Yesterday I picked up my residency permit for Spain. It wasn't straightforward, because the lawyer hired by the company I used to worked for was supposed to make an appointment but I no longer have access to him. However, through a couple of strokes of luck (which were "mistakes": I first went to the wrong police station, then I was late to the correct one, but it was the lateness that allowed me to sneak in without an appointment).
The policeman at the entrance held my passport and said "Oh Mexico, good country, but you need an appointment for this". I wanted to say countries aren't good or bad, but fortunately I had some common sense: "I came here earlier and someone told me to come back in the afternoon" I told the policeman. "Who told you that?" —"A police woman who was right here". What I said was true, but that police woman didn't know I didn't have an appointment, I was just too late and she told me to come back after the lunch break. The policeman doubted for a while before letting me through. It took 5 minutes to verify my fingerprints and get my residency card.
I'm still waiting on two payments. I'm confident I will eventually receive them, so I will begin my walk on Monday.
I've been rethinking the answer I gave to how should we go on a spiritual journey. This is the answer I would give to myself five years ago. I'm reconsidering this approach.
Here's the thing: I second doubt myself all the time. Today I state that the best way to go on a spiritual journey is without a plan and open to whatever experience comes to you. But then I inspect carefully and I see I have implicit plans, or simply outlines which I do not share with the reader, and I think "perhaps there is more structure than I care to admit, and perhaps I should make it explicit". I know, for example, that I don't want to smoke anything on my walk. But if I make a commitment and then break it, I'm just setting myself up for disappointment. So it's better to make no fixed commitments or plans, but to have intentions and be firm in them, still allowing for exceptions to happen.
I think I will have a clearer idea about how to respond this question after I have walked.