Well, actually I’m having two breakfasts. Portions in California aren’t the same as portions in Iowa, that’s all I’ve got to say. Everything going along smoothly so far. I have a bunch of meetings to hurtle yet today but am confident.

Had a terrific boast this AM when I opening the Comments and found the following in there from Diego a classic member of the Marauders. It never hurts to review the Pilgrim Beatitudes any time, any place.

“Wow! The abundance coming from two “seeds”! It’s what I am made to contemplate here with your daily posts. We never walk alone on The Way of Saint James. This apostle studied and learned from Our Lord. He brought this learning to others just as you are doing on your trip and in your writing.

Always in search of The Way, The Truth and The Life!

The Beatitudes of the Pilgrim
Blessed are you pilgrim…
1. If you discover that the Camino opens your eyes to what is not seen.
2. If what concerns you most is not to arrive, as to arrive with others.
3. When you contemplate the Camino and discover it is full of names and dawns.
4. Because you have discovered that the authentic Camino begins when it is contemplated.
5. If your backpack is emptying of things and your heart does not know where to hang up so many feelings and emotions.
6. If you discover that one step back to help another is more valuable than a hundred forward without seeing what is at your side.
7. When you don’t have words to give thanks for everything that surprises you at every twist and turn of the way.
8. If you search for the truth and make of the Camino a life and of your life a Way, in search of the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
9. If on the Way you meet yourself and gift yourself with time, without rushing, as not to disregard the image of your heart.
10. If you discover that the Camino holds a lot of silence; and the silence of prayer; and the prayer of meeting with God who is waiting for you.

¡Dios te bendiga Felipe!
Diego”

OK, and thank you for all the other lovely comments you Caminoheads. And off we go to the day. Saint James Again loves, Felipé.

Just had a good safe flight in to LAX. Up in my hotel room taking a few moments to enjoy the quiet. Things are so noisy everywhere, my observation.

I have a bunch of meetings with doctors and patients tomorrow which is the reason for my trip. I hesitate to say too much beforehand. This is all about meeting folks and learning how things work in the cancer rehab area basically. I have things to contribute and they have things to contribute and we are trying to see how that will interface.

Well, I brought my jar full of corn with me to keep me company. It was something that I put together for Thanksgiving as a demonstration of abundance. Two seeds that I planted in May made this much corn is what it “says”. And am so glad that it made it through TSA at the airport security where it got a lot of attention.

More to come loves, Felipé.

I was introduced to a new font this morning by a friend on FaceBook. It is called Dyslexie. It was designed by Christian Boer for his graduate project in graphic design. He has dyslexia and he developed this font and layout to help himself and others. So cool!

I think that I have a mild case of this problem. It bothers me somewhat but fortunately isn’t overwhelming. This is also exciting to me as I have always been fascinated by calligraphy, alphabets and printing. I have always wanted to do this very thing, create a new alphabet. And when I read material in this font it feels so good! Maybe like galloping your horse over a big beautiful expanse, it seems so free and easy.

Of course there are other things on my to do list like to write a hymn and invent a knot. I am quickly running out of time on these but the intention remains there. A while back I expressed my knot inventing desire to a friend and fellow sailor. His thought back to me was in order to have a new knot you have to have a need for it. It could be a new knot for a new need or a new knot for an old need but either way the need is needed.

And the need gives the intention some direction, it isn’t just an aimless desire anymore. I connected that to the alphabet today. There was a need and this guy jumped on it. There seems to be an abundance of things that are needed these days. What else could we jump on that would be worthwhile and creatively fun to do? What a combination!

Off to LA tomorrow. Time now to iron a shirt and pay some bills. Thanks for stopping by.

Always good loves, Felipé.

Here we are, Monday morning. Yesterday was the last Sunday in Ordinary Time on the Church calendar. Advent approaches! Or we approach Advent seems maybe more pilgrim like.

I sincerely hope that this holiday season goes well for us all. Thanksgiving seems to me went extremely well for people in general, don’t you think? After the tension of the elections it was something to grab on to and a place to rest at. I think that I could continue that sentiment for myself and at least for the immediate vicinity on through Christmas.

And in less than a month the solstice will be here and the good news of more light, more heat and the promise of easy living will be upon us. The longer I live in the Pacific Northwest the more important this shift seems to become.

Walking in a few moments here and then an archery lesson. Oh, Catherine just called to say she is coming to walk also. OK, the warmth of friendship to accompany the last few leaves falling, Buen Camino!

Good day loves, Felipe.

It is cold but the trail is dry and mud and standing water are at a minimum. We are walking and talking and carrying on as usual.

Monday 0900-1000
Tuesday 1530-1630
Thursday 0900-1000
Sunday 1530-1630

No walk on Thursday November 29th.

Felipé

Yea, maybe every day needs a color designation. Well personally I didn’t go shopping yesterday. OK, I ducked into the supermarket briefly to grab a half a basket of items. But gosh, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about the Black Friday activities.

I hope to take this day at an easy pace after my time in the city this last week. I am off to LA in the middle of the coming week to do some work there, patients and doctors to meet. That is all very exciting and intriguing but still in it’s formative stage and I will tell you more as things gel.

This evening Catherine and Dana are coming over to “gobble” up Thanksgiving leftovers. I am making mashed potatoes and gravy which somehow I missed on Thursday. Norte Dame Football is on tonight and Catherine is a big fan so that is the centeral focus.

Burnt Sienna in my mind is a good color for a horse or a saddle. Seems like the perfect color for the day ahead. Thanks for stopping by. Here we go loves, Felipé.

