Day 203 - Things that really count.

'The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.

  They must be felt with the heart.'

This morning a very dear friend forwarded me a lovely email that ended with the lines above. In these busy times with all its challenges, I'm so glad she took the time to do this as it made me sit down and think about how true this statement is.

I'll be the last one to deny that I enjoy the good things in life but isn't part of this journey that I'm on to start focusing on what's really important? What brings real and lasting happiness? 

When I walk those 25km's a day, what will really bring a smile to my face? The new dress I bought a week ago, the nice car I love driving so much, or will it be the feeling of love that floods my entire soul when I hold my grandchild and we laugh till our tummies ache at the silliest of jokes?

As for how much luggage I can take along, I'm going to be restricted to less than 10kg. I thank God that the most important 'luggage' that I will be taking along weighs zero kg on earth but  a couple of tons in my heart!

I'll be focusing on accumulating as many special moments to pack in my storeroom from this day forward - I'll have at least 780km to relive each and every one! 

Day 44 - What do women REALLY want?

I bet that got your attention!

What do women REALLY want? It clearly can't be hot running water and a plug-in hairdryer as this is me earlier this year on Kilimanjaro and I was as happy as can be here. And trust me, I do appreciate running water and use my hairdryer every day in my 'normal' life.

The past few weeks I have had so many questions regarding the Camino - why people do it, what they found to be different about themselves after they've done it, will they do it again etc., etc., etc.

So then I got thinking. Isn't the real question - what do we want from life? And as I am a woman, isn't it appropriate for me to examine what it is that women really want from life?

As a woman and one that's been around for a while, surely I should be able to answer that one myself.

In fact, based on those qualifications, I should be an authority on the subject.

So after much deliberation with myself on the subject (and a number of cups of coffee, alone and with others of my species) I have come to the conclusion that what I read somewhere was absolutely spot on.

We only want two things really badly.

LOVE and AFFECTION

If we have those two things, EVERYTHING else will follow. Respect, happiness, fun, the desire to nurture those around us - I can carry on naming things until the sun goes down!

Whether we receive it from our partners, our children, our parents or our friends - that's all we really want.

Well, as far as I'm concerned anyway...

My friend Snowy shared a few words of wisdom with me a couple of days ago. He said: 'Age is determined by what happens between your ears'. Amen, I say.

My husband owes him big time as I suppose third on the list of what women really want, is to retain our youthful looks! I'm going to stop googling 'face-lift's' for a while and instead I'll follow Snowy's advice. 

Think myself young - is that possible? I'm certainly going to give it a bash!