We just got done with the Monday morning walk. Cynthia came by with her two dogs and we all got wet. Yea, what fun. So tomorrow, God willing we will be able to do the 908 and the 909th laps and be on into Santiago. We are going to start at 1600 and will probably have some tapas and wine to celebrate. So come if you can.
Yesterday just immmediately after the walk there was a mature bald eagle that landed in our north pasture. What a sight. He was there for half an hour, just resting I guess. It is unusual to see them at ground level. This is the time of year when we see them the most often. Some more Wild Kingdom.
Also in the news is a book coming out in July entitled Mission Walker. It is written by Edie Littlefield Sundby. Is is the story of her cancer camino, a walk through the missions in California and Mexico, the Camino Real. I am looking forward to checking that out. Somehow we are FaceBook friends. I can’t exactly remember how that happened but anyway yesterday we put two and two together and figured out who we were and started conversing. She is a major Cancer Commando and it is an honor to be around her. So I am sure there will be more to come on that account and I will keep you informed, meantime Mission Walker has a FB page.
So little odds and ends of news from here at Phil’s Camino. It is all “so far so good” around here as my walking buddy Bill puts it. Remember your intentions for Lent, don’t let them drift away. St Patrick’s Day coming up Friday. Things happening loves, Felipe.
Hurray! It is the daylight savings time switch today and we are switching our afternoon walks to start a half hour later starting today. Even though we have more light the weather is
Blue Heron hunkered down in the sunrise. By Karen Fuller.
always iffy this time of year. There is standing water on he trail so wear rubber boots.
Monday 0900-1000
Tuesday 1600-1700
Thursday 0900-1000
Sunday 1600-1700
We are going to walk two laps this afternoon and walk the final lap into the cathedral tomorrow at 0900.
Cruz de Ferro, pic by Cris.The poem postcard. Ancient images of human hands, gives me goosebumps.Poem
Post 3
“I had walked from Leon to Santiago in 2011, and that was a life changing experience for me. When I went in 2014, I was mainly aiming for some time for myself, to be back to synchrony with my own rythm and needs, a change from what my life had been the previous 2 years.
“My Camino experience until that day in the Albergue Guacelmo was not “as revealing” was I would had expected, or at least, that is what I thought. I was enjoying my time with my Camino family, several of them met in the first night in Orizzon, I was enjoying my walking time with my pilgrim friend from Canada, and I was enjoying the conversations with so many other pilgrims that while not walking with me daily or not being part of “my Camino Family”, were (are) part of my Camino. But I often times found myself that I was also “following” their times, their wishes, their plans for the day… not fully synchronized with my time, my wish or my plan for the day.
“That was a daily question: “how do I combine all the good and enjoyable and care that I get with them, with this need of me for time, for coming back to my rythm, to follow my wishes?” At the end of the day, wasn’t that why I left to the Camino? Wasn’t that why I did not have a book to follow or thought I would not be booking albergues?
“The Albergue Guacelmo was one of those albergues where you can only stay if you have walked with your backpack, the doors open at 11:30, as many other albergues, is run by volunteers and despite they have more beds, they only run it full if there is a massive flow of pilgrims, otherwise, they only take 35 pilgrims.
“The day I was there, the check in was lengthy, we were invited to sit one by one, as in an oral exam at university. The hospitaleros were a couple from South of England, the man took our information, and the woman was showing each of the pilgrims the rooms. Unbelievable, after one hour, they called us by our names and in the corridors or in the patio, they would make questions about our countries or our work or our family at home.
“When I set up the chairs in the patio to treat the blisters of the Irish Pilgrim, the hospitalero man gave me a look that I will never forget. Later, as the German lady wanted me to check her knee but language was a real barrier, the hospitalero woman came with a dictionary and tried to help with the translation. In the evening, the hospitalera already in pajamas, came to sit with me in the kitchen as I was waiting for the Young Pilgrim for his dinner, we chatted a bit about the Camino experience, they had walked the previous year.
