!!!!!This is it, what you all have been waiting for! The DVD of Phil’s Camino is out and available! Click here Phil’s Camino Store! and at the top there is a button marked “STORE”. Click on that and you will see the film DVD and lots of other great stuff. Free shipping through the first of the year. Check that out right away!!!!!

See, there is life after an election. Have to run and check in with my nurses and Sis Joyce. Big day loves, Felipe.

I grew up with Doctor Jim in Buffalo, NY. Of course that was long before he was a doctor but his Dad was one and we hung around with him and I guess it rubbed off on one of us anyway. He and my father were good friends as was my mom and Jim’s. I used to call his mom Aunt Marion although we weren’t really related.

Doctor Jim called me on the phone this morning and we talked for 52 minutes. That’s a long time for two guys to talk but it had been a while. It was good and I got a lot of good pointers from him about things that I am up to now. You know I talk to a lot of folks these days and they are doctors or nurses or patients or people in hospice. So, he was helping me with that.

Going back in time my dad was also involved in the medical field. He was an Army medic in World War Two in the Pacific Theater. He was in four major battles till he was wounded on Okinawa. I can’t even imagine what that was like but he helped a lot of guys survive and he did himself. Dad got back to Buffalo in 1946 after his stay in the hospital and married Mom and I came along in 47.

So, Jim’s Dad and my Dad used to talk a lot about things and healing was a big topic with them whenever they got together. I guess some of that rubbed off on me. I have a feel for healing it seems in a sort of medieval way. I’m not a professional by any reach of the imagination but things come to me from the depths of my experience.

Nap time now and then a busy afternoon. Later,love, Felipe.x

Ps – I am taking a two week break from FaceBook.

Was off to the city today for my big treatment and I thought maybe the traffic would be light, maybe a bunch of folks were up late and were calling in sick. But no, worse traffic ever. So, go figure. I guess my predictions were about as good as the official ones on the election.

But here I am in the evening making cornbread to try and heal some of the wounds. So glad the election is over, people were so lathered up this time around. So maybe some cornbread will help out at this point. We made this cornmeal from our corn last summer and it has been frozen in vacuum packed bags so it is all ready to go to bake up. Pilgrim Farmer John will be proud of us, him being the Godfather of Corn!

I am going to visit Sister Joyce at her new office in Seattle on Friday. It is a stone throw from the hospital so it is easy for me to see her. We are working on an article about Phil’s Camino the trail. It is for her order’s magazine, Salt. I’m lovin that, a magazine entitled Salt.

Back this summer while I was in Dubuque, Iowa at the film festival there I was lucky enough to get a tour of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the BVM) Motherhouse. I fell in love with the Sisters and they apparently fell in love with me because they want an article for the Salt about things Camino here on Vashon Island. Yes, we will do it!

So that’s pretty much it for us here. Sorry I didn’t get this out to you this morning but I left behind my IPad on my trip to the city. But I got a lot done on my Don Quixote book today. Amazing what I can accomplish when I don’t check on FaceBook.

Love you as always, Felipe.x

Just heaps of gratitude for My Rebecca, family, friends, associates. And to my doctors, nurses and friends at Swedish Hospital. And to Annie and all my film buddies. And to Kelly, Rick, Maryka and all my Camino buddies. And to Sister Joyce and Padre Tomas for prayers and everything you do. For my patient Bible Guys and my church buddies.

So, I lose an email once in a while, or bounce a check or forget something important. Or maybe I am slow on something that should be fast. Yea, but it all somehow seems to happen in a semi semblance of order, sort of. Be patient.

I guess I am getting in the Thanksgiving mood, seems like. Off to town now to pay some bills, plunk my ballot in the box at the library and shop at the IGA. All pretty exciting! Enjoying fall, love, Felipe.

Dear Caton ~ I know that I am two thousand miles away from you and your family, me being here in Seattle. It was last month, October, that I was there in Hot Springs. It was warmer than Seattle and the trees hadn’t started to wear their fall colors. Annie and I were there for the film festival. Your lovely Mother drove us from the hotel door in Hot Springs to the airport in Little Rock on our way back home. As we drove east into the most magnificent sunrise we got to know Lisa and learned of your story.

It sounded grueling then, all the procedures that you had been through in your ordeal with your cancer. And I know that you have been through more since then. Please if you don’t mind I would like to salute your bravery. I have cancer too but mine even though it sounds bad in the language of the doctors is something less bad in my reality. Somehow it is lazy enough to be out maneuvered, or porous enough for it’s strength to be diluted or maybe disorganized enough to be stalled. I am trying to put it in terms that we use everyday instead of doctor language. Anyway, I have been successful in eking out some years of life from my stage four. Sorry, doctor language there, from my dire straits maybe.

That’s my story these days. I have been granted some time, some precious time. And I feel a need to be with you now, to let you know that you are loved and being held by thousands of pairs hands that are not visible. All is well even though things in general have seemed strange since you left your familiar basketball court and your friends there. We all are holding the Universe steady for you in some inexplicable way. We all expect things to go well for you. You be steady just as the Universe is steady for you.

I am off to do the things that my day requires. Later this afternoon I am meeting with my spiritual advisor, Sister Joyce. She is a very wise person that always understands and always makes things right. We will speak of your bravery. Thank you Caton for letting me know you, we all make each other’s lives richer. Only love to you and your family and friends always, Phil Volker.

