It appears we are making progress on the change of the seasons. I know it always seems like things should go faster. And we are flummoxed (great word Felipé) by the setbacks, the late winter snows for instance. But there are leaves unfurling in the woods behind the house. The crocuses are out, white, purple and yellow. Daffodils coming next.

My experimental winter garden that I planted in October looks like mostly a disaster except for a certain spinach that is showing some possibility of early eating. I still haven’t sent for my corn seedwhat is the hangup? The soil in general is drier than usual which should translate to warmer than usual. Ah, maybe I can get the tiller in there and get started soon.

I am putting a lot of hope in the corn to feed you all when you are here for the First Great Caminoheads Get-Together. I keep messing with the name. What do you think? OK, that is August 23rd through the 26th here at Raven Ranch. And you are all invited to come for a little while or the whole shebang. We need to start some serious planning says Cris our South American Caminoheads Bureau Chief or SACBC. This was her idea in the first place as I remember.

Here is the quote from Everyday Camino With Annie: “I am here for my God to reveal what was said in the beginning.” from Genesis by Rickie Byers and Michael Beckwith. There is a lovely Camino story as usual after this in Annie’s Day 6 but somehow we are trying to add to that or perhaps take a slightly different angle. So, what to say?

I find that an incredibly powerful quote. Anything from Genesis takes me back to the beginning of things to God’s blueprint of the Universe even before the reality of it. Here we see mankind or us or me being an active part of the plan. We are the revealers it appears. What a job!

Off to town to shop at the IGA. Tuesday is 10% off for people with gray hair and white hair in my case. That isn’t for wine though, just for food stuffs like a baguette and olive oyl.

You guys are the best, love of course, Felipé.

According to My Rebecca this is how our beloved the girlfriend of Popeye the Sailor Man spells her name. I don’t know, it could be. That is the way I am going to put it on the shopping list from now on:

wine
baguette
olive oyl

Well OK. A monday morning in Lent with our walk in half an hour. We had a lovely walk yesterday afternoon followed by tapas outside. It was borderline warm out. One of the pilgrims brought some delicious local blackberry wine. We had a good old time.

Here we are at the fifth day in Lent and the Everyday Camino with Anniehas this quote from Chief Seattle: “This we know: All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We did not weave the web of life, We are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” There is a piece of environmental thinking if I ever saw one. And a big piece of Camino thinking also, right? This one is hard to miss on the trail in Spain as we hobble along and wish for a cloud to come and shelter us. There always seems to be a Camino angel around every corner to give us a hand or a band-aid or a kind word of encouragement. We all felt part of the fabric.

Time to find my boots and hit the trail here. The morning is crisp and sunny. The ending of winter is quickly coming. Everything is just around the corner. Oh, the anticipation!

Big anticipation loves, Don Felipé.

Brian Doyle Article

My Rebecca saw Northwest writer Bryan Doyle live several years ago and raved about him. Since that time he has passed away because of brain cancer. But last evening on Vashon there was a presentation of some of his poetry acted out. And My Rebecca got me to go to that and I am so glad.

He was a marvelously creative person and being that he writes about our area it is twice as special. Well, maybe it is three times even as he was a Catholic and that showed up in his sensibilities. At least I could see it there. I have read some of his books and so has My Rebecca. So, we were familiar and talkative about Brian and his work.

It is the First Sunday of Lent today. Still no flowers at church. It always looks so bare and austere. Part of my personal ritual upon arriving is to get into the flowers, to get into beauty to begin to enter into the mystery that I will be participating in. Without the flowers it is a different process for me. I have to work harder, just an observation.

Time to go and work on my firewood again. The sun is out and begging me to get out there. A little lunch and get to work for Felipé.

Thanks for coming by. Always good to see you loves, Felipé.

Really I’m not a big goal setter. But I did see today as something to live to or live for. It is official that we have paid off our mortgage on the northern five acres of our ten here at Raven Ranch. Hurrah! It has been a long haul but the day is finally here when we own it outright!

I saw this day as something important to the family. It is a step in permanence, a bit of security. And I have said to my cancer OK I need to live to today to make sure that this happens. And well, good job and here I am.

