Asterisk without a Footnote

So I realize that all of you who read yesterday´s entry probably expected a footnote to be at the end, and the fact that there wan´t brings me to what I think is an important point that I should have made at the start of this blog. For those of you who don´t know, internet in Spain and the rest of Europe usually costs about €1 for 20-30 minutes. As such, I usually check and write emails and update this blog in a rushed manner without any kind of proofreading. Hence we get errors like yesterday and various more dastardly grammatical mistakes that I´m sure would make me cringe were I to spend the time and money to go over and read all of the entries on this blog. Anyway, on to the events of the day.
I quite enjoyed the town of Fromísta, which I only passed through last time. This morning I left the hostel at about 6:00, but it was about 20 minutes before I found a way out of it due as always to the infuriatingly undetailed maps in the guidebook I´m using. I finally found a farm path going my way that I had a good feeling about, so I followed it for a while until it led me to the next town, where I was able to find the actual (and much more crowded) Camino.
During my time alone, I was impressed again with an insight I´ve had for a while now. Get ready for what they call in the Harvard English department a "metaphor." There are times on the Camino that you have to make a choice as to which way you´ll go but there is not necessarily a clear waymark to point out the correct path. For whatever reason, it is not visible until you´ve made up your mind to take a certain way. Once you follow the proper path, you see it and get the reward of knowing you made the right choice and won´t have to backtrack (or potentially trespass on a farmer´s private property to get to your destination as I did today). I think life is like that as well. As I was thinking about the various decisions coming my way in the coming months (seminary, where to go in Spain, and various other personal matters) and prayed aloud concerning them, asking God desperately to give me some kind of word regarding even one of the issues, he seemed to respond in a surprising way. The conclusion he led me to was that it takes very little faith to listen to a voice from the heavens (though that may at times be how God communicates his will to us) and that a true faith-building experience is to trust that, having prayed and perhaps fasted about whatever decision with which you are faced, God will have replaced your will with his as he has replaced our righteousness with that of Jesus. In that case, when we step out in faith and make whatever decision seems good to us, we will soon see that it was God´s will all along. I believe this is how the Lord teaches us to walk in faith. Something to think about.
Anyway, after this epiphany I felt compelled to sing praise songs (or as many as I could remember) the rest of the way, though this was dampened somewhat by the crowded route. Seriously, I don´t know where all these pilgrims are coming from or staying tonight, but it really struck me today just how many there are now. And I know that number will only grow as more and more people start closer and closer to Santiago.
Tonight I´m in Carríon de los Condes ("of the Counts"), which is a lovely little place that is busy enough not to seem dead like some towns but quiet enough not to seem hectic like the bigger cities. There was a wonderful garden to walk through so I spent some time enjoying the city after I settled in the local convent. I´m sharing the room with a large middle-aged German and a kind but very blister-ridden Swede who also walked last year. The German asked what time I intended to get up, and though I know him to be a very kind and gentle man I knew immediately that there was a wrong and a right answer to that question and he was perfectly capable of coercing a schedule adjustment from me should I answer wrong. Fortunately, he was pleased by my answer as was the Swede, so we´re all still friends and had a good laugh at those crazies who get up at 4:00 in the morning.
I have walked two weeks now, and in a couple of days will have reached the halfway point. I might go ahead and walk to Finisterre this time or at least spend a day to visit, or I might sit in the plaza next to the cathedral and watch for anyone I know and perhaps invite any particularly discouraged- or sad-looking pilgrims to lunch. Or I could do everything, because if I keep on at this pace I will reach Santiago a good week or so before my birthday, the night of which I plan to train or bus to Madrid. One other exciting option I thought about was indulging in some good fun and finding a cinema showing Kung Fu Panda 2 (which I fully expect to be the best movie of this decade), but I might try to hold off until I get home.
Now I bet you´re all wondering what that footnote was going to be. I edited the entry to include it, so scroll down to find it. It´s even more exciting than you think. God bless!