You were so much on my mind this past weekend! I was delighted to accept another award for PHIL’S CAMINO this weekend, this time at the Ojai Film Festival. Ojai is a small art-centered community about 2 hours north and west of LA, so it was a chance for my husband and I to drive up for the weekend. As I was there, I told him that it reminded me of Vashon Island in a way. Lots of independent spirits, artists, and free thinkers. So think of it as Vashon in the desert! Anyway, they absolutely love PHIL’S CAMINO and we won the jury award there. I will be back there next Sunday at 11:45 when we screen again.

The big Movie Monday news is that the DVD release is planned for this week! I hope to start selling it on this Friday! We are working hard on the cover, and will have it sent to the duplication house as soon as it is done! I had wanted to do some sort of DVD release party, but haven’t been able to plan that as of right now. Who knows, perhaps I will get that in gear through Sr. Rose and her place. Always so much to do!

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

Shhhhhhhh… That’s what the light rain sounded like in dark early this AM. I have been getting up earlier and earlier and now there is the darn time change so I’m all screwed up. But I was standing in the dark at the open window listening to the soft rain and thinking of the dust bowl story we were talking about yesterday. Didn’t rain for seven years and the boy had to explain to his younger siblings what rain was as they had never seen it. Wow.

So, Mass went well this morning and then Catherine and I tailgated at the supermarket parking lot with coffee and doughnuts. It was an actually sunny morning and perfect weather for tailgating with my buddy. Then Steve-O is going to show up in a minute for an over night visit. And we have walk and tapas at 1530. This is the kind of busy I want to be.

So, prayers for Lisa and Caton in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Lisa is bringing her high school aged son Caton home for hospice. Cancer again. Annie and I met Lisa last month when we were at the festival there, lovely lady.

Well, today we start our afternoon walks at 3:30. And that will go through the winter. So, we have more walks through thick and thin this rainy season. Just slip on your Bean boots and join us. We’re pretty fun, love you, Felipe.

My Rebecca bought me a ticket to a play tonight. She had seen it last night and was raving about it so it was my turn. It was about a local woman who had a Dad that grew up in Oklahoma and lived through the seven years of drought and was part of the migration to California. But the twist is that she never knew any of the details of his story until later in his life when he started having dementia and was time traveling and it all started coming out. Fascinating view of that period of history and a fascinating view of old age thinking.

Yup, it is night and here I am doing the blog but better late… And the University of Washington Huskies are romping over Cal 56 to 20 in the third quarter. And now my battery is 10%.

Yea, and my own battery is low here too. Have to bail out, love you, Felipe.

One of my nurse buddies at the treatment center, Suzanne, shared a pic and story on FB sent to her by a Mom whose child is suffering with cancer. And it is not one of those sort of cheery pics, doing the best as we can at the moment pics but one very heart wrenching. One showing the painful side of the situation.

There was another post this morning from a man that had gone to the Holocaust Museum. The photo of the young girl in pain was for me maybe such a similar experience of viewing some of the displays there. Hmm. But this isn’t Halloween where we’re spooked for fun. This is real stuff that is brought to us so that we understand parts of life that as adults we are supposed to have knowledge of. And beyond that maybe we would be moved to do something about it.

And this brings up something that I have been wrestling with for a while now. And this is that I have had a relatively easy time with my cancer compared to those at the other end of the spectrum. And I think the other end of the spectrum has to be the children with cancer. I feel kind of guilty in a way, a survivor’s guilt so to speak.

I live my life in the wriggle room that I have found and things are relatively good, I commend myself for that. But how do I successfully address the people that have the maximum trouble. How can I poke fun at cancer from where I am sitting and not have some way to recognize those with maximum problems. I don’t know, exactly how to fit that into my act but I know that it needs to be done. I will have to consult with my doctors, lawyers and Indian Chiefs. I haven’t bothered them in a while and they have to feel like they are earning their keep.

The sun is breaking through the morning mist and fog outside just like it is doing so inside me for my spirit. Thanks for listening to me get this out. Time to go to work. I built a fireplace mantel in my shop and it needs to be moved and installed today. Thanks again for being here for me, love you, Felipe.

“It kinda feels like if they win anything is possible!” That was Annie at some point during the game. Yea, and so they won! Wasn’t that the most amazing game ever. Up and down, back and forth, I could have thrown up eight times. As Anthony Rizzo said, “I’m an emotional wreck.”

People used to say that we’ll always remember where we were when we heard about the Kennedy assassination or 9/11. But we will remember this one too but for good news not bad. Man, did we need this right in the middle of the mud and the muck of this election year. A breath of fresh air!

It’s Joe Madden for President! I love the dorky way he pushes his glasses up with his pointer finger. We’re going to see more of that now, my prediction. And Rizzo for VP. I love that guy! I had a Tony Rizzo in my high school class back in western New York. Yea, I drug my senior yearbook out last night to prove it.

So, anything is possible now, let’s dream big. The Cubbie’s won, wow, not since when, 1908. Who was President back then, Fred Flintstone? OK, I give you permission to call in sick today, sports injury. Rizzo love, Filipe.