A few days ago I sent this message to our Cherry: Hey Cherry ~ haven’t heard from you. Thinking of you, wherever you are. Need some Cherry energy. Write a few words, love, Phil.

So, today I am feeling all wintered out and ready to write a post about Spanish toothpicks, which will happen soon. Maybe not the most exciting of starting points but I was going to see what I could do with it. Anyway, when who shows up on my e-doorstep but Cherry of the Southern Hemisphere. Complete with pic with palm tree in the middle distance. Just when I am feeling so wintered out I get suntanned Cherry with a palm tree. See how it works! Love you Cherry.

Enough of me, here she is:
It’s great that Phil has welcomed me back even if I’ve not been the most reliable lately. I’ve been spending the last 4 weeks with my family and friends at home in Australia. I have mixed feelings still about being home. Thankfully it is only temporary as I’m off to Indonesia tomorrow morning for my final month of my travels. It’s a hard life.

Actually life has been a little hard lately. They say when you travel for long periods of time with a partner that it’ll either make or break. Sadly for us after nearly 5 years, it was break. I’ve been feeling rather empty. And then I stumbled on these wise words that I wrote 10 years ago which gave me some hope and a smile.

“Life has this strange way of working out right but not in the way you think it should. Life has a strange way of giving you what you ask for but not in the way you think you’re going to get it. Life has a strange way of making you suffer undeservingly but yet rewards you with unbelievable gain. Would you willingly put yourself through worse, with the possibility of unbelievable rewards? Of course I would but I’m a risk taker and I know full well that the only way to achieve the best is to suffer undeservingly at times.”

Peace and love from Cherry the newly Single Lady.

That’s the name of the book I am reading currently. Jim at American Pilgrims turned me on to it. It is about bull “fighting”and “running”. It is a beautiful book full of history and artistry. I’m learning a lot about Spain from exploring this national sport. I have to back up a little since there is a lot wrong here all of a sudden.

Bull fighting is the way we express this in English but in Spanish the word isn’t fighting but we have no equalivalent. It is more like being in rhythm with the power of the bull. And sport really doesn’t do it justice either. And this activity also occurs in parts of France. Our troubles with language parallels our stereotype way of thinking about bull fighting which really needs straightening out.

I can remember watching it on TV as a kid in the early sixties before we were taught that it was something barbaric by who knows who. It was before color TV too and that would have made it even richer. I was fascinated by the whole thing and somehow that early interest plays into my current armchair enthusiasm.

So the full name of the book is “Fiesta: How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona”. Which brings up the whole activity of running with the bulls which Pamplona is famous for. This is an ancient deal that goes along with “fighting”. It is supposed to be the act of herding the animals and moving them with respect to next part of the pageant. It is not supposed to be some hair brained sucidal deal although runners do get injured and occasionally killed. It is a way for the average guy to be an active part of the whole thing.

So, Pamplona has the most famous run although each city that has a fight has a run but each is different. Estrella where I participated is no different and the book filled me in on something interesting. And that is the bulls of Estrella may not be bulls at all but horned females, at least when the book was published and that was a while ago. Maybe it was some sort of Spanish Junior Varsity Bull Run that I got my feet wet in. Nobody told me at the time and I was too focused on those horns and not getting trampled by moving bodies to have time to check for other things. And I was probably above my pay grade there even but I survived. There is a saying that God watches out for Marines and fools, take your pick.

Untrampled love, Felipe.

Finally got to Skype with Angela! She is looking good with long hair and her ever present wonderful smile. It’s a little shock to see us cleaned up after we got used to each other with our pilgrim patina on the Camino. Makeup and winter coats throw me off, but I digress. One more digression is that it is summer and bright there south of the equator. Yea, summer. Yea, Angela.

The best thing about Skype is seeing a friend in their environs. And the best thing about Ange’s scene was her Christmas tree still being up. She said that it will probably stay up for a few months. Haha. Why mess with a good thing, right?

So, before going to the Camino to be with us she had quit her job for a newspaper thinking she needed a change. So, now she is in job hunting mode. She looks confident and motivated. That’s the Camino spirit. So we wish her luck with that and I will put a stone on my pile for her to have that thought there. May the Universe conspire for her benefit.

We talked about our film guys Todd, Jessica and Rebecca. She asked about the documentary and how that is coming. It’s a’comin. We talked about Mary Margaret’s visit to our island and the possible appearance of Sheriff here in March. She asked about Kelly and I gave her the Kelly report. We gossiped about all of you but with much love and longing as only pilgrims can do.

