Somehow while trying to get a message from Our Catherine I became enmeshed in a deal called IQElite. This is Catherine with the Catherine y Dana posts from Spain. Anyway, I got to answering questions on taking a personality test. And I came up in a category that really has got me thinking the whole day. I came up to be an inspirer. That’s pretty darn cool really since that is what I find myself trying to do these days.
I mean when was the last time that the thing I was trying to do was matched up with what I was actually good at. I know it is a dorky little test but still, maybe something to it. And I find it immensely rewarding working with folks that have gotten the cancer bug, to inspire them. How can I lighten their load? How can I help them be more positive with their situation? How can I help myself while helping them?
Also I had two youngsters here for archery lessons. One seven and one nine years old. This is another great outlet for me to work with folks. I guess I inspire there also. Hmm. Maybe there is some validity to my categorization.
Well, Catherine and Dana should be winging their way back to Seattle here shortly. Jody and Ken and Art are walking now although I haven’t heard from any of them. Been really short on comments here on the blog lately also. Must be a sunny day everywhere and everyone is out walking Caminos or playing golf, which is OK too. Hey take care for now, love you, Felipe.
We just had tapas and dinner outside on the deck and I am enjoying the evening here with the twilight and the noise of various songbirds. Of course wine is a factor. The air is full of sweetness as all the plants are celebrating. I find myself lately asking myself in any giving situation what is the most beautiful thing around and let me stare at it as long as possible to soak it in completely. It could be the color of the wine. It could be a particular row of trees. It could be the pretty lady. Right now as I sit here I spy a patch of blue iris flowers that are particularly attractive. Ah, Chris took a pic of them on Friday and I could get that for you.
Japanese iris, I think.
And the air is cooling down and I feel it on my cheek. I just finished off the wine, a rose from Portugal. A friend of My Rebecca’s and mine, her name is Deb, sent a little essay, more like a sketch of important facets of her life. Like a short quick auto biography. It was interesting and got us thinking that we should try the same thing. A lot of it was gratitude and of course some regrets.
Actually My Rebecca lost sleep over it last night thinking what kind of thing she would write for herself. I’m hung up on one thing and that is that I have never drawn an angel. On my bucket list of art projects is one that has to do with angels and just realizing that I have not even a start on it is a little disconcerting. Hmm. Well, maybe it is healthy to have things to look forward to in the future, even impossible things. I remember our ninety year old neighbor who loved gardening buying a brand new rototiller. Big plans for the future are good.
Thinking of you there where you are. Wondering what the most beautiful thing in your view is? Don’t forget to soak some in, love, Felipe.
We had a walk and tapas yesterday afternoon, off the usual schedule. What a lovely gathering. It kind of went on for a time with folks coming and going. I was late as I was wrestling with repairing a stairway for another of the attendees. Three folks, the heart of the party rolled in after a trip to Seattle. Two of them drove the third to treatment at Swedish Hospital. They just wanted to support her. Then another one of our walkers actually showed up on time and walked and took pics of the Camino, got tired of waiting and took off and never caught up with any of us who we’re all late.
I guess I am trying to describe a can of worms. But there is a point here somewhere in this wriggly mess, just a matter of finding it. I think that the point is that it is alperfect after all, right? It didn’t turn out like planned but we were all busy helping each other and all those projects took a little longer than expected. So what’s wrong with that really? Next time we will get it together. Life is messy, outside plan but alperfect, Felipe.
It’s been a while, I thought I’d send you through a TGIF with an update of my incredible life. I know it is only Monday (Tuesday here in Australia) so feel free to use it anytime you like.
Maggie from the 6 ways to Santiago Camino Doco has asked me to blog for them, I am so honoured.
Photo attached of me on my new balcony, in my new chair in Sydney.
I hope all is well with you? What is your facetime # or your skype address? then I can call you sometime.
