The Voice of the Inner Teacher

Parker Palmer asks us “Do you have experiences of listening for, hearing, and having to deal with ‘the voice of the inner teacher’? If so, can you tell a story or two about those moments—about how they have felt and what they have meant in your life?”1

Growing up surrounded by formal education and taught to most value words in books and those from the teacher at the front of the room had a particular effect on me. It silenced the voice of the inner teacher that we travel the life journey with. The English language has metaphors for that voice – a gut feeling, a hunch, a leading, an inner voice or an intuition. And I sometimes acted upon them, but more often silenced that voice.

I found that pilgrimage moves that Inner Teacher’s voice to the front of the room, and grants me permission to acknowledge the words and act on them openly, even sharing them with others. My pilgrimages didn’t start with the Camino, but my awareness that I had been a pilgrim before became real during that long saunter across Spain when I had lots of time to listen to that Inner Teacher, act upon the words heard and consider the results.

Today I invite you to think about your own Inner Teacher voice before, during and after your pilgrimage and leave a comment or two with what you heard, learned and how you may have used those lessons as you returned ‘home’. Phil has been sharing this in the blog for years, now it is your turn.

Do you more readily respond to the Inner Teacher’s voice after walking a pilgrimage?

Have you heard the same lesson repeated over time? Did you respond to it?

I won’t reveal here any of my lessons heard and responded to so that I don’t keep you from posting your own, but I will add one or two in the comments in a few days.

Well, one little example: My Inner Teacher led me to write on this topic, and she only voiced it once a few days ago. I’ve learned to ‘Just Do It!’

In teachable love,

Ronaldo in Astorga, León

Our friend Henriette came up with a great comment on yesterday’s post. These are exciting times. Who in the old day’s would have thought how much a hug would mean after a year without.

“New York Magazine headline yesterday: “Go Hug a Vaccinated Person Right Now!” Love it. It feels so good. Last night, Katherine had a friend she went to middle school with come by. He practically lived at my house when he was growing up, but he moved to Arizona, so we haven’t seen him in years. We were sharing Guinness and Trader Joe cheese and crackers in the gazebo in the yard with heaters and blankets, when we suddenly realized he was a firefighter and had been vaccinated; Katherine is a health care worker who has been vaccinated; and I am high-risk vaccinated. We laughed, stood up and exchanged the greatest hugs I have had in a year, like hugging a long-lost son. Then we moved indoors, where it was warmer. Bliss. Who knew such a thing we took for granted could bring such joy?“

There you go, timely results on our blogposts. I think that we might have played a part in that. But whatever, it is great news. And a great glimpse of our future. Light at the end of the tunnel?

We do need some good news! Is there hope for the Oasis get together? I think so!

off for a sunny walk loves, Felipé.

Over the last year I have become a Brian Williams junkie. He has an hour long show on MSNBC every evening of the week. It’s a news show. He has all the serious topics of the day, of the week but he will say the most hilarious little quips related to these topics. He has the most intelligent folks on from both sides of the aisle. I can’t wait for 8PM.

As we all look forward to being on the backside of the pandemic Brian asked one of the expert doctors a question about this time when we are in someways loosening up the restrictions. He said something like, “What do you say to the folks that have had their two shots and want to take it out for a spin?” That so cracked me up. And of course the learned doctor had to say something learned to answer the question but I’m in the meantime still laughing.

There just has to be some humor in all this don’t you think? We cannot exist on bread alone so to speak. It’s all so heavy minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. And Brian is one of my guys to put a special touch on things for me that make them seem more bearable.

Yea, off I go for now. Got some items on my list to get done.

see you soon loves, Felipé.

I was a part of a small Zoom last evening and got to answer questions. Sounds so simple this answering questions but as time goes on I always see improvements that can be made. But it is fun none-the-less. But I am always striving to be more relevant to the individual needs of the audience.

People want to know things. And those things are as varied as people are varied. There are endless shades. And trying to get to that specific point for me is challenging. I hope that I am getting better at it as time goes on.

Of course I can present my own findings and wishes and hopes. But beyond that people are hungry for answers that may or may not line up exactly with my experience. So bridging gaps becomes important to me. Always if I can stand as an example of inspiration that is important in itself and sometimes that is as far as I get. But getting to the these individual concerns is really another level.

So, the Zoom season has started for me. There seems to be a big clump of them in my near future. Wish me luck.

bridging the gaps loves, Felipé.

I am staring out at a cloudless blue sky. Actually there is a very light haze so it is a powder blue. There was a frost over night, an indication that winter is still in charge. Have a walk 45 minutes so it will be brisk and dry.

Had a notion to send out invitations to my used-to-be regular walkers to come back soon. I will be two weeks out after my second shot soon. Maybe that will help to get someone back. Or March 14th we change to our summer schedule, maybe that will help. I miss my people. It has been pretty darn slow with the Covid ruling the land but that is breaking up.