“The following morning, the hospitalero man served as breakfast, he toasted the bread for each of us individually, so we could get fresh toasted warm bread. I couldn’t really believe their attention to the detail. She was greeting each pilgrim at the door, in pajamas and with a robe, with a handful of keys hanging from her neck –It reminded me the nuns at school!- and to each she was asking whether we had picked up all our belongings, our tooth brushes from the bathrooms, our lunches from the fridge, our walking sticks, and was sending off each pilgrim with a hug and a kiss, as if we were kids going off to school. The final blessing was a “Buen Camino, X” (X was our name). How could that be? She had met us less than 16 hours before…
“When it was my turn, she asked me to leave my bagpack and go with her to “the hospitaleros’s office”. It was a cluttered place with signs and books, and papers, a phone, a desk computer. She closed the door and handed me a post card. She recited the poem that she wrote on the back, and she wished me I could live those words as I walked the Camino and my own life. She said I should find a life I would be happy to live. I was crying, she was crying, she gave me a hug I won’t forget, and we left the room. There were some other pilgrims waiting for her to say good bye, I went back to the line, and when it was my turn, we hugged again, we took a picture, and I suddenly knew my Camino lesson was that one. That morning we walked to Cruz de Ferro, the stone I carried from home was full of a new meaning too.”
Steve has this project for 2017. He is writing a post, one a day, for 365 memoriable people. I made day 70. He has a long way to go and we wish him luck. I have learned a lot already reading it everyday.
We are back from our showing in San Francisco. It was just down one day and back the next. It was for a group of professional people in the medical field. We did well with the showing and the QandA. We all got along great. Maybe we will get a chance to do it again.
The sun just broke through here. Man, it was raining like it was never going to quit this AM. Sort of a minor miracle.
OK, I’ll have to leave this a little short today. Look for the sun break where you are. Love, Felipe.
Early morning here at the Weston Hotel. Getting light and I am up looking forward to a big day. Thought that I would talk to you before things get going. This whole trip is focused around a luncheon showing of Phil’s Camino at the maker of one of my chemo drugs. They have a program where they bring in ways to show their employees the finally products of their work. In other words we are on hand at this affair today to be proof positive of the good they are doing.
Yesterday we were talking about the meeting with the group of doctors in Seattle. And today another medical connection for me to work on. This is new and different from the audiences that we have gotten in the past whose questions centered around religious and Camino themes. Still getting used to the flavor of the questions asked from this area.
I was going to give a little view into the doctor’s meeting that we had a few nights ago. I did my best to answer questions that were sparked by the film. One was tell us more about the difference between healing and curing. Then questions about the walk itself in Spain and on Vashon. But mostly it was about attitude and motivation, mine and their patients in general. The big problem seems to be the state that patients get in after their diagnosis of lostness and paralysis. How to get patients to start to think about function seems to be the first step before working on functioning itself. And Dr Zucker my rehab doc covered that mostly.
I gave them a little song and dance about Hildegard and medieval medicine and the book God’s Hotel which none of them had read. I related the story of the power outage in Seattle and the Treatment Center running on 10% electrical power when things went medieval for an afternoon. The lights were low, the chemo pumps ran but without all their noises and alarms and buzzes. The computers were down so the nurses actually spent the majority of their time with the patients. It was a temporary shift that gave us all a different view, a view that favored quality for the patient and not the efficiency of the hospital.
When one is a patient and maybe a patient for an extended period things at the hospital start to be seen “through the patient’s eyes”. It is hard to do that for others, doctors included. This is where I have heard that cancer doctors that get cancer actually learn a lot about the whole process. A different view appears.
Anyway, I guess I could say that it was a real get together in the finest sense. Everyone walks away inspired with things that are new to think about and with inspiration to get things accomplished. So, yea, maybe today will be similar. I have to go and search for breakfast and coffee. My Rebecca said maybe we should get room service to bring it up but that seems too weird to me. Will be back to join you tomorrow. Alperfect, love, Felipe.
I have a few minutes. I haven’t packed yet and we are catching the 1015 ferry for the airport so I will dilly dally with you to the max for as long as I can. We have a whirlwind trip to San Francisco unfolding and you will hear all about it in the next few days.
In the meantime we had our showing of Phil’s Camino last night for fourteen young doctors mostly in the cancer rehab field. My rehab doc, callsign Danger Zone, and I gave them the royal song and dance. They loved the film and came up with the most penetrating questions. Those kind of situations always lead to the feeling that there is not enough time, that we could go on all night.
