I’m at the treatment center in the comfy chair for a couple of hours.  Got a seat with a view of downtown Seattle.  It would be kind of fun to know the names of all those buildings.  They weren’t even there when I first got here in the early Seventies.  The tallest building then was the Smith Tower which was the tallest west of the Mississippi for a while.  Now it is dwarfed by the old march of time.

Yea, the dream.  Remember last month I had the Disfigured Muse dream.  She had such a powerful spirit that it outshines her “problem”.   I’m still high on that one.  Now last night or probably early this morning I had this little short dream that My Rebecca had died.  The climax was that I was getting her body ready for burial and I felt the inside of her right knee and it was warm.  Why would that be?   And then she was alive and back to us, yea.  That was it, really so short, so understated.

She has always been fancinated by the near death experience.  She reads books about it. Or books about the stories of people who have experienced heaven and somehow have returned to us here.  So apropos that she would do this in my dream.  But it sounds like something is dying and rising again in me would be my shoot from the hip interpretation of that.

Oh, it is brightening up outside.  The barometer is way up and the afternoon may be beautiful.  We need that.  Maybe it will carry into the weekend.

Well, the big Gonzaga college basketball game is tomorrow afternoon.  We’ll be over at Kelly’s to keep him company with his favorite team playing.  Rick’s coming, maybe others.  Looks like a get together to me, possible shindig.

Well, obviously all good here.  Always good to see you, love, Felipe.

Gee, a really quiet morning here. Time to put a thought down while I can. The phone will ring any second, nature abhors a vacuum.

Had a fun time going to treatment yesterday in the big city. A friend from church gave me a ride to and fro so that was a pleasant relief. We had four hours to talk and laugh. Then my people at the hospital were there so we could all egg each other on. Lovin all those guys. Back there tomorrow.

And that reminds me Sister Joyce is there at Swedish Hospital. She is recovering from hip surgery but somehow had a complication and is in ICU. I will try and see her tomorrow PM if they let me after I get out of treatment. A prayer, a thought sent her way would be appreciated. She is such a vital part of this whole lash-up (cowboy slang for organization).

So big weekend in our State. Gonzaga, a Catholic college basketball powerhouse made it to the Final Four and they have a game tomorrow against…? I would look it up but our internet got some rain water in it or something, is kabluie. This is Kelly’s team. I called him last night to see how much he was charging to have people come over and watch with him.

Oh, man, got a woodpecker screwing around on the outside of the house. It’s the old Wild Kingdom and nature abhors a vacuum collision. Oh, he’s gone, must not have liked the flavor.

Also, Pilgrim Farmer John accompanied by Farmer Kathy have completed their cross country trip. John on his trusty bike and Kathy driving the RV chase vehicle. We are thankful that they were successful and are safe. They have to get back to Iowa for corn planting here shortly.

So lots of moving parts today: walk at 0900, archery at 1000, then lumberjacking till 1600. Have a FaceTime with Cris from Buenos Aires then.

Also scheduled next week to work with a friend and her friend to get in touch with my guardian angel. Apparently there is a way and I am going to try it as long as they are offering. I don’t know how much of that I need to hold private or how much I can share. But a new adventure.

Well, I will try and cut and paste this post onto the blog. Have to make things happen for my readers come rain or shine. So, let’s see what happens. Love again and again, Felipe.

I got a ride to treatment today with a friend Jessika.  A nice change of pace not to have to battle the traffic.  We jabbered away the whole time.  She works with the new people coming into the Church at St. John Vianney’s.  I’m a fairly new person there I feel sometimes but been there four years this Easter.  Anyway she was after my conversion story so she had me captured in the car for two hours.  So we did that pretty much and maybe there are a few items that we forgot and we have two hours this afternoon to finish up.

Just like knowing Jessika I am being so thankful for all the great people in my life, thousands of them it seems like.  What a blessing.  What a healing tool or opportunity.  I am buoyed up by every single one of them and I hopefully do something for them in the process.   We learn from Erica de America that community is an important factor in healing and I have a massive one in both number and quality.  Thank you all, sincerely.

It is starting to brighten up outside the window.  Folks here are so sick of the rainy early spring weather.   We are on the brink but it is so hard to wait for.  I’m not whining myself, just heard others.  Hehe.

So nice to sit here and do nothing today, well nothing physical.  I was off lumberjacking the last two days and am exhausted.  Yesterday afternoon after our walk I felt all the muscles in my body quiver like most of the time on the Camino.  Just that feeling that I took a thousand too may steps.  Sound familiar?