She had a little map of the States and I was giving here a geography lesson. Chicago is in that yellow state, LA is there and Seattle is way up there in the corner. And Seattle is in Washinton State which is different than Washington DC. That is a big one I have found with friends outside America is the confusion between the two Washingtons. Well, that is an easy one to straighten out now as the Seattle (Washington State) Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl and the Washington (DC, stands for District of Columbia) Redskins are not. Yea!

Well, I want to wrap this up by saying that I personally want to have the ability to work together like the film crew, be energetic as Mary Margaret, as serving as Sheriff, as caring as Kelly and as brave as Angela. That’s my wish today. Thanks guys for sharing the trail with me and teaching me along the way by just being you.

OK, it’s finally light out and it is a very mysterious looking foggy morning here on the island. Have to get this blog done so I can make spaghetti sauce, recycle our paper and bottles, rebuild the carburetor on the old tractor and run to town for a baguette. A little bit of everything happening today here on Vashon Island. Hope your day goes well, love you, Felipe.

I’m thinking that yesterday’s post was one of my better ones. Every once in a while everything comes together for me, for us. Annie emailed this AM that she had just read it and she had been contemplating the same notion. The notion of getting in step with God,is how I am expressing it this AM.

This is great that I have Annie on my mind now with this notion all swirling around. One of the things that I get from Annie is that our connection with God is not just something rare and only for great historical figures of the past. It is in the here and now and closer than we are conditioned to thinking. I can’t find her exact words but I am doing OK. It is the point, I think, that we are the limiting factor not God. We somehow make things harder than they need to be.

So, integrating the Camino into our lives or maybe better, integrating our lives into the Camino is this same process. How do we keep step with God and our fellow man in our everydayness? How do we integrate all the important things? How do we keep walking in the right direction when there are no yellow arrows?

God recognizes us each as totally unique and perhaps we all reach out to God in our own totally unique way. We need to know ourselves and find our way. We need to ask for help to be able to be there for God and our fellow man.

Wow, pretty lofty conversation today but touching the Camino is touching this stuff and the reason it remains so powerful. Power on, love, Felipe.

I was going out the door this morning to walk and my Rebecca said, “Buen Camino!” to me. And as I walked I was thinking about that and how my perception of that phrase as changed and grown. I remember the first few days of the walk in Spain and we said that to each other. But we said it, or at least I said it, with no inkling of what it meant or what it was going to mean.

It felt good to say it because finally after so much preparation I was finally on the trail and actuallay doing it, finally I a real pilgrim. And all the people around me were real pilgrims. Like we are so cool. “Buen Camino!” “Buen Camino Dude!”

Then at some point in the first week after everyone had equal opportunity to develop their own unique pilgrim walk and the reality of the situation really got to dwell in us we could say it again with a certain defiance. “Yea, Buen Camino!” “Buen, we are still frickin here, Camino!” The Camino was still there and we also were still there and that was the way we were going to keep it. We were staying.

Then at Santiago it was all good and the “Buen Camino” meant something like a congratulations. Yes, my stigmata and I arrived unscathed. Thank you St. James. “Buen Camino, yes!” Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could have left it at that.

But then what? The darn grim reentry, which is real and undeniable, is what’s next. Just when you thought the world was all roses and tapas it’s reentrytime. Just when life is beautifully painfully sweet, it’s what to do with realitytime, whatever that is? The celebratory high five “Buen Camino” becomes softer and softer till it’s almost crowded out by facts and figures and details. It becomes just a wee little flame like a tattered snapshot.

And for months, collectively, we have been guarding that little flame and keeping it safe and coaxing it along. Haven’t we? Trying to integrate it with our life or trying to integrate our life with it is always going on it seems. That darn little flame is truly such a bother. But then this morning when my Rebecca said a simple clear alperfect, “Buen Camino!” as I had my winter clothes on and my walking sticks in hand, on my way out the door to walk my Camino, it all seemed so nicely integrated. The before, the during, the after and the now seemed one for the first time. Ah! Can I keep it? I can do this.

We can do this, immense loves, Felipe.

Seattle wins in overtime! Amazing. Todd and I were messaging back and forth during all that. Amazing. And Stephen the photographer who was out here yesterday doing our photo shoot was right there at the end of the game taking shots of the winning quarterback, OUR Russell Wilson. Way cool, Felipe.