Love you, Cherry xxx
I have moved to the Big Smoke, Sydney. I’m so stoked to be here. This city has everything you could ever want and so much more. I have city views from my balcony which sees the sun all day. I can walk to the beach or the city in less than an hour. I can ride my push bike through the parks and discover new neighbourhoods with cute cafes, bars and any kind of cuisine you taste buds desire.
The initial reason for coming here was to house sit for my very dear friend Anita. After hearing me rave about Camino de Santiago, she booked 7 weeks holidays from her job and within a month was in St John Pied de Port to start off on the Way.
Now that I am here, I think I’ll stay on even after my pilgrim friend returns. I can’t get enough of the energy and opportunity and excitement of being here. I was in a bar the other night enjoying $3 tacos and beers. Everywhere I looked all I could see was beautiful people. Beautiful people of all different shapes, sizes, styles, races, cultures and genders. I felt so exhilarated to be surrounded by such diversity, it was truly beautiful.
But I do know for me that nothing is ever permanent. Who knows if I’ll still be here at the end of the year. And that doesn’t matter anyway because I am living in the now and the now is wonderful and the now is here and I love Sydney.
(In reality no two two persons could be more unalike than My Cherry and myself but we share a certain enthusiasm and loyality that draws us close. Here is one of Annie’s definitions of love that could apply equally to the both of us:
“Love is when
you tell a guy you love his shirt ,
then he wears it everyday.”
Noelle
age 7
Hey, thanks for the day off Cherry. And that’s the way it is on the fifteenth of May in the year of Our Lord 2015. You are always with me, Sir Phil.) (Perfect!)
I am sitting here inspired by certain individuals in my neighborhood. People that I know and love and who live nearby maybe or maybe I just heard about them and they are half way around the world. I am stretching the defination of neighborhood here. But what is important is the notion that there are amazing things going on in the world. There are amazing people doing amazing things.
They are quietly inspiring me to carry on when I’m not red hot. Some people have such amazing projects or challenges or sketchy outlooks that make my personal trail seem simple and straight forward. I can look at what they are up to and say too myself, “Come on get moving you lardbutt!”
I guess this morning I am in the “soaking in” mode. Don’t we have to bring in the good stuff and internalize it and digest it. Maybe combine some things that seem to fit together. Maybe put our personal spin on it and then it is ready to try out on our friends. Then they bat it around for a while and we work with it some more. Then finally, hopefully, we have something useful to contribute to what is going on in the neighborhood.
I am going out to lunch today with a woman who has always amazed me. She has and has had huge challenges that she has gotten under control and moves on to help others, lots of others. How can one person do that and still have a good hair day, right? I better go and ask a few leading questions and then just shut up and really listen.
My life seems so filled with incredible personalities these days. Did I finally know what to look for and seeked them out? Did some seek me out? Were they always there around me and I didn’t know what I was looking at? Are there more now than there used to be? Ah, I’ll just try and soak it it in for now and that will be enough, Felipe.
Our daughter Tesia checked in too remind me of important information that had escaped me yesterday. She had her lovely baby boy, Osian, one year ag
Love once again.
o yesterday. Yea, as that was going on she said that she was thinking of me walking my few last kilometers on Phil’s Camino. That was the exact day that I finished walking my 909 laps around the backyard Camino. I had started on my birthday, December 21st of 2013, and finished on May 12th of 2014, Osian’s birthday.
Let me look at the the logbook for that date and see what it says. I walked three laps that morning. Signe walked on the first lap and we got done at 0940. Then I rode the riding lawnmower around for the second last lap! That was because when I started this whole process I was so weak and I thought that the only way that I would ever complete the walk would be by riding my mower. So, we did it once for the fun of it.
Then in for the final lap, 909, Bill and Susan, Signe, My Rebecca and Our Wiley walked. We got in at 1027. Then we jumped in the car and blasted down to St Joe’s Hospital in Tacoma to see the new addition to our family for the very first time, amazing day.
And we FaceTimed with Tesia, Ramon and Osian last evening on the kid’s first birthday. I say that lovely, kid, as he is no longer a baby. He’s walking sort of, not quite good enough for the Camino but walking.
