It’s like when it is boring in the emergency room, that’s a good thing, right? Sometimes ordinary or even boring are the place to be. It’s a break from the drama. It just is what it is and nothing more.

Have a walk this morning and feeding the birds is the fun there. Lots of chickadees are around, a few nuthatches and no juncos as of yet. Juncos must be hung up somewhere in British Columbia. And I have lots of sunflower seed this year which was kindly donated so the birds are happy.

The leaves are thick on the ground through the woods. It is kind of fun to kick through them, an autumn wonderland. Deer tracks this way and that left behind as they look for the last of the fallen apples and pears.

The other day Wiley counted 44 ravens fly over him. They are definitely getting more numerous in the neighborhood. Guessing that is from the general landscape getting more wooded. The old farm land is being taken over by trees and the ravens like the forest. The crows populate the shoreline and the open areas and the IGA parking lot. They don’t seem to mix with the ravens. We used to have crows and now we have ravens right here.

And more owls and eagles should be arriving as winter approaches. They are fun to hear and see. Yup, come walk and check it out.

our leaves are falling loves, Felipé.

Yes, I did forget to set the alarm clock back one hour last night. Yes, yes, I know. So right now having a little extra time before I have to clean up for church.

I thought that I would check in with you, my favorite people, while the opportunity popped up. Hope that things are well with you there. There is this little lull before Thanksgiving and the sucking vortex of the holidays. Not that we don’t love Christmas and the deep meaning of all that but the whole gift giving festive extravaganza is lurking in the shadows ahead getting ready to pounce on us.

Yea, so let’s enjoy the moment while we can. Get out there and drink a glass of cider and burn a pile of leaves, something like that. That’s righ, it is still Ordinary Time in the official Catholic calendar, not Advent yet, so we are safe.

Well, Wiley and I are scheduled to cut and wrap his deer that has been hanging in the 40 degree cooler at the IGA butcher shop. That is a sure sign of Autumn. So we will be busy.

Time to go. I have a half hour before Catherine picks me up.

as always loves, Felipé.

It is time change time. So, afternoon walks start a half hour early.

Monday 0900-1000
Tuesday 1530-1630 (tapas after)
Thursday 0900-1000
Sunday 1530-1630 (tapas after)

Yup, come by, Felipé.

Just copied that word “perseverants” out of Cris’s last comment about Farmer John’s Friday post. Spell check thinks it’s bogus but some of our best words are bogus. Maybe it’s the new hip word that just got birthed. Spell check liked ”birthed”. I’m not sure that is a word though.

Sometimes life is confusing like that. Maybe it would help to capitalize it and then it would sound like a sports team. Or maybe it is like The Commitments which was a film about a band with that name. Maybe we need a sports team jacket with The Perseverants arched across the back in bold letters. Then we could see if that looked right.

Anyway, I think her idea is sound. I just reviewed Farmer John’s post and it talked about being enamored with things that last. We seem to be lasting here at the blog. Not earthshaking are we but just a constant soft vibration that you can hear if you are in a quiet place and listen intently.

But the Perseverants must be folks that have a certain bent, a certain way. There must be a commonality in the thinking or the sensibilities or the purpose. It also might be that they appreciates a certain sense of history about things.

I don’t know, just kicking around ideas here today I guess. Time for lunch here now and I do know that. Thanks for being here as always.

soft vibration loves, Felipé.

“The pilgrim route is a very ood thing, but it is narrow. For the road which leads us to life is narrow; on the other hand, the road which leads to death is broad and spacious. The pilgrim route is for those who are good” Codex Calixtus 1140 AD

Long before I became a Pilgrim on the Way of St. James, I had been a fan of “things that last”, be it a well-made tool or a well-used book, or a prayer that had provided succor and hope for generations. This penchant for the permanent was probably, yet unknowingly a driving force behind my immediate recognition that this journey was something I HAD to do.

My early conversion to fan-hood of Phil’s Caminoheads Blog has led to other like-minded Blogsters (Google thinks I made that word up. Maybe I did). Phil’s Blog is perhaps the epitome of “Long Lasting”. There are others that have attracted my attention and won my loyalty. Paul Salopek, for instance, is on a multi-year walk around the world, and writes a splendid blog called “Out of Eden”. He is now in his third year of trekking. He is following what is thought to be the migration route of all of us humans from the beginnings in Africa. His skill at writing of these all-encompassing experiences is superlative.

Phil Jenkins has walked to all 88 Temples of the Shikoku Pilgrimage in Japan. His journey has also lasted for ages and his photos are wonderful!

And a free spirit and intrepid sojourner from the last century could put me and most other infrequent long-distance walkers to shame, though from her writings, it is clear that she never would do that. She started walking in earnest while yet in her teens, and had walked much of Europe by the time she was twenty. The Orient was her true fascination, and she spent may years walking in Tibet. Her legacy is long, and she lived to be 101. There’s that “things that last” again. The following is a quote from one of her several books.

“I climbed barren mountain-tops. Long tramps led me to desolate valleys studded with translucent lakes … Solitude, solitude! … Mind and senses develop their sensibility in this contemplative life made up of continual observations and reflections. Does one become a visionary or, rather, is it not that one has been blind until then?” Alexandra David-Neel.

The point I make today in my Stand-In-for-Phil-Blog-Rotation is that this preoccupation of ours with “our” Camino creates the ultimate ripple effect with all those others of our ilk. It’s like, ya know, we’re connected.

Pilgrim Farmer John, Iowa.