How marvelous that I can be a rebel by just being untidy! If that’s all it takes, I feel I should take on bigger projects. Like how to convince Donald Trump to retire!
I like my domestic surroundings to be quite neat. Not antiseptic, I have many useful items and treasures around, but in their place. I am not a clean freak; I could lean a bit more in that direction. For example, in the kitchen, I am quite skilled at ignoring a dirty floor; that Lino pattern covers things up very nicely, but I don’t like a cluttered island counter. I enjoy an empty expanse.
On my Camino walk this past September and October in Portugal and Spain, I was walking with 7 kilos in my backpack. The same for my Camino-buddy Janice. That is not a lot of items.
Our accommodation would often be a room with two single beds in a private house or guesthouse. Happy to arrive, shed our boots and packs, and unpack, it would be amazing how we could stamp our presence on that room and make a mess! In fact, a glorious mess of disorder! It would not have happened that way at home for either of us. We take pleasure in keeping our homes agreeable, somewhat orderly, and welcoming. Not a barrage of disorder like a teenage bedroom.
One day, after ten minutes in a room, we stopped, looked around, and marveled at the mess we had created. And we took such delight. There we were, two older women being disorderly rebels! Far from home, having abandoned homes and husbands to sort themselves out.
When we were in a hostel, we could not indulge in this disorder with such abandon. There you have a bunk, in a room with many others. You may also have a locker in which you are expected to keep your things, if not tidy, at least out of sight. The lockers can be a bit of a pain, unlocking, locking, getting what you need to have a shower, change clothes, find your journal, charge your phone.
But all is well: in a hostel or private room, in the morning, everything once again disappears into the backpack for another day on the trail.
Bom Camino. Buen Camino