This occurred to me a few months ago to start looking for the next thing to look forward to and to live to. Well, that is easy really. And that is the Caminoheads Get Together in August. What could be better! We haven’t done a lot of planning as of yet but the dates are set at August 23rd – 26th.

Day Four of Lent and of the Everyday Camino with Annie. Our quote is one from Rumi: “Out beyond the idea of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Annie talks of ways of mediating and the importance of it. I am going to diverge from that slightly since I am such a poor mediator or a non mediator. Well, my walk is really the closest that I get to it anything resembling.

The quote points to a place outside of our intellect and outside of the rules and regs that govern a certain portion of our existence. It wants us to gather there in this space. It wants us to leave our baggage behind and meet where we can look at things in a fresh manner. This is what I am seeing here.

Either way we are getting to a place that is outside of the norm, an extraordinary place. It is a new place to work from and to launch ourselves from. This is where the pilgrim comes from this place of being outside the norm or outside of the normal way. It is a sabbatical.

Time to go for now. I have a few hours to work on my firewood project. Then this afternoon is a memorial service for our neighbor Chris. Another person that cancer has taken from us.

Off we go loves, Felipé.

I was just communicating with a new friend on FB. She saw the documentary and decided to look me up. I wrote to her saying to check into this blog which was my five year attempt to describe the collision of Cancer, Catholicism and Camino. The first time I have used that word collision in this process. Maybe it is apt.

Speaking of this blog, I was emailing to our neighbor Michelle and describing this blog as reporting. She jumped on that saying that it was much more. Well, OK. She is right it is more. I should look at it more in this way. Well I do look at it like that. It is probably just the way I talk about it. Sort of a way to downplay it, in an “aw shucks” way Anyway yes, it may be a poetic way to look at life.

So, here we are at day three of Lent and of Annie’s book. Here is her quote for today, “I used to think that God was the sun, God is the sun, but God’s so much more than than the Earth, or the stars, or all of creation. God is Creator, All in All. Needing us to shine It’s light as me, as you.” from Use Me by Rickie Byers & Michael Beckwith.

This is all stuff that goes on in the inner pilgrimage which happens simultaneously with the physical pilgrimage. It is grueling as the other. If this isn’t happening it’s not a pilgrimage it is merely walking or hiking or trekking on vacation. There is something challenging about this that is an important part of the process to strengthen our spiritual connections. Then showing this to our fellow man is “It’s light as me, as you.” It’s learning, internalizing and mirroring as I see it.

OK, snowing more now once again. Hmm. Time to go for Felipé.
Thanks for stopping by loves, Felipé.

It’s not very much snow but it is a reminder of the stuff. Off to walk after I finish this post. The best part of new snow is being able to easily track in it, to see the whereabouts of the neighborhood critters. Always on the lookout for that elusive cougar.

So, it’s the second day of Lent and Annie’s book, Everyday Camino with Annie. Here is the quote that starts this day: “You need not do anything. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen just wait. You need not even wait, just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.” Franz Kafka.

Remember this book is about how to get a glimpse of the Camino without actually being there, physically that is. Just as I was walking my backyard Camino to get a glimpse of pilgrimage and of the Camino de Santiago so is this book attempting to get a glimpse of the essence of the thing. It was auspicious that the book came to me during the time of my effort.

This points to the fact that much of the “work” of pilgrimage is the interior journey of the individual pilgrim. And this is what was happening to me here in my “backyard”. I was intensely working on this. Although the quote points to sort of a none working attitude or posture, it took me a lot of work for me to get anywhere close to that.

On the proper level this all isn’t a contradiction. It is a process that takes commitment and effort mostly. And I am so glad that this all happened to me the way it did at the time that it did. It is largely a mystery to me still though.

Well, there is so much going on this weekend. I have unconnected from most of it so that I can concentrate on a memorial service for a neighbor of ours that passed this winter. Another death due to cancer. I am so immensely glad that he reached out to connect with our Father David in the midst of his struggle.

Time to go boot up. Still walking, still on pilgrimage. Always rom for one more. Snowy loves, Felipé.

Signs of Spring abound but the mud is still here for us. So if you are coming bring your warm jacket and your waterproof footwear. We are slowly getting the snow damage cleaned up but the trail is open and running. Note that this Sunday, the 10th is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time so the afternoon walks will now start at 1600 or 4 PM for the season. Hurrah!

