DAY ONE & TWO: Love, Sweat, And Falling Into Our Groove

Did I grow in the last two days? Hmmm...maybe I’ll know by the end of this blog post.  

We took two days to cross the Pyrénées and it was an excellent decision on my part. Yesterday, after we arrived at our refuge, Luc stripped down. You could, literally, ring the sweat out of his underwear, pants, shirt, socks, hat, leather necklace—and hair, and fill an entire cereal bowl.  In the 28 years I’ve known Luc, I’ve hardly ever seen him even break a sweat—even on the ice. And Luc has always been extremely proud of the fact that he doesn’t sweat.

Camino de Santiago

We only trekked six miles yesterday, a far cry from the twenty-eight-mile day we have ahead of us (today we did fourteen, and tomorrow we will be trekking seventeen). 

But I will say, the first six miles is a difficult uphill journey the entire way. 

When I did the Camino back in 2013, I was in such bad physical back pain. I was carrying a forty-pound backpack, and it took me at least six hours to make it to the refuge. Yesterday, we did it in less than three and a half hours—and let me tell you, that wasn’t because Luc was pushing me up the mountain. 

Oh yes, back to Luc. 

Not only did he sweat A LOT, but he was out of his comfort zone; staying in a refuge, sharing a room with complete strangers, sleeping on a top bunk that he could barely maneuver up and down, sharing a toilet that had no seat, taking his turn to use a communal shower, and eating dinner with people from all over the world who he could barely understand due to their heavy accents. 

I’ve never seen Luc so vulnerable. 

He was drinking wine simply to fit in. 

I felt as though, for the first time ever, he stepped into my world. 

No one knew who he was. No one knew he’s a Hall of Famer—most people were from places that don’t even have ice hockey. 

But this was in my comfort zone. 

When I did the Camino five years ago, I sat in that very room; and I was dying to be truly seen. Not as Luc’s wife, not as Steven or Jessarae’s mom. Simply as me.  

And there I was sitting next to my dehydrated, tired and vulnerable Luc. 

I’ve never been so proud to be his wife.

View from lunch.

And today felt different. Luc wasn’t on his phone. He wasn’t talking about work. He wasn’t griping about how hot it was, or about his body aches—and he wasn’t worried about how much longer it was going to take. He was just my Luc. And it was pure perfection. Together we climbed, we talked, we laughed, we ate lunch overlooking the magnificent Pyrénées and we steeply descended into Roncesvalles to get to our next location. It’s a hotel by the way—which makes someone very happy. 

I think I did grow after all in the last two days. 

Last night I’ve never felt so happy being Luc’s wife. I didn’t need to be seen. I had everything I wanted sitting right next to me. 

That, and I was validated in my feelings of the deep beauty in being vulnerable.

Attention all men: BEING VULNERABLE IS SEXY. ;)