The dinner, yea, the dinner was a great occasion. It was just warm enough to eat out on the tapas table which is always a thrill in the Spring to finally do that. So, our corned beef brisket was super and disappeared except for a few crumbs. Catherine and Dana were here to celebrate St Patrick and also the first dinner party of the post pandemic season.

I know that post pandemic phrase may be a little premature but it is the very beginning. We have a lot of pandemic to go but we have a start. Getting vaccinated sure is a breakthrough in personal relaxation. And there will be more and more of that. We are having oxtail soup today that is the back end of the cow. About as back as you can get. So we are going stem to stern on the pandemic and on the beef menu.

We had some readings about St Patrick and St Brigid yesterday and some material on fairies. And we had some Guinness and Harp and a little Jameson. But the drinking was highly under control. The pandemic has done that, left us with a certain caution or fear of new freedom. I am falling short with my words but you get it. It will take a while to find our new place in all this.

Henriette had a blessing in the Comments that I will place here.

“As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point in the wrong direction!“

the banister of life loves, Felipé.

I am so on the edge of my seat this morning. At Dr Gold’s waiting room trying to whittle out the blog here now. He has the results of yesterday’s scan, after nine weeks of immunotherapy. So I can’t wait to talk with him.

St Pat’s Day today! Got my green on. Catherine and Dana coming over for corned beef and cabbage later. This is our first dinner party in a year. What will we do? How will we act?

OK, just saw the doc. Nothing dramatic to report. Nothing much has changed so we will go another nine weeks to a scan. Stay the course, says the doc. He did give me a prescription that should help with my cough which has been bothersome. So, things about the same for now. Let’s just figure out a way to celebrate staying the course.

But my people here at the Institute are well. It is always fun to check in with everyone. One of the nurses waiting for Spain to open up so they can go do the Camino. So great! In the meantime come walk Phil’s Camino!

Hoping to find some stories about St Patrick and his feminine counterpart St Brigid to read at our dinner tonight. Always fun to learn something new or touch base with old saintly friends. Oh I know, I have a big book on the saints that the Padre Tom Hall gave me. Easy peasy.

Yesterday I had a great afternoon walk with Chris, Mike and David, siblings. They had Camino and Cancer experience so we had plenty to gab about. And it was 5:29 when they left and I finally got back in the house for a Zoom at 5:30. Action Central! That went great. It was a QandA with Catholic folks in California. At the end of the day I feel like this is what God is keeping me alive for, talking to these folks whether live or on Zoom. Very rewarding stuff.

OK, off in a few minutes to run for the ferry back to the Rock. Thanks for stopping by and keep up the good work!

green loves, Felipé.

Yesterday I wrote about our innocent little few flakes of snow falling here. Farmer John was trying to get a pic to me of conditions there in Iowa. I think that they had some real snow. But the pic came in here totally blank. Well I don’t know is that a technical glitch or a white out from their blizzard. John was saying something about wanting to travel to Arizona or New Mexico, maybe find some heat.

Man, it is almost two years since I have seen the guy. Hope that he finds a way to make it to the Oasis. I hope all of you find your way here in August. Remember that is the 20-23rd. God willing we will have a decent corn crop for you.

News from the airlines is encouraging. Bookings for flights are way up. People are having confidence that they will be able to travel soon. I’m liking the sound of that!

I think that I will order the bandanas for the Oasis. How many to order? I had 56 for the Veranda and should get at least that many for this year. What fun!

So, I better get going for my trip to the Institute. Looks like a beautiful day out there, 32 degrees F. May the traffic be light.

all quite good loves, Felipé.

Hey, now wait a minute, snow flurries, this wasn’t in my vision of Springtime. I was thinking more along the lines of blossoms and tweety birds. Well, maybe it is over.

I have some walkers coming tomorrow to do the trail. Someone that talked to me on a Zoom and friends. Great! It appears that things are loosening up with people being more confident about getting out and about. This last year has been pretty darn quiet around here and one begins to wonder if things will ever recover. But Spring brings hope.

Have a scan tomorrow daytime and then a Zoom in the evening. Big day! The scan is pretty easy really, it is just a matter of getting there and back. The Zoom I need to work on. It is more of a talk than the usual QandA so it takes a little prep. It is with a Catholic group down in Southern California associated with the Marauders. Remember the Marauders? They were some visitors that we had years ago that came just to be here with us for three days. There were six or seven of them and they rented a rustic beach cabin here in the Island. It was way fun.

So, time to go and gear up for the Monday morning walk. The snow has stopped and it really didn’t stick anywhere that I can see. OK, let’s get this week going.

Marauder loves, Felipé.

I was eavesdropping on My Rebecca’s Zoom church this morning. The choir director puts together some choir music for the service using an app called Garage Band. She gets the choir together on an earlier day and records their voices remotely and puts together a charming product from that jumble. And “garage” and “garage band” go into my brain and I start thinking about Bill Gates starting business in his parent garage. You know how I celebrate people doing amazing stuff in their backyards. Have to include garages. Well, and then there are basements.

What do those spaces have in common? They are the margins of the property. They don’t have strict specific functions. They’re semi defined. They are places of experiment, messiness and places to make mistakes.

I don’t know really what to do with this or where it is going? But perhaps our lives need some free unstructured time and space to just play, to unscramble in. Just a thought on a Sunday. And it is not just any Sunday but it’s Time Change Sunday. So walking here at 1600 in a few minutes and will be for the summer. Yay!

missing you loves, Felipé.

