Monday, and we have a big day today. Mam Jones is back from South Africa and coming to visit and I definitely want to give you a report on her message. And today is the day that the beloved tractor will start. I have to walk in a few minutes so I need to gear up and get some laps in, so must leave for now. But you are always ready and available for my thoughts to contemplate and so you are never far.

Here I am and it is late and the blog is not finished but my Rebecca insists that it gets done before sleep. OK. Well, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that the tractor didn’t start yet but the good news is that Mam Jones did make it. Let’s talk about Mam Jones.

She is a young woman that is a friend of our son’s from college here at Western Washington University. She has spent the last year and half in South Africa with the Peace Corps. Her tour was supposed to be two years but she had to pull out early because of safety concerns. We were following her closely there and supporting her efforts. Her job was to act as a school teacher there in a government school. The situation was extremely bare bones and one of the problems was that there were little supplies and books.

We shipped numerous boxes to her and talked friends into it also. In the boxes were art supplies, sports equipment and books. Mam Jones started a lending library for the kids which was extremely popular. She also was teaching violin to some of the students. She had all kinds of things going that really inspired us to help. But she finally had to leave early because of safety concerns. But she left a mark on those young people and that is what is important.

As I walked on the Camino I thought about this very issue and I came to the conclusion that in life one must do what one can, as well as one can, for as long as one can. Having ultimate success is not always there but that is not as important as the striving regardless of outcome. This is what Mam Jones did and that is her message to us today. Ah, and I must add, a little late maybe, that is what the students called her, “Mam Jones”, like Ms Jones.

And here is an email that Annie O’Neil sent to me this AM and it is too good not to pass along:

Life is truly
Deeply
Exquisitely
Beautifully
Fundamentally
Rock Bottomly
Good!

Peace-
A

So my life is full of these extremely positive people these days and I am going to keep it that way because it is the only way. Peace – Felipe.