And I learned lots last night and realized one overarching thing. I have to jump back in time to start this. At one point I had a vision that I had three lifelines that I was relying on to get me through my cancer situation. And part of my vision was that I was braiding them together to make a strong cord. But the three were, one all my doctors, nurses, family members and friends; two my spiritual connection through church and my bible class and three the Camino. Sister Joyce quickly filled me in that this corresponds to the three pillars of Christian life, community, faith and service. Ahh, said Felipe.
Then it has been one year since we started speaking to audiences about Phil’s Camino. A friend just had a post on FB this morning about being off to the South By South West Film Festival in Austin. That is the memoriable place where we had our premiere one year ago. So since then we have talked with numerous audiences and they are sorting out in four catagories for me now after all this time. We started out being with general audiences at all the festivals which was fine and haphazardly there would be individuals that were memoriable. And since then we have been with targeted audiences. One that we did often were church/ religious audiences that were very present and asked great questions. Two were Camino groups of American and Canadian pilgrims that were very enthusiastic and right there. All great.
But now since last night with the inclusion of the doctors group I have a new category. They were so there with the film and the questions and the banter. So let’s review, there is the general which I am going to put aside as the control group. And then there are doctors, church and Camino groups. Seeing anything there? These three connections line up perfectly with my community, faith and Camino lifelines. I just put this together for myself this AM. I am getting vital help and energy from those three lifelines and they are getting it back from me. Yea, a moment of clarity.
So, that is pretty important to me to see my way a little more clearly and I will be more effective in the future. It’s time for me to pack my saddlebags and get ready to go. Its a long road but it is bearable if we have each other and we can make it easy on ourselves. Thanks, love you, Felipe.
PS – and hence the title of this post. Phil’s Camino was supposed to be made is my conclusion. So may disjointed and quirky and unrelated factors cast together that there had to be some form of higher power involved. Maybe a whole lot of St James.
I need a challenge to occupy me in these dismal days of late winter otherwise I am going to feel sorry for myself and whine and whine. But today is the start of Phil’s Camino the magical mystery tour to start in a new direction. We are moving over to start to cozy up to the medical world.
I have been in and out of the hospital for a long time now and have caused sufficient trouble there with my Cancer Commando activities. Well that still goes on but the change involves actually becoming guests into the world of doctors and chemists. I am off tonight with my rehab doc Danger Zone to show the film and give a talk to a group of young doctors going into the cancer rehab field. They are hungry to learn, we are hungry to learn. It should be a great sharing event.
Then tomorrow the magical mystery tour is off to San Francisco to show the film and talk with the folks at a major drug company. I have been the beneficiary of one of their products and we are off to do our song and dance for them to show our appreciation. We get wined and dined and we show them what we got, which is a lot. We got blood, sweat and tears, we got walking in the mud, we got doing it the hard way. On top of the film itself we for a year now have been honing our QandA act since the premiere in Austin last March. We’re going to knock them over.
So that’s the inside scoop from Felipe. You can’t get this stuff anywhere else. So listen, considering I have all that important stuff to do I might have to bug out early on this post. I have to put a wrap on things locally before this all gets going.
But just to acknowledge you my faithful readers, we all know that I am indebted to you for all your thoughts, prayers and daydreams. Most of what we run on can’t be quantified, can’t even be put into words most times. Thanks for all the support, alperfect once again loves, Felipe.
The Laughing Jesus by Segura (can’t make out the first name).
My Rebecca came home from her church service and held up the bulletin for me to see. The cover had a image of Jesus laughing. It was very simple, a drawing perhaps of the head and shoulders. And why did it seem so unusual, so out of the ordinary? I have been seeing depictions of Our Lord all my life but is this the first one that has him laughing? It’s a good laugh too, a belly laugh with head back. Thanks Rebecca, I needed that.
I think that it was Padre Tomas that sent me a video once about the colors that once covered the inside of the cathedrals in Europe. Vivid colors in interesting intricate patterns covering the columns and other features. What happened to all that? Lack of interest? No one kept them up? Sort of a sad mystery.
Our local Father David who is a jolly type is new to us here on Vashon. Not new new but his first year anyway. He had a homily not too long ago that included the statement that our only real obligation was to be joyful. I can remember Catherine and I looking at each other and saying something like, “You heard the man!”
What is all this saying? Well, just what has happened to our vivid colors? What has happened to the Jesus laughter? Who stole our joy? Right? Are we all sombered out on this planet? I want to go somewhere else maybe.
