Am getting things checked off my to do list.  This is my last treatment day, then back on Friday to the hospital to get disconnected and I am done with this  for a while.  Dr Gold gave me my next treatment off and wished me a good trip so I feel blessed.

Cloudy out now looking out the window.  It was so beautiful out yesterday at the ranch along the trail.  It was that day that everything looks so beautiful that you finally call it spring!  A little regression in the weather today but we’ll bounce back.

I am trying not to think too much about The pilgrimage to Lourdes at the moment.  I have this cabinet job to get installed before I go so that has my attention.  When that gets completed I can relax and change modes.  Not that I wouldn’t like to get “prepared”.

So fortunate to have this chance at another pilgrimage.  This is so timely for me and Caminoheads blog.  Will be reporting from there daily.  Padre Tomas will be by my side to help me interpret the happenings.  Hopefully wifi will be in good supply.  So as long as I have energy and wifi we will be broadcasting.  Blogging like we mean it, right?

You one thing that I haven’t given enough time to lately is the new flock of ducks happening next door at Wiley and Henna’s.  They got four baby ducks that are pretty dang cute.

Yup, that’s the way it is today.  Time for lunch.  Ducky loves, Felipe. x

Well, it hasn’t been total rain, we had a break yesterday and we even got some mowing in after a little sunshine.  But it is coming down now with maybe sunbreaks this afternoon.  This is spring weather here in Seattle.  Half a dozen times a day the weather could change.  But that is perfect if you are a little seed in the soil, a little moisture, a little sun.  That is just the right thing to make a lightly buried seed prosper.

All the deciduous bushes and undergrowth around are greening up.  It is such a radical change in the way the woods looks.  Phil’s Camino is getting crowded in by the greenery of the “jungle”.  Even along the roadways the look is changing.  Seems like in a few days the area appears differently.  Is this the same place?

Well, we finally ran out of sunflower seed for the bird feeders along the trail here.  It is time for the birds to transition over to the warm weather smorgasbord.  Just realizing that I never got the hummingbird feeder up for the winter, too late now.

The clouds are scudding by as I look out of the window to the West.  Things are dynamic with these weather systems coming in off the Pacific.  But I have things to do this morning while it rains itself out.  Weekly shopping needs doing.  And more finish needs to go on the new cabinets in the shop.

Just about 9 AM here, time to rally.  Hey, have a good one where you are.  Make the most of it, love, Felipe.

Salmon berry blooms.

We have been used to carloads of people showing up to walk Phil’s Camino, especially on Sunday.  That is our most popular walk.  But it has been raining for days until yesterday afternoon so I didn’t expect a lot of traffic.  I make it seem like we are on the verge of a parking problem but no not yet anyway.

But yesterday a lady, Beth, was supposed to come from Seattle. A visitor to the area from California, I was a little worried about her navigating the ferry and island geography.  But not to worry she did fine.   I actually ran into her on the road in front of the ranch as she had figured out the bus service and walked up the hill from the main highway.   Little did I know that I was about to meet the consummate pilgrim traveler.

We had a great afternoon and evening gabbing about things Camino and walking and doing tapas with My Rebecca.  Once again when we as pilgrims meet we are able to flip into the old pilgrim groove in a nanosecond.  We are so well trained that we are nimble like that and we hardly recognize it.  Just the easy pilgrim way of getting along that just comes out.

Well, off to a new week.  I am looking forward to my treatment days this week and making more progress on my cabinet job.  The rain lately is keeping me in the shop mostly and away from all the distractions that the ranch can offer with a little sunshine on it.  The days are getting longer and longer and the soil is warming.  You can see the birds carrying twigs to their construction sites.  The salmonberries and skunk cabbage are blooming.  Spring definitely has a foothold.

Off to walk momentarily.  See you soon somewhere down the trail, love Felipe.

I was spacing out during Father David’s homily today, I confess.  I was looking out the window trying to figure out if it was still raining.  It has been raining now for days, just lightly but pretty continuously.  It was I finally determined.  Noticed that I couldn’t really detect it by focusing on it.  It was more like a fog where you see it by looking through it.  Or I could unfocus my eyes and see it’s flow.

Was thinking  that is like my focused questions lately as I tried to nail down pilgrimage.  After reading that John O’Donohue piece yesterday and wondering if this thing pilgrimage that I have stumbled into isn’t like the rain that I was trying to see.  The more I try and focus on it the more it disappears.  It is more like a movement than  a substance.  A dynamic rather than a solid. It is a moving situation like the light rain streaming by my eyes.

