It’s been a long time since we rolled out “Alperfect” which was fun. “Swimmingly” was fun too but we didn’t make that one up, we found it. Finding is good too. So, we are constantly on the lookout for fun, right?

OK, drumroll! And I can’t say we spent a lot of time and treasure on this, as it occurred in a flash. How about: SoBlessed!? Yea, it acknowledges our situation of being loved by God. It acknowledges cosmic advantage. It acknowledges our incredible good luck!

And it is not that I am always aware of this good luck. I bitch and I moan like I did this morning on my trip to the Treatment Center. Just didn’t feel totally on top of things this time. But right in the middle of all that this new word appeared, lovely right?

So, time for lunch. You all have an outstanding SoBlessed day out there! Love, Felipe.x

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”

Those were like magic words as five thousand guys answered that newspaper add. This was 1914 and Sir Ernest Shackleton was getting a crew together for an Antarctic expedition. What a wordsmith. I think I’ll put that up on the frig. And thanks to Terry Hershey’s blog, Sabbath Moments, for that.

Well, the Camino is not quite that harrowing these days, hopefully. Could change the bitter cold to bitter heat though. But seriously, pilgrimage in the old days was sort of like that. I am reading some material that Catalina just sent to me on the topic. I am supposed to be on an interfaith panel on pilgrimage down in LA and I want to make sure that I am up to speed, so I have been studying.

One other little factoid that I uncovered was the number of old pilgrimage shells that have shown up in Europe. A cherished memento of the trip may be in the family archives. Is that species of shellfish which we know as the Camino shell common on the Atlantic coast of Spain and not the Mediterranean? There is something for someone to investigate. Do we have a clamologist onboard?

We have a walk and tapas this afternoon, a party, a send off, before my treatment day tomorrow. But before that I have to get out to the corn and continue the weeding operation. I promised myself that I would get that slicked up before the trip to Southern California.

OK, constant danger loves, Felipe.x

Good Morning Caminoheads!
I hope your Movie Monday went well! Things were popping over here at the PHIL’S CAMINO headquarters! Lots of details to be tended to as we approach our LA Premiere. It is going to be a really fun evening, with our special guests, Phil and Rebecca! It will be so nice for so many other team members to meet them: our composer, Laura Karpman, along with dan Bern and Eric Kufs who wrote the opening and closing song, Come and Walk, Walk with Me, along with others. And of course, wherever Phil and Rebecca are, you know our dear Carol is not far behind, so she will be joining us as well! Another special guest will be Esther Hobbs, making her way down from Monterrey, CA for the weekend. Then of course, there are all the SoCal pilgrims who want to meet the man himself who will be attending, and also some of my choir members — the men, anyway since our LA Opening falls on the same weekend as our Women’s Retreat…well, the list goes on!

We also have some more screening dates and times for you:

AUGUST:
Rhode Island Film Festival
Middlebury New Filmmaker Film Festival
SEPTEMBER:
Port Townsend Film Festival
Jhilava Film Festival (the Czech Republic)

I will leave you with my latest Tom Bomb. Fr. Tom is one of the spiritual advisors of PHIL’S CAMINO, and is the official padre of the team. He is an incredible mix of fun and wisdom, with a dash of mischief thrown in. I left him a message last week asking him to say a prayer for me as I was getting overwhelmed with all the things I have to do, and losing faith in myself that I could do them all. Here is what he sent me. Not only am I inspired by his words, I am so very blessed to call him friend.

Annie, Dorothy Day claimed she awoke each morning with 30 hours of work to do, and only 24 hours to do it. So, she began each day by ONE HOUR of silence in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Voilà! She claims Jesus always multiplies whatever we offer FIRST to him. And Dorothy swore that he always have her more than ample time to accomplish the work. The other insight she got from her Holy Hour was the realization that the work she was doing was really God’s work. And God always gives us the resources necessary to accomplish HIS work.

I’m off to not quite an hour of silence, but perhaps a Holy Half Hour.
Blessings and love, to ALL us Caminoheads!

Annie O Neil
Director/Producer: Phil’s Camino www.philscamino.com

Co-producer and Pilgrim: Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago www.caminodocumentary.org

Author: Everyday Camino with Annie www.everydaycaminowithannie.com

310-403-4228

Here at Phil’s Camino we are moving along and about 28km west of Leon. We went through the town of Villar de Mazariffe a while ago.

Our walking schedule is:

Monday 0900-1000
Tuesday 1600-1700
Thursday 0900-1000
Sunday 1600-1700

So come join us. Felipe.

Monday morning and time to regroup after Archery Camp, after Festival. Time to sweep up and get ready for what’s next. Right now there is thunder happening above with a sprinkling of rain. A deer mom and two fawns are browsing outside.

