I am almost always thinking about where I will be next: where I am going, where I could be going, where I’m not. I suppose it is my way of not getting bored, and usually I think of it as being optimistic, because the ideas of where I’ll go are idealized into some beautiful adventure. I like constant change, and moving around means that you won’t get stuck anywhere. However, it’s difficult for me to just be present and appreciative of where I am.
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Even though a train car seems like a place that could get boring after seven hours of sitting, I was really content on our train ride from Madrid to Sarria (besides the food cart hitting my foot every hour or so). On a train, you don’t feel trapped like on an airplane or in a classroom. You’re moving with the world into new places with every second, and you can see it happening. Almost the entire time, besides dozing off a bit, I was staring out the window, a makeshift frame for the second-long pictures I would see. When I was in first grade, my teacher sent a note home to my parents saying that I spent too much time looking out the windows and not paying attention. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to kick that habit. The problem with it though, is that the pictures you take while moving quickly are often blurry. When you don’t take the time to stop and notice where you are, you truly aren’t able to take in the whole picture and notice the details. Several times throughout the ride I tried taking a picture of something we were passing, but it was never clear. I gave up with the pictures and partly with staring out the window, finding it was more frustrating than fulfilling, and I turned to the inside of the train, which I had neglected for most of the ride. What I found was that if I was still staring out the window, I would have missed the German brothers playing guitar and singing in the next car over, the three women intrigued by the root beer candies I gave them, or even Zach falling asleep for the twentieth time.
The landscapes I saw through the window, though beautiful, were fleeting. The memories made when I took the time to appreciate where I was, however, will last as long as I want them to. I have been trying to remind myself of this while I am walking the Camino. Sometimes I will get a bit lost in thinking about our next town or next week, and I have to stop and appreciate the beauty that will soak in, if I just take the time to see it.
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