I can relax my way into it maybe is an idea about it.  Its meaning seems like a wet bar of soup that I try to grab and it shoots out of my grasp.  The harder I try to clutch it the farther it flies outward.  Relax Phil and just be there, Felipe knows about these things.

Walking today at 4 PM.  If it is raining too hard we can retreat to tapas.  Come by if you are in the neighborhood.  Relaxing love, Felipe.

Dear readers, check out the Comments to this blog.  There is always major stuff on there and Cris from Buenos Aires just had some great thoughts.  She was writing about comfort and physical stuff and how at home we focus on gathering more and more and how on the Camino we were happy with less and less.  How happy we were with half of a half an apple was one way that she put it.

Just ran into a John O’Donohue quote on FB :

When you regain a sense of your life as a journey of discovery, you return to rhythm with yourself. When you take the time to travel with reverence, a richer life unfolds before you. Moments of beauty begin to braid your days. When your mind becomes more acquainted with reverence, the light, grace and elegance of beauty find you more frequently. When the destination becomes gracious, the journey becomes an adventure of beauty.

John O’Donohue
Excerpt from BEAUTY

Wow, there is a mouthful, or a brain full, or a heart full or a soulful.  It is answering some of my many questions lately, just synchronistically.  Here I am trying to come up with definite answers to my philosophical questions when maybe what I am looking at in pilgrimage is a process.  We as pilgrims have learned how to live within a process.  It is a dynamic.  Maybe it is the trail in a way bigger sense now?  The ever changing trail that we walk gives us a hint of the bigger picture,  an ever changing dynamic life perhaps.

Yup, that was way enough for one day.  Time to have lunch and get to the shop.  A storm is coming our way according to the weather guy, wind and rain.   Synchronistic loves, Felipe.

Here we are with the first week of post Easter.  Lent was meaningful and most worthwhile but now have the slightly lost feeling when the party is over, and now what?  We have a reentry going on.  Wednesday I was talking about reentry from the Camino with Karen who was here with her sister Robin.  And Robin I feel is 98% talked into going to walk herself soon.

But reentry is something to consider.  It can be no small thing to suddenly be left alone with your memories and not having a handle on how to proceed.   Or perhaps too many ways to proceed.  Well, anyway, not a stable situation.  We are steeping in the richness of our experience and wondering how to integrate that into our “back at home” lives.

My reentry from Spain in the Autumn of 2014 was a huge deal for me that took several months to complete.  This Caminoheads blog had some great writing back in September and October of that year.  It was an amazing and difficult period but worth it in the end.

But here we are almost four years later and working on this reentry.  The best thing that has come out of this week is the idea of “Camino dust”.  And there must be “Easter dust” as well.  It is a notion in my head that occurred after talking with Karen and Robin.  One was freshly back from Spain and the other was contemplating going soon.  So there was this differential happening there between them.

So back to Camino dust.  If I derived benefit from pretending I am on the Camino.  And if we as veterans of walking in Spain can influence someone to go and do that walk.    Then isn’t there something that is being passed around between us that is this inspirational dust that just happens.  There is this buzz, this energy that is palpable.

Can we transport this dust and will it be potent when removed from any props that we have used in the past?    Am I making sense here?    Is it a commodity that just is?   Is it a glow or a glint?   Do we have to go back to the Camino to get more?  Is there some along Phil’s Camino?  Or can we get it from each other?

Well, obviously more to sort out.  Thank you Karen and Robin for your influence.  Off again here in a moment.  Am going to try and visit Kelly today.  He has had a new hip put in recently and is receiving visitors.  OK, the best to you all, love, Felipe.

Exciting things were happening yesterday, some kind of confluence of the old planets I suppose.  Catherine had her book reading and it was standing room only, ridiculous.  Us old deaf guys had to retreat across the street and drink wine.  We were all so happy for Catherine on the birth of her memoir, a milestone but it was way too crowded.  Us old deaf guys included Terry Hershey and Will Forrester both vintage heroes and legends.  We got it all worked out while Catherine read to the full house at the book shoppe.  It was all a win win for all concerned.

Afterward Catherine and Dana and My Rebecca and myself had a quiet dinner and debriefed.  I had French Onion Soup, my favorite at that restaurant.  it was a great way to close out a great day.