OK, I have my PT person coming in, have to go.  So great to hang out with you.  Leave a comment when you get a chance.  Love, Felipe.

Adding new is what I click on to get to this place on WordPress where I write this blog.  So I just clicked on that and here I am.  I’m off today to gather firewood for next winter but first must check in with you.  What would my day be without touching  base with you.

So, you know I try not to not have things interfere with my quiet little morning so I can come up with something interesting and thought provoking for you, for me.  But right smack dab in the middle of my quiet time who should call but my oldest friend from Buffalo, NY where we both grew up.  It was way back when in another era.  There was a whole different set of concerns and dreams and nightmares then.

So, I just said to My Rebecca, “what am I going to write about now since Jim called and captured my thoughts?”.   So Rebecca comes up with the easy peasy answer of, “Well, write about Jim.”   Well OK.

Jim’s Mom was my Mother’s hairdresser.  She was my Aunt Marion even though we weren’t related.  Jim’s Dad was a physician who was semiretired when we were young.  Some of my favorite times were of the three of us traveling together.  Jim’s Dad had a office in downtown in a beautiful old building left over from Buffalo’s hayday years before.  He worked until noon and then drove out to his farm on the outskirts to work the afternoon.  Jim and I would get to his office and go with him to the country.  It was a drive in a big old green Hudson Hornet which is for sure from a different era.

We had three work horses down there with all the tack and gear and we would help out with chores.  There were chickens and wildlife around.  We had a great time.  Later Jim found his way into the Army and became a medic in Vietnam like my Dad in WWII.  Jim really looked up to my Dad as I did to his.   Then Jim was off to medical school after the service to follow in his father’s foot steps.

So, since then Jim has retired from his life’s work and has a full schedule of all sorts of people related activities from teaching English and chess to taking a music class.   And now actually we have plenty to talk about with my cancer related activities of late.  We sort of reconnect way a different set of topics.

Anyway, old friends are a joy, giving one a certain grounding in this turbulent world.  Hang on to yours.  Thanks for going on this little “Jim” adventure this morning.

OK, off to the firewood project.  Alperfect really, love, Felipe.

Just saw an email from Annie saying that she had a talk called “Pilgrimage in Place” at the gathering in Altanta.  I think that was the title.  Yes, this is something that we both have been working on for years now.  We are making progress.  It is tricky.

There was a National Geographic that I blogged about not to long ago about the part faith plays in healing.  They went from religious pilgrimage to the placebo effect.  So, much of who we are and how we do things is invisible and not able to be quantified.  How much of a pilgrimage (the effect) is a result of place and how much is a result of spiritual homework?  And how much is from rubbing up against pilgrims from other cultures, places and climes?   And what else?

Anyway I have to walk here this morning in 17 minutes.  Never know who is going to show up.  There is a break in the weather right now, how nice.  Please come and join me if you get to the neighborhood.

We are in this together, that I know for sure.  Muddy boot loves, Felipe.

Rain, rain, rain, Rain R Us.  But we are walking whatever.  Gear up with rubber boots and rain jacket.

Monday 0900-1000

Tuesday 1600-1700

Thursday 0900-1000

Sunday 1600-1700

Alperfect, Felipe.x

Father David even had pink socks on today or is that rose.  That was the color for today’s Mass.  I found a tie that had some pink, rose actually, so I was in the zone.

The reading today was John 9 1-41 and father David read this story of Jesus bringing sight to a poor beggar.  And of course there is a twist, there is always a twist with this Jesus guy.  He not only brings the man physical sight but also spiritual sight while he is at it.

Father David went on in his homily talking about a video he saw on FaceBook.  It was of a young man’s first seeing of color using a new type of eyeglass that brings color to the color blind.  The video of him is his first encounter with color, sounds amazing.   I suppose if we were tricky enough we could look that up.

How often do we take seeing for granted or the seeing of color.  What a gift really.  And we can see how many different nuances of color?  A hundred thousand or what?  Everytime I hear something about that the number grows.  Is that all possible?  What a gift.  And we have that massive capability so we can tell the red Tupperware container from the blue Tupperware in the frig?    Let’s see which one has the leftover spaghetti?

