Response: we give thanks

For lavatories with toilet paper….

For lavatories with toilet paper that isn’t the consistency of gift tissue paper…

For lavatories with toilet paper that doesn’t dispense one thin sheet at a time, the size of a cocktail napkin…

For lavatories where you can flush the toilet paper.  (Seriously.  It’s a thing.  Everywhere. That makes for some disgusting garbage cans.)…

For lavatories with paper towels or hand dryers to dry your hands…

For lavatories with water…

For lavatories with water that isn’t brown (that didn’t happen until we got to the airport)…

For lavatories with soap…

For lavatories with toilet seats (a break for weary thigh muscles)…

For lavatories that men and women share (a respite from the temptation of sticking out your foot and tripping the smiling men who come and go from the bathroom while you wait with 20 dancing women)…

For lavatories that only women use…

For lavatories without lines…

For lavatories that were closed (an opportunity to use my Kula cloth for the first and only time.  Nearly half a million people hike the Camino a year-imagine the toilet paper in the woods!  Ewwww)…

For lavatories with lights…

For lavatories with lights on timers that stay on the entire time you’re using them…

For toilets that flush by pushing a button…

For toilets that flush by turning a knob…

For toilets that flush by pulling a handle….

For toilets with broken knobs/buttons that required you to stick your hand in the mechanism to flush them…

For toilets that flush…

For lavatories in stores or restaurants that don’t require you to buy something (only happened twice)…

For lavatory doors with working locks…

For toilets close enough to the door that you can hold it closed while you’re on using it…

For toilets with sinks close enough to lean on so you don’t have to touch the seat (have I mentioned how weary my leg muscles were?)…

For incredibly small lavatories with doors that swing in, requiring you to wedge yourself between the toilet and the door in order to enter…

For lavatories with pocket doors and no handles…

For lavatories with doors that look like regular doors but slide to open (I saw one with a picture and sign on the outside before you enter: “door slides to open”.  When I went in and closed the door behind me, the same sign with picture was on the inside of the door in case you forgot while you were in there.  I laughed at the absurdity.  And then I forgot.  Is there a name for the fear of getting locked in a public bathroom?)…

For lavatories with doors…

For lavatories with mirrors…

For lavatories without mirrors!…

For lavatories that show up suddenly in the middle of nowhere just when you need them…

And for the Camino trifecta: lavatories with soap, toilet paper and paper towels…

For Camino lavatories, I give thanks.

The Camino provides!  Maybe not always the ideal, but it never fails to provide.  

Let us give thanks this day for the simple things.