And archery lessons could start soon. It has been a year since anyone has been here for that. Catherine and Dana have a whole set of lessons that they have paid for. Yea, time to get going!

Somehow at the beginning of the pandemic we all down shifted into second gear and we are still there. One of these days we will have to get into third and get going down the road!

OK, time to gear up for the walk.

getting into third loves, Felipé.

It’s the pent up energy mounting, you can feel it. I went out early to grab a armload of firewood before breakfast and I caught a glimpse of it in the low light. The dam is ready to burst and Spring will swallow us up. There have been hints for weeks but now it is reaching a critical mass. Soon, very soon, it will be a tsunami of light green leaves, blossoms and fawns. All that!

Soon it will look like a different place, this winterscape will be forgotten. I remember times here on Vashon where at a totally familiar corner I will turn the wrong way because the new rush of foliage has confused me. Things just aren’t familiar anymore.

Yesterday I was out marking a half dozen trees that I need to take down for next year’s firewood with blue surveyor’s tale. Often I feel sad for the trees because now they are marked for doom. Yea, I can feel sad for a tree. But they are so in the moment that they don’t care. They live fully right up to the end when the deadly Oregon chain bites into them and they fall with a crash. At least that’s what it seems to me.

Catherine will be here in a moment to say the rosary and walk the trail. It seems like we will have a light shower now and then today but nothing serious. What was that thing they used to say about March, “In like a lamb out like a lion” or “In like a lion out like a lamb”?

sometimes confused loves, Felipé.

I picked up another Zoom meeting for this month from a friend. There seems to be one scheduled every week. New audiences, slightly different topics. It might be a Cancer audience or a Camino audience or a Catholic audience or a combination but each has a slightly different shade of emphasis. And then I had my weekly Bible Guys class this morning which is totally Zoom. And even if we do get together again in person I am sure that we will figure out how to have some sort of fusion with Zoom to include those who can’t be there physically.

Sometime at Bible Guys our hour and a half long class is taken up entirely with the topic of study. For instance we may be concentrating on a particular chapter of the Bible or a particular miracle or parable of Jesus and it fills the whole time. And on another occasion half of the time might be what we call fellowship or just BS ing about our week or a problem or item of gratitude because we handled the topic in a shorter time. We always fill the whole time productively regardless.

We worked on a miracle today that appears both in Matthew and Luke. It was the healing of the Centurion’s servant. Somewhere in the discussion I was talking about one of my personal messages which is the difference between healing and curing. Curing being over your disease and healing being something larger and mainly spiritual. One can be healed without being cured. That is one of the favorite parts of the Phil’s Camino documentary for lot of viewers.

As I was speaking about this particular thing to my Bible Guys I was reminded how important this is. And I have been searching for a topic to speak about on some of my upcoming Zooms. Some of those meetings are QandA’s about the film and some are more like talks. And I was searching for an exciting topic for the talks. That’s good to have in focus as this Covid disruption has me distracted and unfocused.

So yea, with Zoom, without Zoom, with Covid, without Covid. How to adapt? How to come up with the meaningful and helpful? How to focus in?

Saturday loves, Felipé.

Believe me I have no idea what that means but it just flew into my brain. But once I put up a title on a post it hardly ever leaves. It’s in stone.

And sometimes I have no idea what to write about and I start anyway. I guess it is all a sort of stream of consciousness. And usually one thing leads to another, one idea leads to another and pretty soon there is a post. I think that it is mostly in just getting started really.

So why don’t I put an invitation out to you readers if anyone feels so moved to want to write a post here that you email it in to me at [email protected] . And send a pic of yourself. I will edit it and put it up. You need to keep it under 500 words and have it relate to the Camino past or present.

Let’s see what happens with that. This is very much your blog. It is our neighborhood watering hole. Anything on your mind these days? Let us know. If you need help let me know.

So My Rebecca what’s to use this IPad for her meeting in a minute. So, I will take off for now. Let’s keep up the conversation.

500 word loves, Felipé.

I know one thing that is new and that is Zoom. Last year at this time I barely heard of this thing. The same with you. Now it is everywhere and it will come out of this pandemic as a standard everyday thing.

In the next two months I have five Zoom conferences that I have been invited to and scheduled for. Two with cancer groups, one with a pilgrimage class and two with church groups. That’s great and it represents a lot of airline miles that I don’t have to rack up. And a lot of wear and tear saved on me and the environment.

So, those five are in the “Three C’s” of Cancer, Camino and Catholicism. We are still mainly bouncing around in those three categories here at Caminoheads. Well with some Corn thrown in occasionally.

algood, alperfect loves, Felipé.

Just a little while longer with our winter schedule:

Monday 0900-1000
Tuesday 1530-1630
Thursday 0900-1000
Sunday 1530-1630

Then Sunday March 14th with the coming of Daylight Savings we will be walking:

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

The trail is wet in spots so wear good boots or rubber boots.

Felipé.