Yesterday we had a lovely group of pilgrims come from the mainland.  Sui, who is an oncology nurse listened to a talk that My Dr Zucker gave recently.  He showed some Phil’s Camino trailers with his talk.  So, Sui came here yesterday with a whole gaggle of family to meet us.  What a treat for us!  We walked our three laps and had tapas outside, first of the year!

It was special yesterday.  And Chris a neighbor joined us also before I forget.  It must be spring with all these people showing up and crowding the trail.  Some of the folks had been to Lourdes, the Camino, Fatima and Medugorije  (nobody can really spell that place) amougst others.  And now they have walked Phil’s Camino.  We are on the circuit.

But Sui brought me a holding cross which has been blessed and it is a prayer just to hold it.  Like on the Camino when we were too breathless to pray with words, we learned to pray with thought.  This cross is for me to hold and there will come a day when I am to weak for words and all I have to do is hold on to the holding cross.  Thank you Sui.

So many nice folks have come and gone out from Phil’s Camino over the years.  They spread the healing that we have been able to gather to other people and places.  And they come and the dust on their boots comes from other amazing and holy places to enrich our trail here.  These folks have even been to a place on Taiwan where Mother Mary appeared to a group of Buddhist monks, we have that dust too!  Such a richness.

Well, off I go again.  Our Monday morning walk.  Time to find my boots and the logbook. See you tomorrow.  Dusty loves, Felipe.

Now that we have Daylight Savings Time we will be walking a half hour later in the afternoon.

Monday 0900-1000

Tuesday 1600-1700

Thursday 0900-1000

Sunday 1600-1700

Felipe.x

Back from Mass and had some food.  The day is beautiful and I believe that there are a gang of folks coming later this afternoon to walk.  Maybe  I can get a couple hours work in at the shop before people show up.

Yesterday I talked with the leader of my team for the pilgrimage to Lourdes.  It was a welcome talk that he will give to everyone in his charge.  Padre Tomas and I were put on his Green Team.  There are a number of teams that are going from the West Coast and they all have color designations and each stands for a place of origin, as the White Team is from LA.  But the Green Team is one that was formed to take care military pilgrims many of who have had very severe injuries.  So we are going with the Greens to be a part of that effort.  Remember that Padre Tomas has thirty years experience being a Navy chaplain assigned to the Marine Corps.   And I have my own three year experience in the “once a Marine always a Marine” category.

I came away from our half hour talk with a new appreciation for what we are going to be doing.  All of a sudden things have sort of become much more serious.  I have a vision of my Team and my place on it.  I am seeing a need to be a joyful person, a joyful influence.    I am trusting that The Padre and myself will form our own powerful little team within the team.

So, we move on, yes, with new challenges and new insights.  Even if the trail is the same we are different.  The situation is always different somehow.

The best to you this fourth Sunday in Lent.  As always joyful loves, Felipe.

No big thoughts.  But realizing that we have inertia.  We have momentum.  At this point it is easier to walk on than it is to stop.  We have gathered so much energy over the years that movement is what we do.  We have to think of ourselves that way.

I’m off to my Bible Guys in a moment.  Then Sherie is coming with her two grandsons.  They all want to walk and shoot arrows.  Wow, what more is there?  Well, a few things.

I continue to treat my skin with holy water from Lourdes.  I continue to get stronger day by day.  Yesterday I planted an Oregon Grape plant that neighbor Charlie brought by.  And am continuing to make progress on my church cabinet job that has to be done before I can leave for France.  That’s a little over six weeks away.

Keep going sort of loves, Felipe.

What a joyful ritual it is to spend an hour with you every morning.  This has been going on for almost four years now.  May 2014 is when we got our start.  There would be a big hole in my life if I didn’t have this.  And we are going to keep it going in grand style!

So, Padre Tomas in California is putting together travel arrangements for us as we approach the big flight to France out of LAX.  What a guy.  This includes dinner with Annie and a group of Paulist Fathers the evening before.  Believe me when I say that I am well taken care of.  As I understand it the Paulists are a fairly new order who concentrate on North America.  They are involved with modern methods of communication to spread the Word.  So when  Annie, Padre and I meet special things happen, miracles sometimes.  We were brought together from far corners to do this at this time.

We never can really comprehend how God uses little old us in His Big Plan.  We sort of see it after the fact.  We say, “oh yea” when we finally get it.  So in the meantime we boost our faith and keep walking, right?  All things for good.