Monday’s 0900-1000
Tuesday’s 1600-1700
Thursday’s 0900-1000
Sunday’s 1600-1700

Felipé.x

Lent is here, that is. We are at the doorstep of Easter once again. As usual I have not given it the thought and meditation that it deserves but I think it is salvageable if I jump on it. Can’t be the only one who tends to leave things to the last minute.

Here is my idea. Five years ago I read Annie O’Neil’s Everyday Camino with Annie throughout Lent. This was the period that I was walking my backyard Camino and trying hard to catch a glimpse of pilgrimage. What a help it was, this little book.

It was made to be lightweight and highly transportable. It is not overly wordy. There are forty essays or thoughts to accompany the reader on a forty day journey as in the Camino Frances or in this case Lent. Just a clarification on the forty days of Lent that is the whole period not counting Sundays. Don’t ask me.

Jessika and I are off to Mass this evening to our St. John Vianney Parish. I just learned that he is the patron saint of priests. Also coming up this Sunday is the Daylight Savings change of time. Hurrah! That always feels so good to me. And that means that the afternoon walks at Phil’s Camino change from the wintertime 3:30 to the summertime start of 4:00.

OK, so great, we know what we are doing for the next forty days. Every one of Annie’s essays starts with a quote. And maybe everyday of this blog, except Sunday’s I will put that in someplace. Like right here for today: “Every step of the journey is the journey. Zen saying”.

OK, enough for now. Thanks for being here with us. Buen Camino on your Lenten journey.

Zen loves, Felipé.

My Cancer Camino moves on day by day and recently we, my Doc and I, came to a crossroads. After seeing my scan of last week we both were not pleased by the performance of my present treatment. It was time for a change. So, we are getting off one road and in the process of making a transition to another.

This new road is a clinic trial that I was lucky enough to get into. There are only so many openings for participants and I have secured one of those spots, thanks to my Doc. There are some technicalities to navigate through yet but he seemed confident. This trial is treating patients with my type of cancer with a drug that was developed for another type. Somehow it was found out that it helped a certain percetage of folks in my category. So, maybe it will help me.

This all reminds me of skipping across a river jumping from rock to rock. Sometimes the route seems plain and sometimes it is unclear. You just keep going with a certain amount of faith that things will work out. Getting a little wet along the way is inevitable but we try not to fall in whole hog.

Yea so, that is one part of my life here in the winter of 2019. Pilgrims come and go and keep me buoyed up. And here outside I have the firewood splitting operation going full bore. We are stacking up fuel for next winter. It’s life at the ranch.

Take care for now, see you soon loves, Felipé.

In Spain I remember how much fun it was to look at all the wildly diverse solutions to artistically solve the door problem. Boy, that was a complicated sentence Felipé. Yes, well we as pilgrims loved to look at and photograph doors. All the designs, colors, damage, repairs and minor details. All there, sort of a signature of the folks within.

Rho our Southwest Bureau Chief put a beautiful pic up on FB recently. She is always posting the most beautiful things just for the sake of it. This was yes, a door pic and it received so many likes and loves and shares. It grabbed me and I am not alone.

We do have an art historian here somewhere. Catalina could tell us all about this but I could try til she gets here. But first Rho was asking a while ago what do I do as Bureau Chief? And the answer to that is just be you and send me stuff. She I recognize has an eye for the beautiful or maybe that is the Beautiful. And that is what she saw in this door and only one example of pics that she posts.

So, I have made doors myself and I look at this particular door and I see something so harmonious and extremely complicated to construct. It is so amazing painstaking and maybe that is Painstaking in every way. It mimics the immense complexity of nature. At first it looks simple but the more you look at it it the more complicated it becomes. Everything is related and connected to every other thing. Nothing is isolated.

This has to be seen in the context of today’s architectural details which tend to be isolated one from another so the whole can be accomplished by numerous workers with minimal communication between them. It’s priority is efficiency and it gets the job done but sends a strange message. But here is the contrast living in this piece and it is what we see and respond to. Well done, Rho.

Our morning walk coming up in a minute. The sun is out and it is dry and cold. Thanks for checking in.

All connected loves, Felipé.