In the morning Karen from Chico rolled in with her sis Robin from Seattle.  Karen had seen the Phil’s Camino So Far So Good (the long version) down there in California with Annie recently.  She was all pumped about that and she grabbed Robin and came over to walk.  Karen did the Camino Frances last summer so she was full of that good energy.  Robin is being talked into going which didn’t sound that hard to me.

We talked of hospitality, Camino style.  That still is the one word that I can boil down my Camino experience into, well at least at the present word.  I suppose it could be twenty or fifty other words also.

We also talked about how we wish that we could give certain people the experience, if that was in our power.  Probably have to win the Lotto for that one though.  But is it possible to win over or pass on “Camino dust” to folks like that without the direct experience of the walk itself.   Isn’t it our inner glow that is that?  Isn’t it Dana so warmly welcoming people to the reading last night while Catherine prepared?  Isn’t it our own personal hospitality that we show to everyone that is that?  We have to think on this.

Off to walk here in a moment, my trail awaits.  Get that glow going loves, Felipe.

Rainy outside and will be for a few days.  My Rebecca asked what I was up to today and I said that I was going to build a big jolly fire in the woodstove at the shop and work on the cabinets for church.  Yea, spring is doing it’s spring thing with the weather here.  One has to adjust to the conditions.

Cris our South American Bureau Chief send a few words in a comment telling us to “Stay Amazed”!  We can do that!  We know about these things.

Today is a special day in that our Catherine Johnson, author of Finding Mercy In This World, has a reading tonight at the local book shoppe.  I am so excited for her.  We are going and will have dinner out afterwards.  We need to celebrate, right?

I had a personal reading for Catherine on Saturday.  I have a book that I have read numerous times, maybe a dozen.  I read her a chapter out of it that paralleled one in her memoir.  Both stories of the hero/leader who in the hardest of times sensed the solution and inspired people to get there.  There is so much talent hanging around Caminoheads it is ridiculous.

Yup, that’s what it looks like here.  Glad that you stopped by.  I am going to start our big jolly fire here in a moment, so stand back!  StayTotallyAmazedLove, Felipe.

Yes, we got a random act of kindness in our mailbox.  Yea, out of the blue a card came with some funds and a super market debit card to our address.  Thank you!

We will find good uses for that.  I am putting some it towards the four grade class party. We were talking of Loretta’s class yesterday.  And I decided to start a little fund to enhance their school year.  So right now I have $21 in the kitty.

OK, here I am at the very beginning of April and I am feeling the pull of the Lourdes trip which is four weeks away.  In terms of treatments, I have one more to go.  In terms of projects, I need to finish and install the cabinets for St. John Vianney’s.  Getting close.

It was a wonderful Easter.  I was much inspired by the whole thing.  But one thing that really got me was the new converts that joined at the Easter Vigil just like I did five years ago.  I am trying to find them all and welcome them personally.

Well, I have an action packed day.  Feeling fairy decently.  Feeling the need to check things off the list.  Love you guys, Felipe.

There is a fourth grade class at St Joseph’s School in Upland, CA.  They are lovingly  being taught by a friend of ours Loretta Bowen.  My Rebecca and I met Loretta last summer and got a chance to met her class last fall.  What a remarkable meetings they were.

This crew is very intent on connecting me with God’s healing power.  They want to see a win for Mr Phil at Phil’s Camino.  Every school morning as a group they pray for me and my situation at 0815 at the start of the school day.  Like right now as I look at the clock thirty some intent school kids are sending out their energy.  You gotta love this!

So on this last Saturday, the between day that we were just blogging about,  I received a big envelope from guess who?  Yes, Mrs Bowen’s fourth grade class.  And inside were thirty some handmade Easter cards.  There were bunnys and eggs and crosses and rosaries and chicks and rainbows and one lone space alien.  Yea, for Mr Phil and Mrs Rebecca.  What a blessing these youngsters are!

I am going to think of something to brighten up their school year.  What if I put a donation can out on Phil’s Camino for the “St Joseph’s Fourth Grade Class Party”?  What if we collected a little cash for their fun.  And I would get to tell their story about how they pray for us because people would ask.  OK!

OK, I am glad that you know about that.  Off we go now for the morning walk.  The sky is blue and the trail is dry.  One lone space alien loves, Felipe.