We are so close to being in Santiago on Phil’s Camino. Looking in the logbook presently and it shows twelve more laps to go.
Monday 0900-1000
Tuesday 1530-1630
Thursday 0900-1000
Sunday 1530-1630
A couple of notes: we will not be walking Thursday March 9th. And after daylight savings time change we will be walking at 1600 instead of 1530. So next Sunday the time will be 1600-1700 (yah!)
I just did some figuring and If we keep up our present pace we will be at the Cathedral in Santiago at the end of the walk on Sunday March 12th. I think this will work as long as Catherine y Dana are here, back from Hawaii. If not we will postpone. I will post that info on this blog as soon as I find out from them.
I changed my mind. I was going to wait till next Friday to give you Cris’s next installment of her Camino revelations but I think it is better to give you the next one which I have on hand. Yesterday’s post was an introduction really to a group of three. So here we go with number one:
From Spain.The albergue.
The Irish Pilgrim
“This was a beautiful albergue. We were assigned to a big room, with bunk beds but with quite a nice space between one and the other. We were asked that the youngers of us would take the top bunk bed to leave the others for those with more troubles to get up there. With only 39, I thought I fitted the “younger of us” category and took the top bed.
As most of the other pilgrims, I started my unpacking routine: sleeping bag, towel, clean clothes for after the shower, plus the t-shirt for the following walking day (yes, I had an “afternoons T-shirt” ), soap for the after–shower-laundry. And I noticed that the pilgrim in the lower bed was quiet, though sitting in the bed. I decided to go quieter, despite I was not being noisy.
“I saw his walking shoes on the side, and from my view I could only see his feet… his blisters were horrible.
“I took a step back, looked at him and said “that must be painful”, he nodded; and he said he would have liked to see a doctor but it was Sunday and was told there was nobody in the pueblo. I offered him I could have a look. He said nothing.
“I went for my shower, went to the patio to do my laundry and as I was finishing, I saw him. I looked for a shade, on the right of the albergue entry, next to the big table, I set up 2 chairs, I went upstairs to pick up my kit and wave him, kind of inviting him to come. He approached like with shyness, as if he would be bothering me for doing so.
“We started to talk, as I was taking care of his blisters. He was Irish, in his early 60ies, his wife had died, his children were in Australia, he told me he lived in a beautiful landscape, surrounded by nature and his town was a beautiful place too. I finished, he did not say much but he said he was with less pain.
“As I was sitting there, another lady came to ask me about her knee but she was German and we couldn’t understand too well. We had the afternoon tea, and I lost track of the Irish pilgrim until the vespers and the mass. When I went to bed, there he was, asleep already.
“The following morning, while Tom, the hospitalero was making breakfast for us, the Irish pilgrim me and with tears in his eyes said to me that he was surrounded by nature and his town was a beautiful place but he was lonely, and that at times he felt he was invisible, forgotten, but when I “saw” him the day before, he felt “seen”, and when with my offer to take care of his blisters he felt “cared” and “attended” when I set up the chairs, and he just went silence because he couldn´t find the words to tell me how important I had been for him.
“I couldn’t find words for him either. I just said Thank You and I held his hands and I could feel my eyes were teary too.
“I did not see him again that day or the days after. I hope he followed my advice of resting a day, Tom, the hospitalero was going to offer him to stay one more day. Tom had told me the previous night that the very little we can offer for others can be all they need. He was right.”
Hi gang. I am going to introduce you to Cris a Caminohead from Argentina that has volunteered some nice material for our benefit. We start today and I will post some more next Friday. Enjoy! Felipe.
“If there is something every person who walks the Camino could tell is that their lives have changed because of the Camino. Mine certainly did, and while now, back home, I can identify how I got gifts day after day, I also got a day where my whole experience came to fruition.
“It was in Rabanal del Camino, in the Albergue Guacelmo, the albergue from the Confraternity of Saint James, from the English Community.
“In the hours I spent in that albergue I learned in all possible ways how is it to be there for others. It is not that I did not know it since before, I did, but one thing is to know it and a very different one is to live it, feel it, and see how is it for the others, the ones whose lives change when you are there for them.
“I have three stories from that day: the Irish Pilgrim, the young pilgrim from Washington DC (now, my little brother), and the hospitaleros.
“BLESSED ARE YOU PILGRIM, WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE WORDS TO GIVE THANKS FOR EVERYTHING THAT SURPRISES YOU AT EVERY TWIST AND TURN OF THE WAY.”
Annie the Director on the right at a film shoot here at Raven Ranch.
This is the third anniversary of Annie O’Neil’s first visit to Phil’s Camino the trail. It was a life changing day for me, my family, for all of us. It was a life changing day for Annie. There was a bolt of Camino energy that day that we are still living off of. And as Sancho said, “Everything is Possible on March 2nd!” Well he did say the everything is possible part, I had to help him with the rest.
I have been working on my Spanish language in my own Felipe way these daze. At the new shop I generally have the local Mexican AM station on the funky radio. It is fun to try and decode the talk. I am not quite that far to get meaning but am working on picking out individual words. And sometimes I need help. Yesterday there was a Spanish speaking couple getting chemo in the next comfy chair over and I started a conversation with them by asking what the Spanish word “también” meant. They were more than happy to help me out. Now I know that it means “also”. And I got “punto” hammered out, which means “point”.
I came back from Spain with a big idea to learn Spanish but that project has been going glacially slow as you can see. But what the hey? Maybe I will get some new help from Cris from Buenos Aires. Who by the way will be up on this blog tomorrow with her first post. Maybe I can get a pic off FB to put with it.
Thanks for all the comments lately. I’m sorry if I sometimes have short answers to long comments but I try. And también if I have more private type info to pass along I can pick your email address off of the comment and contact you that way. That’s the “punto” . My spell correction mechanism is going crazy here.
OK, off to walk and look for lion tracks. Nice being with you. Everything is possible loves, Felipe.
Mary Margaret, me and Kelly, 2014 on the Camino. Nice pic Angela.
Yesterday’s scan showed minimal or no growth in my little old tumors. They are basically hangin out. So, treatment continues as usual. This is a good thing!
And Mary Margaret came with a new word, “camigos”. Pretty nice. We haven’t heard back from her whether she borrowed that or thought it up whole cloth. But I ‘m excited either way. Been a while since we had a new word. So, I am presuming that this means a Camino friend, right? What else could it be? Or why would we want it to be something else, less or more. Thanks MM.
Also, I got some help on the blogging from Cris from Buenos Aires. She has produced some nice pieces. I think I will start up the TGIF again and post one each week, that give me a break. She is a real camigo or maybe camiga would be better.
It think that I will be out of here in another hour and a quarter. This is when I start getting really antsy to go. It is brightening up a little outside. Maybe get back to the island to get some work done yet today.
Well, and Ash Wednesday on top of all that. Will be at St. John Vianney’s for the 7 PM service. OK, Lent is here. Straight and narrow loves, Felipe.
