Think of the Rolling Stones song, “Good bye, Ruby Tuesday” and you will hear how fitting Movie Tuesday is! 🙂

Let’s see, here is the latest Movie News:
We are screening at the Breckenridge Film Festival on Friday September 16 at 3:00 PM. This is cool because we will be at Karin Litzmann’s theater, the Speakeasy Theater, where we hosted a wonderful weekend of fundraising screenings, talks, and activities back in 2015. Karin is a CO Producer of PHIL’S CAMINO and is a big part of the team. She will be working as a hospitalera in September, so I won’t get a chance to see her on this trip, but it will be nice to know that she is making the way ready for us even now!
Then we have the big PORT TOWNSEND FILM FESTIVAL coming right up! This is turning out to be our ‘second SXSW!’ as we will have many team members there. I have the names of some of Phil’s friends who would like to join us. The fest is really doing us right: they have reserved some rooms at Ft. Worden, an old military barracks turned retreat center. I hear it is an absolutely beautiful setting, right on the water, with many lovely hiking trails. It is where the film An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed. There is a reduced flat fee of $125 to stay there. Not per night, but a flat fee that covers from Friday through Monday morning, whether you stay the whole time or not. I hear that it is an even greater deal because finding lodging in Port Townsend that weekend is rough. so PLEASE let me know ASAP if you would like a room there. You can email our very dear Carol Sorvig, who is helping wrangle everyone for that, thank you Carol! Her email is [email protected] Please let her know right away if you want to join us. That is where Phil and Rebecca will be staying, as well as some of our LA team, and even Erica from Austin who will be joining us! Yay!
The other news is about fundraising….again. I feel like a broken record here, folks, so please bear with me one last time. I have created a Special September Fundraising campaign, that includes a special signed DVD that is EXACTLY the same as the ones that were submitted to the Academy for Oscar consideration. Yes, you can own your own Academy screener! Hopefully they are all watching PHIL’S CAMINO and enjoying it as much as we all are! I know the donation to receive that is a little high, starting at $100, but our bills have even more zeros after them than that, ha ha! I will start selling the regular DVD after the fundraising month is over, as long as I raise enough money to cover those costs. IF you know anyone who might be interested in supporting this beautiful film, please send them this link: http://philscamino.com/donation-thank-you-gifts/ I am honored to be ushering this film through its life, and strive every day to do what is best for it, to get it to people who will be touched by its message, and inspired by our Felipe. I’m leaning on St. James, and I am leaning on so many of you. Thank you.

Peace and blessings to you all, and of course, Buen Camino!
Love love love-
A

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

That’s a quote from My Rebecca. We have this quirky sound that our house makes, for no better way to say it. We both have noticed it independently. And we hear it when we are together and quiet enough, like just now. At first I thought about it as the house breathing because it is rhythmic and of that frequency. But just now it reminded me of the noise of someone rocking in a rocking chair and My Rebecca said, “That’s exactly what it sounds like.” Yea, I suppose one could get creeped out by something like that but somehow I find it sort of comforting. Who ya gonna call anyway?

And I had deer liver for breakfast, a sure sign of fall. Now I’m about ready for anything. I’m here at the ranch today. Yesterday had a good time with Joel, my old Marine buddy, at the ball park. Nothing that exciting today, I don’t think. But wait Catherine y Dana are coming for archery lessons, that will be fun. Then a walk and tapas, what could be better?

Well we are gearing up for the Port Townsend Film Festival. A lot of amazing folks coming from Seattle, LA, San Diego. Join us if you can even if just for the day. Phil’s Camino is showing Friday at 1815 and Saturday at 1200. Annie has some film news on the next post today. Also check on Phil’s Camino Facebook Page for all the latest. Check out the DVD being out for you to have for your own, autographed even!

OK, off we go, Alperfect, SoBlessed, love Felipe.

We had a beautiful day yesterday for our walk. Nancy from Kansas City came with two friends and we did the whole Phil’s Camino routine. It was fun. We picked corn and had it fresh for tapas and had Trader Joe’s Spanish wine. They had time to watch the film which I never seem to tire of.

Nancy had seen Phil’s Camino in St Louis this summer at the Gathering. That is the annual meeting of American Pilgrims on the Camino, the national pilgrim organization. I should have gotten more info from her about that but she did talk about one important thing. And that was the showing of the film there which Annie had brought. Nancy said that two hundred people attended and that there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. I had never thought about that particular showing but it must have been amazing with all those Camino veterans there.

Another fine person coming and going around here is Jeff who whittled out a Torta de Santiago for Burton Church coffee hour yesterday. Well actually have to mention that Jeff’s wife had a part in the production of that tasty treat. Thank you both. My Rebecca brought me a piece from church and I had my first taste of the cake of St James. This is the cake from the Middle Ages made with almond flour, sugar and eggs. Jeff had been here and walked Phil’s Camino last weekend and saw the film and was all inspired.

Wednesday some pilgrims from Southern CA are going to show up. They are from the Santiago de Compostela Church. We meet them in July down in Santa Monica. More great folks coming and going.