So, lots has happened in this anniversary year. Let’s see, training with Kelly and Rick, off to Spain and the Camino de Santiago, meeting all our Camino buddies, the movie, meeting and working with all those great movie people. Then there was coming back to the ranch and reality. (“What is reality anyway?” Quote from Anamaria during that period.) There was keeping the blog going and contemplating the Pilgrim Beautitudes. Our Wiley was hiking the Pacific Coast Trail, Our Tesia was being a first time Mom and My Rebecca was keeping it all together. There was film shoots and work and parties with the film crew and Annie. There were the chemo treatments and appointments with Dr Gold and Dr Zucker. There were visits by Sister Joyce, Reverand Bonnie, Father Tom, each leaving me with priceless jewels of inspiration, wisdom and insight. There were thoughts and prayers coming in and going out to all corners of the universe and beyond. There was Esther, Caminohead extraordinaire, coming for three months to be with us. There was my old friendship with Steve-O, a new friend Jennifer and My Rebecca keeping things together. There was our beautiful dog Sture getting cancer and dying like a Prince at the film shoot party. Wow. There was Catherine y Dana walking here and going to Spain carrying my map. Art off to Spain taking my poles for one more trip. John bringing me a handmade rosary, off to the Camino in August. Jody y Ken off to Spain lucky enough not to carry anything from me.
Seems like ten years of stuff doesn’t it? I’m tired just thinking about it. Have to go and get some more stuff done, ah, love you, Felipe.
That’s a quote from yesterday’s post from Catherine describing their state in Santiago. She has a way with words, doesn’t she? It perfectly covers that pilgrim state of mind. Thank you Catherine. She and Dana will be back in the neighborhood in a few weeks. It will be fun to do the debrief over wine and tapas at the ranch here. Safe travels, you two.
The other thing to talk about is a radical schedule change. My treatment schedule at the hospital will be changing starting the end of May. This will mean that my whole personal timing will be different. The walking schedule for Phil’s Camino will be shifting. Maybe that would be a good thing to figure out right now and announce. Also, let’s just say that this new setup will be on a trial run and subject to change but it looks pretty good to me at the moment.
Monday May 25 0900-1000
Tuesday May 26 1600-1700
Thursday May 28 0900-1000
Sunday May 31 1000-1100
Well, I have to gather up my plans for the day and get things moving. I need to get off the red leather Spanish couch and get out to the corn field and see what my little corns are doing. Then off to work.
OK, love all you talented, loving, thoughtful, smart, courageous, humorous, beautiful, passionate, tireless (did I leave anything out?) friends. According to Juan I am the milkweed and youall are the beautiful butterflies coming in so we can be together. Nice image. Hugs and kisses, Felipe.
In Santiago!The Cathedral during Pilgrim’s Mass.The famous incense burner.
Dearest Ones,
We are still in a state of tender wonder and enormous gratitude for the last 36 days.
We arrived in Santiago yesterday (Sunday) in time for the Pilgrim’s Mass at noon.
We slipped quietly out of our hostel around 6:00 AM; the moon was up and we found some coffee before leaving our town (13 miles outside of Santiago). After coffee we discovered a thick fog had descended obscuring the moon and turning the street lights into eerie globes of misty orange. (Our first day crossing the Pyrenees was heavy in fog – how perfect that our last would be the same). Not far out of town we entered a dark eucalyptus forest. Just us and a couple from Brazil finding our way marks by I phone flashlight and another baby size flashlight that Dana found a few days earlier. I think we are bonded to those sweet Brazilians for life. It felt like a true adventure – so eerie. Eventually morning came but the fog never lifted and we walked into Santiago unable to see it’s famous Cathedral spires until we were standing right beneath them.