Our new long awaited full color church directory just came out.  We all went in at one point or another to get photographed for it by the team of professionals that came out to the Island.  And there were pictures of various church groups and of the facility and our new icon.  It all looks very spiffy or even zappy maybe.   I brought it home and My Rebecca took one look at it and declared it psychedelic.  Wow, OK, who would want their  church directory any less than that, tell me?

Lately I am big on thinking about the pathway of getting closer to God through the contemplation and appreciation of beauty.  Beside goodness and truthfulness there is beauty, right?  Just a review.  Think of this massive capability that we have and why is it there?

Ah, OK.  Time for lunch and the rest of the day.  My thoughts are with the pilgrims at the  APOC  gathering in Atlanta.  And my prayers, our prayers, are with Sister Joyce as she recovers from hip surgery here in Seattle.  Thanks so much for being here today, colorful loves, Felipe.

I decided it was warm enough out to sit and do the blog out here on the deck.  Is 52 warm?  Years ago I observed that I don’t start thinking till it’s above 50, so I’m sitting here being marginal.

I see the big APOC pow wow is happening in Atlanta.  Pictures are showing up.  I’m seeing Annie and Roni from OK and Nancy from KS.  Please forgive me if I missed you.  Oh, that reminds me, I have get my dues in, always something.

Well, tomorrow is the sunday half way through Lent, Latare Sunday.  Thank you Catherine for that.  We are supposed to wear something pink to celebrate.   I’ll have to dig around.

I think I am going to bail on this outdoor thing, hadn’t really added in the wind chill factor.    OK, that’s better.  Oh, look there have to put those records away.  We had the dinner party last night and I broke out the old vinyl.  It started with Chuck Berry and went on to Janis Joplin and Joanie Mitchell.

OK, have to go.  Walk tomorrow afternoon at 1600.  Lovin this Spring stuff, love, Felipe.

Man, I just got sucked into FaceBook so bad.  Yike.  I should know better, right?  I used to not read anything before I did this blog which is a good thing.    If I start reading other people’s blogs and all the FB posts then I get lost in that.  But here I am now!

My Rebecca is throwing a dinner party tonight so she will be scurrying around here like crazy soon.  I’ll get outside to work on the firewood cutting hopefully.  It is raining now but it will stop soon according to the forecast.

So yesterday afternoon had a long Face Time with Cris from Buenos Aires.   She is an active Catholic, walked the Camino twice and works in cancer research.  That matches up with my 3 C’s so we had a lot to cover.  We as North Americans know so little about South America and it’s people.  Well, I guess we were trying to work on solving that.

She has some great stories of Pope Francis when he was the Bishop of Buenos Aires.   The main cathedral is right near where she worked so she would bump into him there.  He had a program of gathering blankets, clothing and supplies for the homeless and she would help with that after work.  Hangin with the Pope.  I’m FaceBook friends with him but that is not quite the same I guess.

So we are working on the second half of Lent now.  There was some indication at church last Sunday that we were half way.  So we need to continue with our intentions and not let them get drowned out by the world.  Maybe a little less FB and a little more Lent would be helpful and healthy.

Yea, off to my day.   There is a great old joke about Oly and his new chainsaw but it will have to wait for tomorrow.  Alperfect here in the rain, spring loves, Felipe.

Ah, another day for us.  I was up in the early early morn when some of the best things come to me, almost makes it worth it.  But what comes to me relates to something I ran into on Sunday at a talk.

I was expressing the idea that if God has three main qualities, truth , goodness and beauty and then engaging in those things should get us closer to Him.  We seem to over use the truth route in our world, a sort of an intellectual route.  I’m personally a little burned out on that one.  Goodness in my mind follows St Francis and his beliefs.  It always sounds good to me in theory but hard to pull off in the end.  Where beauty I find almost too easy like I’m cheating somehow.  Maybe it is just easier for my sensibilities.

We should probably work on all three of those, I guess.  Anyway back at the talk a man was asking about the beauty route and I think he said, “like the beauty of a flower?”  And I would say yes nature is full of beauty for sure but there is more.  Artists create beauty although not all art is beautiful.  But some art is inspired and is made to praise God or thank God.  Christian art is some of the best art ever created in my book.

But that is me saying that but just the same it is a route to God.  And in the early early morn it came to me that whatever it is that we are studying, following should have these attributes.  One, it needs to inspire us, to draw us forward, to make us grow.  Two, it should bring clarity, to make things easier or more understandable.  Three, there should be a sense of fulfillment to the following of the trail in each step.

This comes to me.  Have to jump up and walk.  Love you, miss you, Felipe.