OK, have to go. Walking this morning and got an invite to go to a Mariner’s ball game this afternoon. OK, that’s it. Thanks for all you bring, love, Felipe.

Catherine and I were out tailgating at the supermarket parking lot after Mass today. Harry, one of my playmates at the hospital joined us. He spends some of his time on Vashon so we run into each other. So, amongst other things he gave us a great new definition of Vashon. Check this out. Vashon Island – thirty five square miles surrounded by reality. Hehe.

That’s us thank God, surrounded by reality, surviving very nicely, thank you very much. So, we have out of town visitors today. Nancy from Kansas City and maybe friends will be here to walk and tapa and meet us. I think the story is that she made it to the Gathering in St Louis this summer and saw Phil’s Camino. The sun is coming out now for the beginning of a great looking day for her visit.

Fall is here I guess, gal next door got the first deer of the season yesterday. I inherited the liver, lots of iron for my body, breakfast of champions. Thanks Meg!

Well, that all the news I have for you today. Hope that things go swimmingly for you today. Happy Sunday, love, Felipe.

OK, it’s Saturday and my escape from Seattle and treatment is complete. That was my seventy seventh treatment. I’m not going to dwell on that but I want to write about another aspect.

I often write about how the personnel at the hospital are such dear friends and good companions and just treasured people. If I have no other reason to be happy about a hospital visit then I will always be buoyed up by them and our interaction. It shifts the equation. And yesterday was not an exception and actually was totally amazing how many people I was able to touch base with. I wasn’t keeping track but after a while it became definitely noticeable. “If you go there, they will come.”

People are assigned to me and of course we converse. Then people are walking by on their own assignments and say hi and have a minute for an update. Then other folks are off duty and they are coming and going and they stop to talk and maybe they have more time and we share a coffee. It seemed like the day was wall to wall folks.

I wound up my day sitting on a bench outside with one of my hospital chums and we were deep in thought and conversation. And I look up and who is walking by but the Archbishop of Western Washington, J.Peter Sartain. I jump to attention and give him my best Buddhist bow and he stops and we are off talking with him.

That’s how the day went. Finally I get to escape Seattle and am the last car on the 5 o’clock boat to Vashon. So, glad to be loved but have to go.

All right have to get to work here at the ranch. Take care, hope to see you soon, love, Felipe.

It feels good to have learned how to be a country mouse. It seems that little gifts and smiles amongst us suffice for a lot of the glitz and glamor of the city. Not that the city isn’t important but our country sanctuary seems to us to become more important as time goes on.

The raisin bread was a hand built loaf given to us by a pair of my archery students. They are a grandmother and granddaughter combo, nice. They just finished up ten lessons yesterday. But back to the raisin bread which I just had toasted for breakfast. Cream cheese and homemade peach jam on top. The jam was a nice gift left by one of our out of town pilgrims who visited recently. And fresh eggs come in from a neighbor whose daughter have been here shooting bow and arrow. And those are a great breakfast ingredient, obviously.

And Our Catherine and Dana just started archery lessons and are excited by that. They are great students. And they are here a lot for walks and tapas. They are involved with the local farmers here on The Island and are always treating us the local produce and cheeses or sometimes smoked fish.

And early in the mornings like this morning I clean up the dishes and pots and pans from the previous evening. This time of year lots of buttery plates the evidence of corn on the cob which we are picking from our patch trying to beat the deer and the raccoons to it. I enjoy the clean up from friendly dinners and friendly tapas. Just part of the process.

Many people have come and gone this summer. The season is starting to wind down now as we slip into back to school mode. But our visitors have been lovely leaving gifts and smiles. They email pics in so we all can remember the occasion. And they take something away, hard to say what that is exactly but none the less they are smiling.

So the riches of us country mice are simple but wholesome. We smile because that is a country monetary unit, a sort for hard earned gift to one another. It’s a “Buen Camino” on our trail here. Hope that you can stop by sometime.

Well, just a simple little blog post celebrating some of the subtleties of life. Thanks for being here, love, Felipe.

I’m in that few days were my steroids keep me awake. We have been tweaking the dosage lately to get the best of all worlds but still have some sleep loss. But actually I get some of my best work done now. I started at 3 something in the morning with my mediation. Out of that came a idea for helping my caregiver’s fatigue that has been plaguing me lately.

To back up a little you know that I have complained about not being able to summon up enough energy in my “work” with cancer patients. People come to me with their own situations or the situations of relatives and neighbors. And I want to listen and maybe try to add something helpful. But I am a beginner and things can overwhelm me, sometimes don’t have enough energy to go around.

But it came to me what I say to my archery students would be applicable to this also. First at every stage of development you are only capable of achieving so much whether it is number of arrows shot or number of people talked to. As time goes on we become stronger and we learn how to be more efficient so that we can handle more. The important part is to be able to see our limitation at an give point so that we know when to back off and renew.

So, I am going to work with that model and see what happens. Hoping that these posts lately don’t scare people away. I am open to them but have to work at my pace is all. That makes sense, right?

Working around the ranch today. Change of season always bring work that is necessary for future conditions. Alperfect, love, Felipe.