Our daughter sent me a book a few weeks ago entitled The Places In Between about a brave fellow that walks across Afghanistan.  Here is a particularly good paragraph:

”I thought about evolutionary historians who argued that walking was a central part of what it meant to be human.  Our two-legged motion was what first differentiated us from the apes.  It freed our hands for tools and carried us on the long marches out of Africa.  As a species, we colonized the world on foot.  Most of human history was created through contacts conducted at walking pace, even when some rode horses.  I thought of pilgrimages to Compostela in Spain; to Mecca; to the source of the Ganges; and of wandering dervishes, sadhus, and friars who approached God on foot.  The Buddha meditated by walking and Wordsworth composed sonnets while striding beside the lakes.”    Rory Stewart

Thanks for being here.  Off to work.  All in love, Felipe.

I was just looking at my recent history for this blog.  And last Thursday, a week ago, I was just starting to crawl out from my malaise.  So, thankful that I feel so much better now.  One week makes a heck of a difference.  But the reason that post caught my eye was that I had a lot of visits that day, like a hundred, which is out of the ordinary.  The title that day was “Bacon Milshakes”, remember.  Looks like a bunch of people wandered in for that and found my goofy writing.  Good grief Charlie Brown.

But Sherie the dear when she came yesterday brought me a very special gift.  It was a quantity of Holy water from Lourdes that she had brought back with her eighteen years ago.  Yea!  I am starting to put it on myself whenever I think about it throughout the day.  My pilgrimage has started!

I talked with my group leader yesterday who called in from Utah.  Getting details hammered out.  Padre Tomas is working on securing my travel arrangements between here and LAX, where the international flight is originating from.  I can feel the energy building.  We are coming Bernadette!

What a great week it has been, very restorative.  Charlie will maybe be here in a few minutes for the Thursday morning walk and will add to that.  Just had a thought that the restoration to myself not only included my own body and spirit but also the visible work that we were able to accomplish on the trail this week.  It just makes me personally feel better to have the trail improved.  It was in pretty rough shape after that winter like me too.

Well, time to find my boots and logbook.  We are approaching Viana on our third “walk across Spain”.  Maybe come and join us one of these spring days.  Love, Pilgrim Felipe.

Man, another nice day in the making.  Sherie is coming to be here for the day.  We are going to shoot some arrows and do some clean up on the trail.  It is spring cleanup time after all the wind storms that we have had.  There might be some wind coming in tomorrow yet, so not quite “out like a lamb.”

Geez, it was good to see Steve yesterday.  It just felt restorative being out in the sunshine working and playing.  We moved some gravel into a low watery place on the trail in the woods.  It looks so official now.  And he had brought a new bow which I tuned up and got to shoot for a few hours.  What a sweet one, has mojo.

I guess I got all philosophied out with all the figuring out we have been doing lately.  That was all great, right?  I have to balance all that with some physical activity.   That was another aspect of the Camino that was so great the balance of the physical with all the other stuff that was going on.  Of course we had better ask our feet that maybe.  They might have a little different story.

Kelly my good old Camino walking partner is have a hip replacement this month.  Please say a prayer for the guy.  I should give him a call.

OK,  I’m good, you’re good, the sky is blue.  Work hard, play hard loves, Island Felipe.

A good omen for sure to have two eagle sightings.  This time of year we seem to see more as they are on the move.  They are pretty amazing creatures.

Steve was here over night and through most of the day.  We did some work on the trail and got a couple of hours of archery in.  And all in the sunshine, a glorious day.

Sherie is here tomorrow.  I am planning on some trail work and some archery also with her.  Feeling more and more about having folks help with the trail work.  It their trail too, right?

I am feeling stronger everyday by degrees.  Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts my way.  I might even be gaining some weight as I am eating everything in sight.  Steaks and burgers and ice cream are my favorites as only so many things are appealing.

Well, I am going to go and do some cooking.  Trying to have good stuff on hand when I’m hungry.  OK, that’s the plan.  Cooking up loves, Felipe.

Last evening I watched The Song of Bernadette, the 1943 version, the story of Lourdes, France.  Over two hours long in black and white.  At some point I had read a book about her so I knew the basic story.  But this filled in some of the blanks for me.  Check it out when you have some time.  But be prepared for suffering.  Somehow these apparitions are never easy affairs.

A lot of action is taking place in the comments lately.  Lin’s question of what have we figured out is still ringing in our ears.  It’s all good and alperfect, our quest.

I think I will go and get my day started.  Steve-O, our good friend from Ashland, OR is showing up this afternoon and I have work to do before then.  Thanks, love, Felipe.

Signs of Spring everywhere on our magically walk.  The weather can vary so still bring along appropriate jacket and boots just in case.  But right now pretty dry and easy going.

A reminder that when daylight savings  starts we will be starting at 1600 for our afternoon walks, a half hour later.

Monday 0900-1000

Tuesday 1530-1630

Thursday 0900-1000

Sunday 1530-1630

Come by, Felipe.