This is a blessing of immense proportion! They had been gone for three, four days, a week maybe. The eye doctor didn’t have an opening till forever and I was looking in the wrong place. If I had one more glitch I’d have a Trifecta.

Anyway, the moral of the story is good things happen when you are working on the corn. Farmer John knows this. I was out cleaning up some piles of branches that had gotten piled up on the corn field because we will be tilling soon. And the sun was shining brightly and I was seeing pieces of glass that had surfaced after a winter’s rain. So, OK, I’ll just pick those up before the doggie gets injured. And there shining brightly we’re my glasses only partially crunched! Yea.

This happens when you get older. You loose your phone, or your keys or your glasses and you enter this netherworld of distraction. Half the brain is locked in to this no matter what else is going on.

But I broke free! Geez, what a relief. So, now I can get on with life. Will try and take down some firewood trees today. It’s that time of year. Wiley is out tilling at a neighbor’s. My Rebecca is on a Spring cleaning rampage. I’m not going to recognize the kitchen I think.

burst of energy loves, Felipé.

The Voice of the Inner Teacher

Parker Palmer asks us “Do you have experiences of listening for, hearing, and having to deal with ‘the voice of the inner teacher’? If so, can you tell a story or two about those moments—about how they have felt and what they have meant in your life?”1

Growing up surrounded by formal education and taught to most value words in books and those from the teacher at the front of the room had a particular effect on me. It silenced the voice of the inner teacher that we travel the life journey with. The English language has metaphors for that voice – a gut feeling, a hunch, a leading, an inner voice or an intuition. And I sometimes acted upon them, but more often silenced that voice.

I found that pilgrimage moves that Inner Teacher’s voice to the front of the room, and grants me permission to acknowledge the words and act on them openly, even sharing them with others. My pilgrimages didn’t start with the Camino, but my awareness that I had been a pilgrim before became real during that long saunter across Spain when I had lots of time to listen to that Inner Teacher, act upon the words heard and consider the results.

Today I invite you to think about your own Inner Teacher voice before, during and after your pilgrimage and leave a comment or two with what you heard, learned and how you may have used those lessons as you returned ‘home’. Phil has been sharing this in the blog for years, now it is your turn.

Do you more readily respond to the Inner Teacher’s voice after walking a pilgrimage?

Have you heard the same lesson repeated over time? Did you respond to it?

I won’t reveal here any of my lessons heard and responded to so that I don’t keep you from posting your own, but I will add one or two in the comments in a few days.

Well, one little example: My Inner Teacher led me to write on this topic, and she only voiced it once a few days ago. I’ve learned to ‘Just Do It!’

In teachable love,

Ronaldo in Astorga, León

Our friend Henriette came up with a great comment on yesterday’s post. These are exciting times. Who in the old day’s would have thought how much a hug would mean after a year without.

“New York Magazine headline yesterday: “Go Hug a Vaccinated Person Right Now!” Love it. It feels so good. Last night, Katherine had a friend she went to middle school with come by. He practically lived at my house when he was growing up, but he moved to Arizona, so we haven’t seen him in years. We were sharing Guinness and Trader Joe cheese and crackers in the gazebo in the yard with heaters and blankets, when we suddenly realized he was a firefighter and had been vaccinated; Katherine is a health care worker who has been vaccinated; and I am high-risk vaccinated. We laughed, stood up and exchanged the greatest hugs I have had in a year, like hugging a long-lost son. Then we moved indoors, where it was warmer. Bliss. Who knew such a thing we took for granted could bring such joy?“

There you go, timely results on our blogposts. I think that we might have played a part in that. But whatever, it is great news. And a great glimpse of our future. Light at the end of the tunnel?

We do need some good news! Is there hope for the Oasis get together? I think so!

off for a sunny walk loves, Felipé.

Over the last year I have become a Brian Williams junkie. He has an hour long show on MSNBC every evening of the week. It’s a news show. He has all the serious topics of the day, of the week but he will say the most hilarious little quips related to these topics. He has the most intelligent folks on from both sides of the aisle. I can’t wait for 8PM.

As we all look forward to being on the backside of the pandemic Brian asked one of the expert doctors a question about this time when we are in someways loosening up the restrictions. He said something like, “What do you say to the folks that have had their two shots and want to take it out for a spin?” That so cracked me up. And of course the learned doctor had to say something learned to answer the question but I’m in the meantime still laughing.

There just has to be some humor in all this don’t you think? We cannot exist on bread alone so to speak. It’s all so heavy minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. And Brian is one of my guys to put a special touch on things for me that make them seem more bearable.

Yea, off I go for now. Got some items on my list to get done.

see you soon loves, Felipé.

I was a part of a small Zoom last evening and got to answer questions. Sounds so simple this answering questions but as time goes on I always see improvements that can be made. But it is fun none-the-less. But I am always striving to be more relevant to the individual needs of the audience.

People want to know things. And those things are as varied as people are varied. There are endless shades. And trying to get to that specific point for me is challenging. I hope that I am getting better at it as time goes on.

Of course I can present my own findings and wishes and hopes. But beyond that people are hungry for answers that may or may not line up exactly with my experience. So bridging gaps becomes important to me. Always if I can stand as an example of inspiration that is important in itself and sometimes that is as far as I get. But getting to the these individual concerns is really another level.

So, the Zoom season has started for me. There seems to be a big clump of them in my near future. Wish me luck.

bridging the gaps loves, Felipé.