I was up on Friday visiting Sister Joyce at the hospital and one of her friends was there and asked about the word caminoheads.  I had to do some remembering myself to come up with the beginnings of that.  That was three years ago next month.  We are coming up on our anniversary.  But I digress, caminoheads came from two places really.  One was a little poem or quote where the author was writing about the drug-like qualities of the Camino as in you will get hooked.  Can’t get enough right?  And you are always thinking about how to get back to it., right?   And the other was, and totally unrelated, the snack food Cheeseheads.  Maybe they don’t have them where you are but they are a stick of mozzarella chesse handily wrapped in plastic and ready to throw in your lunch box or pack.  There is a friendly if not a little crazy looking character printed on each that is the Cheesehead.  So, those two things kind of came together in a certain right brain kind of way and Saint James is your uncle,

Also in the news is the big championship basketball game tonight between the evil pagan North Carolina Tarheels and the pious good looking Gonzaga Bulldogs.   Now I’m not biased on this one, am I?  I caught the fever from Kelly, I’ll blame it on him.

I wanted to include a little history lesson on Saint Gonzaga.  Not that I am trying to curry any favor to influence things.  Anyway, Aloysius Gonzaga is the patron saint of youth.  OK, that’s the first thing.  I am consulting a wonderful book of the saints that Padre Tomas gave to me.  There is not a lot on him here.  He lived from 1568-91.  “Despite his family’s military ambition for him, he became a Jesuit.  Feast Day: 21 June.”  Well that is not a lot.  Oh, here is a little more in the Jesuit section, “nursed plague victims and wrote important texts.”  Wow, now that’s lame.  If I am not mistaken he died of that very same plague at an early age.  We will have to revisit this history when we have more time.  Go Zags!

Off to walk.  Most of my regulars are off on missions and probably be alone.  I’ll take the camera and capture something.   Later, love, Felipe.

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Monday 0900-1000

Tuesday 1600-1700

Thursday 0900-1000

Sunday 1600-1700

So come and walk, conditions improving every day.  You don’t have to bother calling, just show up.  That is part of the mystery, who will be here?  Felipe.x

Beautiful blue sky out there.  Just got back from Mass and itching to get out there to the splitter and the woodpile.  But first to check in with you.

Holy week starting next Sunday.  Lots of activities going on.  It is all the culmination of the Lenten period.    As kids I remember us all getting new shoes for Easter, a treat.

But whatever blue sky or gray, work to do or not, activities going on or not, new shoes or worn out shoes it is good to check in with each other.   We deserve each other helping, buoying up, maybe prodding each other.   It is important that this beat goes on no matter what the weather, weather in a big or small sense.

I lit a candle at church for Suzanne and Ladybug House earlier.  Maybe someone is lighting a candle for me somewhere.  I hope so.  Keeping each other in mind and in our prayers is so important.  We are vital links in this chain.  But it is more three dimensional than that.  Or maybe a couple of more dimensions thrown in for good measure, more like a cloud.

Short and sweet today.  Hope that your weather is good where you are.  Get some fresh air and sunshine.  OK, love you, miss you with the beat goes on loves, Felipe.

Just got back from my Bible Guys class.  We always have a good and productive time.  It’s a steady group.  We generally try to cover one chapter out of the New Testament each week.  Someone different studies up beforehand and leads every time.  Next week I volunteered to lead because it is a really dramatic if not important story.  It is Acts 9 the conversion of Saul to Paul, the great evangelist and writer of half of the Christian Bible.

This story is often called the Road to Damascus because that is where it took place.  Saul a heavy in the old paradigm meets Christ while he is traveling alone on his horse.  Saul has been persecuting members of the new paradigm and he is traveling north to continue his work in surrounding area.  He is knocked off his horse and temporarily blinded by this encounter with Christ, the new paradigm.   The experience is so powerful and instructive that Saul changes direction in his inner life 180 degrees, which is what conversion means, to change direction.

His inner life changes and then his outer life changes.  Saul becomes Paul the exporter of Christianity to the gentile world.  In other words he embraces wholeheartedly the new paradigm and becomes it’s biggest salesman to the known world.

We can’t hang around this life without getting thrown from our own horses sooner or later.  It’s how I view my encounter with cancer.  It could just as easily be a divorce, or death in the family or other major catastrophe.   But is that the end of the story for us?  Somehow we have to come up with a valuable ending, that’s one of  major our challenges really.

OK, off to split firewood.  I have some hours before the big Gonzaga game this afternoon.  Talk to you tomorrow, love, Felipe.