architecture and history of buildings.

I am spared the curse of life brought about by an over-emphasis on what others are thinking of what you are doing because I am just too busy doing it. My life is no longer driven externally by the demands of others, but driven internally through a desire to serve others.

Most of all there is in the midst of the physical struggle, uncertainty and vulnerability I have a feeling of been given permission at the age of fifty to be fully freely myself for a season—my gloriously wacky, day-dreaming, stubborn, thoughtful, humorous, caring, unsophisticated, poorly colour co-ordinated, impressionable, reckless, overly deferential, boring, optimistic, generous, uninspiring, loyal and utterly frustrating self and through this to discover the true Joie de vivre which is to finally discover who you are, why you are here and then to go out and pour yourself completely into that purpose for which you were created. This I do.