Or why do we stay here?  Why do we hang around when things get bad?  How would we as Caminoheads answer that?

If we start with the idea that we are not in charge of things that would be good.   If we see ourselves as totally unique individuals that would be good.  If we see ourselves living the manifestation of this unique personality that would be good.   Then all we have to do is to do our best to be ourselves, right?

Are we not living (walking) for each other?  Are we not here because we need each other?  Who can do this walk alone?  Who wants to do this walk alone?

The sun is going to set and our day is mostly over.  Some days are harder than others but we persist.    Some days I carry your pack and some days you carry mine.   We persist.  I love you immensely, Felipe.

Last evening My Rebecca and I took in some Shakespeare that presented itself along our Camino.  It was outside on the beach at Point Robinson Lighthouse here.  Light rain sprinkled us,

wind threatened the props, ships went by.

This was put on by the Young Shakespeare Workshop.  It’s a troupe of teens that is something to see and hear.  They do the whole Shakespeare thing from the 1600’s and combine that with pink hair, tattoos and a total relaxation of gender roles.  It is a very appealing phenomenon for actors and audience, both.

Have a sweet day, love, Felipe.

We were off to the hospital to get our portable chemo pumps unhooked today.  I was a little hung over from last night’s dinner party with neighbors and Jennifer was driving and doing the heavy lifting for the both of us.  And At one point I asked her how she was doing and she smiled and said, ” Swimmingly.”

swimmingly – smoothly and satisfactorily.

What a cool word.  Maybe we could hear that more often.  Thanks Jennifer.  Once again, love you, Felipe.

“I don’t know if that is a word but intentionality is what you got.”   That’s a rough quote from one of my splendid nurses.   In one of her spare moments between things we were having a wonderful conversation.  She made the comment that it looked like Jennifer and I were coping well or having fun or something like that.  I came back that it was work and really hard work sometimes having fun.  Are you supposed to have fun at the hospital getting a gallon of chemicals onboard?  How in heaven’s name can that be roughly fun?

But she grasped our intention or maybe our raison d’être these daze.   She was in a way praising the way we are walking our Cancer Camino.  It is kind of a piece of cake really after Saint James put me through his boot camp walking across northern Spain last August.  It’s the same trail really but the landscape and the people are different.

But back to intentionality, which the big fat paper dictionary defines as :  “the fact of being deliberate or purposive.  (Philosophy- the quality of mental states ( eg., thoughts, beliefs, desires, hopes) that consists in their being directed toward some object or state of affairs. ”  Well well, how about that?  Successful Cancer Campers and Commandos have to be in that zone for sure.  Keeping in that zone is work and hard work sometimes but it is vital to be in there as much as possible.

Time to pick corn and sunflowers for the day for the roadside stand.  The raccoon threat is under control for the time being.  The sun is out, the temp is 68 degrees F and alperfect around these parts.  Intentional loves, Felipe.

We have the all- electric raccoon barrier up and running!  Thanks to Chris and Jennifer for the components and engineering.  Come rain or shine the corn must go through.

But today is a day at the hospital for us,  Jennifer and I, and her daughter Elise is here also.  We are planning our mischief at the moment, Commando Capers officially.  Related to this we met with a new Cancer Camper this AM just by chance, potential Commando material.  Just someone who is feisty by nature and chooses to be positive and has enough energy left over to cause trouble.

Just heard the Jennifer’s scan turned out well.  This is such great news for much worry goes into these things and good news is good news.   We are all going out to dinner tonight to celebrate.

Just sitting around waiting for my chemo to be done.  Always seems like a long day and thankful to get outside in the fresh air.  Jennifer is napping, shhhh.  And Elise is working on her computer.  Time for me to have a cup of coffee and get ready for reentry to the world.

I am going to send this off before it is time to go here.  Thanks so much for your prayers for Jennifer’s welfare that We asked for yesterday.  The mood is light here.  Always good being with you, love, Felipe.

The Raccoon Wars continue and although some minor damage has occured we have kept the situation largely in hand.  We are still working on assembling components for the electric fence which holds great promise for a good next step.  In the meantime Felipe has spent his nights out guarding the precious crop as a stop gap measure.

Yup, and Felipe is a little blurry eyed I might add.  We are looking forward to the fence solution being in place so old Felipe can get his beauty sleep.  Some folks thinking he is carrying this corn thing a little far but who knows really, there is a vision there obviously.

Felipe here.  Also, prayers for my Cancer Compadre Jennifer.  She has to be at the the hospital four days this week for treatment and for a scan and for a meeting.  It’s a week of the routine but also of talks and decision making.  I’ll be there two of those days with her and her daughter has flown in to bouy her up.  Jennifer is an extremely strong person and it is inspiring for me to see her operate in these circumstances.  But please, prayers are the best thing that you can do for her.

So that’s life at our very local level.  I realize that you all have your challenges also.  I try to keep that in mind as much as possible.  Let us all rush out to help with the  pack of a fellow traveler as they stumble into our albergue.   No one ever said that we are supposed to face all this ____ alone.  Love you,  Felipe.

Is that cornperfect or what?  Jennifer came up with that along with the recipe for sweet corn ice cream.  What a country!  This is like some kind of Norman Rockwell Sanitarium of Corniness around here, these daze.   Well, we are going with it if you haven’t noticed.

In the war room now working on the next defensive move to ward off the raccoons.  I slept out last night hoping to waylay some of them but they managed to sneak a couple of ears out right under my nose without disturbing my precious sleep.   I think that the electric fence idea holds the most promise for practicality.   Looks like today will be dedicated to getting that organized.

So, as a byproduct of this situation our Camino friend Dana has introduced me to Wendell Barry’s Mad Farmer’s Manifesto.  One of the lines in there, ” Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”   Boy that’s a Cancer Commandos kind of basic tenant right there.  Nice.

Oh, I have a walking date right now,  have to go, love, Felipe.

Yea, if there was cotton around here it would be high for sure.  Corn is as high as an elephant’s eye as they say.  Kelly is back from Spain.  MM is  back and I am trying to talk her into doing a post full of observations and insights.  What else, well, friends and acquaintances recovering from accidents and wrestling with cancer diagnosis.  Yes, we will put stones on the pile here at Phil’s Camino for these folks.  And we will think about how we might make things better for them with our own talents, time and resources.

On the light side maybe we need some corn or corny poems or recipes for the blog here.  See what you can come up with and I’ll look around here.  We might as well push this corn thing to the limit.  Corn art, yes.  Corn songs, yup.  A corn milk shake has not been done to my knowledge.  It’s wide open, have cornfidence you will come up with something, love, Felipe.