Mass was incredibly moving – high and solemn: organ music, a nun who sang with the voice of an angel. Standing room only (there are seats for 1,000) a cardinal from Manilla was visiting and some award was given to a Filipino man all of which is to say we were privileged to see the famous giant incense burner swing. It takes 6 attendants to heave-hoe it aloft and back and forth. It was absolutely stunning to witness and such a surprise. (They only perform the ritual once a week now on Fridays, so we had let go of the hope of seeing it swing long ago.) The Cardinal said a few things in English to us Pilgrims in attendance. The Camino is not a destination or a place, rather it is a way of life. “Gracias, gracias, gracias.” The final gracias a whisper. To live our lives in loving gratitude, that is the way of St. James.
When the many priests filed out after Mass we recognized our pilgrim friend John, from Boston. Dana dubbed him UCP (under cover priest) he looked great in his white vestments and broke ranks for a quick hug. He’s a great fun man and we were delighted to see him one last time.
After church we celebrated with others with whom we had walked. By bed time we were utterly exhausted and so full of heart. What a trip.
We’re bussing part way out to the coast, then walking a bit and looking forward to just resting by the see before we begin traveling toward home on the 17th.
Thank you each so much for holding us, we could not have made it without you.
With all our love and gratitude.
Catherine y Dana
THE END ( ah, and a new beginning. xo)
(This is so moving, tears are streaming down. Thank you for being so faithful in the reporting of your journey keeping us in mind. Safe travels, till we meet again. Oh yes, the wine is chilling, Felipe.)
It was about this time last year when My Rebecca and I found out that my Mother had squirreled away a bank account before she died in 1999 that we didn’t know about. It was significant in amount and timely in delivery. It changed my life. I had been blissfully walking Phil’s Camino without a thought of anything else. Although Dr Zucker at Swedish Hospital always talked to me as if I were going to Spain the next week. And I kept saying in response that I had no time and no money, how was I going to go? But my Mother solved half of that. So, thank you Mom.
It was only later in life that I really appreciated my Mother for all the things that she was able to do for our family. Of course, that is only normal. And it is only after her death that I have come to appreciate other things that were just as important but maybe more subtle that she did. Maybe it took me being mature to understand the things that she did in her maturity. Anyway, the older I get the more I understand. And too bad that I didn’t get this earlier. So, thank you Mom.
So, I guess what I am writing to you about today is to get with it and think, understand and appreciate your Mother. Maybe tomorrow one of you won’t be around, perhaps. Maybe it is time to say thanks while the opportunity is available. Just a thought.
My mommy loves me
More than anybody .
You don’t see anyone else
Kissing me to sleep at night.’
Clare – age 6
There are many ways to walk the Camino. Carry your pack, send it by taxi, maybe find a sweet and sure footed burro to take the load.
We are just two days walk now from Santiago. The number of pilgrims on the way has increased exponentially since Sarria (three days back). Sarria is the last beginning place one can enter the Camino and qualify for the “Compostela”, the document that certifies your walk. We welcome the new folks so fresh of legs and clean clothes, but miss the long miles of solitude we enjoyed before they joined us. On our very first day crossing the Pyrenees with Kate and Mark we saw only one other pilgrim. Now, over a hundred or more walk with us daily.
Galicia is rural and green and wet! On Monday we walked in an absolute gale all day – driving rain and wind. At one point, soaked and cold we climbed up into an abandoned thatched roof structure made to hold hay and got out of the weather, had a snack, changed our socks and gave great thanks for simple shelter. It was perfect.
So here we are just two days out. We should arrive on Sunday in time for the noon Mass. We are already entertaining the idea of walking on to Finesterre (lands end) another 100 KM. After paying homage to our Christian tradition, why not our Pagan Celtic one as well. In Finestere you reach the ocean and the altar to the sun and 0.0 KM mile post. One can simply walk westward no further. We’ll see – our legs are very tired, but we’ve gotten used to it, and a dip in the ocean seems a fitting ending to this grand journey.
Each of you has been remembered in our thoughts and prayers, many times, and you may never know how much your thoughts and prayers and love for us has carried us (better than the sure footed burro)