Somehow it is not Kansas anymore. All that in our rear view mirror now. But where are we? What are we doing here? Can we be comfortable here in this new land? Comfortable is not the right word but what is the right word? Can we flourish here once we figure it out like our ancestors who came to the geographic America threadbare and hungry with nothing but a desperation/hope double combo full meal deal within them.

We though have fallen through a looking glass. That is it, isn’t it? We were equally threadbare, hungry, desperate/ hopeful. We have discovered Heartship so far though. Our Caminoheads are changing to Caminohearts before our eyes. We are in the process of internalizing the situation, the Camino experience. Someone wrote on FaceBook in the last few days that after the Camino things were never the same. Yes, something massively significant occurred AND continues to unfold for us.

There is something that has overtaken us. Something strong but stealthy like fog and subtle like a mist. We can’t quite put our finger on it but it seems to have stalked us. We the hunted. And maybe there is a time of trying to figure it out being over soon and we can surrender to a time of enjoying it. Maybe it has been all figured out for us all along and now we are just catching on to that fact here in the Land of No Coincidences.

Right now I am so happy with the blessings that this holiday of Thanksgiving has brought to us. It all seemed more poignant this year. A drop of gratitude in the mix of our lives can go a long way to healing our many rifts.

Enjoying you loves, Felipé.

That was kind of a crowded title but I sense it is going to be a crowded day for many of us. Hopefully we can keep the stress to a minimum for one. Most of the early stress I see is in young hostesses trying to get through their first turkey roasting, a right of passage for sure.

At the hospital that was the topic of the day, who is cooking what for whom amongst the nurses. And a lot of the younger nurses will be tasked with being on duty today so they may get the meal in take out form this year. And a third of the nurses are from foreign lands and are paddling hard to get up to speed with this Norman Rockwell of a holiday.

We are off to a potluck meal at a rented hall with old friends here locally, no big travel. My Rebecca is bringing her signature cornbread dressing to share. We have been processing our dried corn into cornmeal for this. And we have lots more meal that will be vacuum packed and stored in the freezer for later. It is part of the largesse that we are thankful for today.

Michelle our neighbor and one high level plant whisperer posted this comment yesterday and I wanted to make sure that you had a chance to see it:

“Hi Phil,
This remarkable fall here in the NW has opened up possibilities for outdoor work that are rare, and I have been working these days, with gratitude for the beauty, for my current health, and the gift of this farm that I am stewarding more than in some years which have had more trouble. Someone asked me why I was doing all this, and I said, to get ready for what is next. She was surprised by this for some reason. But Camino people will get it… This day I can go further because I can, because being ready for help or hurt is to still be walking in grace. Happy Thanksgiving, thankful for you and yours…“

Farmer John, my brother from another mother, will appreciate what I am going to say next. But trying to get my brain around my crowded life and all the wonderful things that have come my way over the last decade in the guise of serious illness, it’s genesis. But if I could pick one thing that points to our gift of largesse it would be for me the phenomenon of corn.

I am going to make up a little demo for our guests at the meal today. I could shuck two ears of our dried corn and put that in a ziplock bag for them to handle and view to see what one seed will produce. This will be an excellent show and tell. Yes. And an excellent prayer.

And remember to bring calm and peace to the meeting today. People will be there with new hurts and old hurts and new hearts and old hearts. Quite a minefield to navigate through but that is our job.

Bless you loves Felipé.

It is my understanding that myth is a very useful thing. As in the bible story that the above graphic is referring to, Zacharias being a short guy sought a tree to chimb to catch a glimpse of Jesus. Well, that’s my short version. Anyway isn’t myth like that in a sense that we can employ it to get where we need to go.

In 2013 and 14 while I was walking my homemade camino it was very helpful to use the myth that I was walking across Spain to focus my energy and make the journey “fun”. It placed it above mere exercise. Not that there is anything wrong with exercise but sometimes at least for me, it needs help.

Lately on the blog I have been writing of using the “America Guerrilla” myth to learn how to operate in my life with cancer. That particular link up was not conscious but nevertheless worked. I can’t explain the how of that.

I see it as a template that we can use to organize our effort. There is always only so much energy for any particular effort and this is economical. Well,that is the first thing that comes to my mind. It must have other benefits also.

OK, my battery is getting low. Time to attend to finishing up my chemo treatment for today. Will write to you on Turkey Day.

Stuffing loves, Felipé.

I did some serious reporting yesterday. Sorry if it seemed intolerably subjective but I was trying to explain it to myself. The blog is a way for me to do that. It is a tool for me to unlock things. Thank you for bearing with me.

It is quiet today here at the ranch. I am savoring that for tomorrow my Camino takes me back to the city and the hospital. It is such a bother but needed. Today is the last day of dry weather so I will scurry around doing more buttoning up before winter.

My Rebecca is going to bake corn bread today with the new cornmeal that just came out. Two big batches will go into the making of cornbread stuffing for turkey day. She makes that in big flat pans so the bread gets crunchy around the edges, oh boy! I am a convert to this having grown up north of the Mason-Dixon Line but I’m a believer now!

There is more to say about the topic that we had been working on, the Cave Rescue, and maybe I will get back to it tomorrow. Don’t want to start now with this post so filled. I will have time at the treatment center.

So are you working on your thanksgivings for Thursday? Our whole largesse is one big blessing of course but we need to be more specific. This is important because children will be listening to our expression. You will be in your own Norman Rockwell painting, don’t you know, so don’t blow it.

All good, alperfect on the Camino. We travel on wishing each other the best. The morning sun warms our backs and our shadows stretch out before us. Wait, I think I smell coffee.

OK, good on ya loves, Felipé.