I was at the local auto repair yesterday getting a slow leak fixed in one tire on my Rebecca’s car. So, I’m looking around the funky scene there in between chatting with Don my buddy who owns the place. Some of the stuff on the walls has been there since the glaciers melted it seems. I started reading this metal sign which listed the distances to various destinations that you could drive to like after Don fixed things. The places on the sign were in miles from the near city of Tacoma. So, I’m running down the list and there are various towns and cities in Washington and Oregon, so may miles to Yakima, the Dalles, Walla Walla. I’m thinking that sounds like fun, a little drive.

So, I’m reading down and I see Chicago and then Miami at 3353 miles! Wow, that would be a trip to see Alida. But who drives that far anymore? It brought me back to my younger years when I probably drove across the country a dozen times sometimes just for the heck of it. Well, Alida you will have to wait on a road trip from me for a while. It does sort of sound like fun though.

OK, big football game today for the Seattle Seahawks. If they win this one they will be headed to the Super Bowl! Yea, wish us luck. Love you, Felipe.

PS ~ here are some great pics and thoughts all Camino. It will tweak you. Check it out:

http://home.michaelgeorgephoto.com/portrait-of-a-pilgrim

Yesterday was definitely something and it revolved around two centers, both Camino related. One was the photo shoot here at the ranch and the other was Mary Margaret. And right now the way it looks is that today is just sort of cleanup after that although the day may suprise me with it’s own great story. I will keep my eye out.

The weather cooperated yesterday or one could say that St. James was around here helping facilitate with our outdoor activities. In the morning Kelly, Mary Margaret and I were here walking Phil’s Camino. MM got a taste of the locale through that. Then in the afternoon Kelly and Rick showed up to walk and be a part of the photo shoot for the NW Catholic Magazine article coming up in March. Stephen and Ellen were here from the Archdiocese for a number of hours taking shots and trying to capture the flavor of our effort here. Then at 1700 tapas began and dinner somewhere around 1800.

So, the guest of honor, MM was here, as was Kelly, Rick and his wife Carolyn (parents of Maryka), our son Wiley and his girlfriend Riley. The Tapa Nazi, that would be me, organized the tapas. My Rebecca fixed a pork roast with sour kraut and black eyed peas. This is a very southern meal that we always have on New Year’s Day but missed it this year. And Carolyn and Kelly brought some dishes to supplement the whole.

The meal was delicious and the wine drinking was also. The table was strewn with all the evidence of that and also the Bible, other books, an icon, a map and other reference materials. Conversation was spectacular. We approached the realm of being louder than the Italians. What pushed us over the top was the opening of a champagne bottle with just one slash of a big kitchen knife by MM. We were swashbuckling our way through the universe at that point! So yea, the Camino continues.

Then we had a few hours sleep and Kelly and MM are off to Seattle this AM to tour the Pike Street Market and then head to the airport. I am just positive that MM’s trip was a total success and that makes me feel good. We all connected beautifully and this is a gift of the Camino to be able to do that so easily. Yup, reporting from the epicenter, connected love, Felipe.

We three amigos got together and did a little walk this morning. We three enjoyed a nice window of sunshine and calm winds. Yea, time to catch up and tell stories that we hadn’t heard before. Maybe making plans to get back to Spain.

MM told a great story about her and Anse in Roscevales which I have to repeat. It sounds like the kind of crackup that our giddy selves would appreciate. So, the two of them were in town and MM saw some saddles and said to Anse that a person could ride a horse on the Camino. And Anse came back with the thought “or a monkey”. MM is thinking what the heck. And then Anse says, “A donkey, a donkey!” A slight translation glitch.

We know how to have good cheap fun, don’t we? Matter of fact that might be what’s it’s all about in the end. A place, a task, time and good company and we will figure out the rest.

OK, off to chores. I have been wrestling with my tractor, trying to get it running for firewood splitting duty. But it should come to life today, hopefully, give enough tender loving care . Then this afternoon the film crew from Northwest Catholic Magazine is out here to photograph us pilgrims on Phil’s Camino. Then this evening is tapas and dinner here at the ranch for a big bunch of folks revolving around MM visit. All good, alperfect, you are in our thoughts, love, Felipe and company.

Alperfect, yup, reunited. Kelly and I ran over to Seatac to pick her up and then back to the Island for tapas and dinner at Kel’s. Today she has Mass this morning at St. John Vianney’s and meeting with Sister Joyce. This afternoon my Rebecca’s taking her on a tour of the Island.

Hmm, my usually trusty iPad just ate the rest of the post that was a done and I was trying to add a pic. I am out of time so this will have to due sorry. But the theme of today was MM being here and enjoying our hospitality. And also saying to you to come also at some point. Open door loves, Felipe and Vashon Island.