Reverend Bonnie is off to Port Townsend for a writer’s workshop. That sounds like fun. She will try and stop on her way back though Seattle afterward to catch some more archery with Felipe. She was so awesome on Saturday when she shot here. She hadn’t touched a bow since high school days and she surprised me with her skill and endurance. We must have recreated for three hours when most folks would be done in an hour or less. So more fun to come.

Her sermon at Burton Church yesterday was a thing of beauty. A little bit of intro and then an introduction to Heildigard of Bingen (sp?). She was among other things a medieval physician who we talked about not long ago in regard to the book “God’s Hotel”. She saw humans as gardens as opposed to modern medicine seeing us as machines. H of B talked about keeping our lives wet, green and juicy and not to let ourselves dry out. I’m paraphrasing somewhat but your get the idea. Yes, let’s do that, keeping ourselves juicy!

Then we moved on to centering prayer with the congregation participating in some of that practice. It was very moving for me. We were pumped and about ready for anything after all that. You will have to catch her somewhere down the road.

OK, I am going to move on down the road here myself. There are some things that have to happen today. The best to you where you are. Oh, I can’t wait to say this: juicy loves, Felipe!

I have a few minutes before the service at Burton Church where Bonnie will preach. Went to 8 o’clock Mass and now a second church service. Yea, I’m going to be glowing in the dark.

So somehow I was going to write about an item that happened this AM here at the ranch. It was a pretty good starting point for a blog post and about the Wild Kingdom here which pretty much surrounds us here at all times. But today at church coffee I heard a really really good one that blew my story out of the water. I can’t even mention mine.

A friend asked me how my corn was doing and I answered that the deer were loving it. So, this got her started and she told this story. She was out by her chickens the other day when an eagle swooped down pouncing on one and started to try and lift it off the ground. So Linda, brave wrestling Mom that she is, runs at the bird yelling. Yea, and the eagle drops the hen and gets out of there quickly. Well, unfortunately the hen didn’t make it but the family had a handsome chicken dinner out of it and even better a great story. Yup, up to our armpits in nature.

So, have the run. Have a great Sunday. Love you, Felipe.

It feels so good to be avoiding the crowds in downtown Vashon. Vashon Strawberry Festival today. Yea, been there done that, been here forty five years and did a few of those.

Waiting for Bonnie to get here so we can work on archery. She wanted to make sure she got some shooting in. Yea, we can do that, today’s the day. And I have some questions for her in the spiritual realm, maybe we will have time for that.

My Rebecca’s is back and Bonnie should be here soon. I better finish this up and get in gear. Maybe an ice cream sandwich would help. OK, see you tomorrow. Just a lazy day here, lazy love, Felipe.

Our good buddy Bonnie Barnard showed up yesterday for a weekend visit. She will be preaching at Burton Community Church Sunday morning. That is great, that is cool but it is also just good to have her here to grab some of her energy. She had dinner with My Rebecca and me last evening and we watched Phil’s Camino.

Bonnie has a website if you Google her name you will get there. That is why I am mentioning her name in full. I generally try to refer to people on this blog by their first names but when someone has a site then they are out there anyway. Yea, so check that out. There must be info or a link about her spiritual center in Scottsdale AZ.

I’m so lucky to have so many great people come and go in my life. They buoy me up with their energy, ideas and spirit. Absolutely! I don’t know that I would be able to do without my constellation of celebrities. I call them/you my Doctors, Lawyers and Indian Chiefs. Thank you all!

For instance, My Sister Joyce. She has news. She retired from the Archdiocese of Seattle. What does retirement mean for her, I really don’t know. She’s eighty four wonderful years old. So she is opening a new office down the street and around the block from her old place that’s bigger and better. And now she will be coming to Vashon two days a month instead of one to meet with folks one on one. Retirement? Well whatever, but the point is she another one of my happy band that I could not do without.

And Padre Tomas has news. He is our official unofficial Padre of this blog site. He has two things actually. One he is growing a beard. Makes him look so much more professorial, which is good because he has a new interest in art history which we can blame on Catalina our official unofficial art historian. See how it works? Well actually I have no idea how it all works but that is totally beside the point. It all works swimmingly well is the idea!

OK, I am off to the last day of archery camp. There is a competition yet to get top shooter for the older campers and the younger campers. There are some nice awards for that and also for most improved. Then an ice cream social later to meet with the parents. Yea, and this is what as known as Festival Weekend coming up. It’s the annual Vashon Strawberry Festival with a parade and all the hoopla. I’m just going to hide out, work on the corn and sit in the shade.

OK, you are up to date on the news from Lake Woebegone or wherever we are. See you tomorrow. Maybe I could be one of your Doctors, Lawyers and Indian Chiefs, love, Felipe.

I was lounging around thinking I was totally on top of things. Then came the realization that there were going to be more moving parts to my day to be than I had been planning. So, we will just have a fleeting glance at each other as we quickly pass. But it doesn’t matter because we are solid in our relationship. We will have time tomorrow, promise, I think. Love, Felipe.