All just a thought here for Felipe on this rainy morn with a mid thirties temp and gray skies. Seems like late winter is in my marrow. I got to find my joy, geez, it’s around here somewhere.
” The Young, tall, handsome and serious pilgrim from US.”
“The Albergue Guacelmo has a ritual: every day at 5:30 pm they offer the afternoon tea with Earl Grey tea and digestive cookies.
“The tea break was a treat, not just because of the Earl Grey and the cookies, but because the hospitaleros were stars. They had found a book in the albergue with the stories of pilgrimages in the previous centuries, with details of the hardship the pilgrims had to endure without “Compeed”, high tech hiking shoes, goretex jackets, and dry-fit t-shirts.
“Once the story-telling finished, we started a small talk with the pilgrims around and this young, tall, handsome and serious pilgrim caught my accent and asked where I was from: “Buenos Aires, Argentina”, I said; he asked me then the question many had done before: “Do you know Pope Francis?”, and to his surprise, I said yes. We moved into the conversation about how was that I had met the Pope, and we ended talking about why we were in the Camino and as if we were in the confessionary he said he was walking for discernment about going into priesthood. He said he was mostly walking by himself, so he could pray and offer his pilgrimage for wisdom, he asked me to be discret about that. His eyes were sad, he said it was more difficult than he had expected. I couldn’t really say much.
“That night my Camino family and I decided to do some cooking. By mass time, I saw the Young pilgrim and I asked him to join our homemade dinner, he smiled from ear to ear. We listened to the vespers with Gregorian chanting and the mass, heated the meal and as he did not arrive, we sit to eat.
“We did the dishes, most went to sleep, and I stayed in the kitchen. The hospitalera came in pajamas and sat to chat with me while waiting. The Young pilgrim came around 10 PM, it was easy to tell he had been crying. He apologized for being late and missing the dinner; I told him to sit down as I would heat the meal for him, he cried again. The hospitalera brought a chocolate for dessert; a “feast” he said, he continued: “today is my younger brother’s birthday, he messaged me saying he missed me at his birthday party”. His eyes were teary again. I just felt how much he was battling while walking. Before going to sleep I gave him my phone, it had no chip, I just had some texts I wanted to read while walking, one was “When the walking becomes the prayer” from Andy, a priest. He refused at first but took it.
“We met some other days, but we really did not talk much. The last night, before arriving to Santiago, I asked him if I could join him in the walking so as not to go alone as my “family” was not willing to change their routine, I promised him I would walk behind him so as not to interfere with his walking and praying. He said ok. The following day, we set out together. We started quiet but the conversation went deeper and deeper as it poured rain. By Monte de Gozo, he took the rosary from his pocket and asked me if I would pray with him; I nodded. We finished the pilgrimage that way, at times we couldn’t tell if what was rolling in our cheeks were tears or rain drops. That changed both of us.
“Fast forward 14 months, he came to Buenos Aires as part of his missionary work in Bolivia.
In the 2 weeks he stayed in my hometown, he became an active member of the parish where I first heard about the Camino when I was 16, he met my family and neighbors, and we shared many meals and many conversations. He left saying he felt I was the sister he did not have.
“Lots have happened since, I am so proud of him and so grateful for his trust that afternoon over tea, in the albergue. I hope to visit him soon. If possible for you, please pray for him. ”
John Lauria and I the other day here at the trail,
If everything goes well, as in God willing, we will be finishing the second crossing of Spain on Phil’s Camino next Sunday. Catherine and Dana must be here for that. So it is hinging on that at the moment. If not we will put it off a few days. But it is happening soon.
I just got back from showing the film at the local Unitarian Fellowship service. That was a good group of around fifty. They loved it and had a lot of good questions. Each group is so different and combines with the film to form its own special chemistry. It is unique.
Thursday I am off to talk with a group of cancer rehab doctors and that will be another sort of conversation. In the next two weeks I am five separate meetings with groups. This is good practice for me. This blog really helps also to organize my thoughts and to have them pretty close to my tongue.
And as soon as Cris from Argentina sends me some more material we will continue her story about her Camino walk. She is very good at getting to the important relational stuff that happens there. Thanks much Cris.
Sherie my old Caminohead buddy from San Diego will be here shortly for the afternoon. Then I have an archery lesson to give and a walk after that. And somewhere tapas after that hopefully. You know how much Felipe likes his tapas.
