Friday evening was so extraordinary. That was the showing of Phil’s Camino on the big screen on Vashon for the first time. It will be talked about it for years. After the showing Annie, Dr Zucker, My Rebecca and myself did the Q and A. We have all participated in these before so we are practiced. But audiences come up with such a wide range of questions that it is always a challenge.

So, there was one man that asked the question, “How do you keep up hope?” Great question and Rebecca jumped on it by telling a joke which was perfect for the occasion. The joke goes, There was a guy who falls off the roof of a six story building. He goes by the sixth floor and someone yells out, “How’s it going?” And he yells back, “So far so good!” And goes by the fifth floor and someone yells out, “How’s it going?” And he yells back, “So far so good!” Well you see where this is going.

And she got a good laugh and it was a good short answer. But I have been thinking about it and I wanted to add more to that. The reason that it was a good short answer was that it pointed to the ability of some people in bad situations to live in the moment no matter how goofy that my seem to the outside observer. Obviously the guy is in big trouble but somehow he finds joy in his place in the situation.

I am going to put a capital on that since if you are in that situation that is the Situation. Somehow I have been able to find peace with my cancer and find myself in the very center of a whirlwind of my three C’s. Those are Cancer, Catholicism and Camino. They swirl around me continually and provide a place for me to work from. I am in the eye of that storm.

Christian faith tells me that I have nothing to fear from death. That is the major key for me and helps with how to live this life gracefully no matter the Situation. Those are my thoughts on the question of hope and a longer answer to his question. At least today’s longer answer.

The man’s father Harry passed away a few months ago and he was someone that I walked with here on the trail. And last night I heard that Bill just passed, another man I walked with and he told me that joke.

Ah, time goes on and I am still here saying, “So far so good!”
Yup, thanks for being here.

Love you immensely and intensely, Felipe.

Yes, it has been raining and there in some standing water on some parts of the trail. Raven Creek is starting its wintertime flow. So, rubber boots are pretty much a must.

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

No walks on December 24, 25, 26 and 28.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Felipe.x

So we are out of Ordinary Time on the Catholic calendar and on to the glorious Advent season, Who doesn’t like advent, right? All the lead up to the Holiday season is officially started.

Just got back from Mass and tailgating with Catherine. She was telling me about how Advent was her favorite season and talked about it so glowingly. Yea, hard to beat Catherine.

So, have been filling out forms, a stack of them, for a possible trip to Lourdes, France with the Order Of Malta. That is scheduled for May and we may get to go. I just delivered one page to Father David which he is supposed to fill out. My doctor has four pages. I got pages, My Rebecca has pages. Geez, lots of hoops.

The whole world’s order of Malta shows up at Lourdes this same week. We would be going with the US West Coast chapter but there are many more from all over. Amazing, must be quite a show. And it’s a whole week with lots of different activities. Well, I will let you know how that is all going as time goes by.

Local news is that I got the woodstove hooked up in the wood shop and had the first fire yesterday. I am so happy. Warmth is our ally.

On with my day. Come walk with us when you get a chance. Love, Felipe.

So, last evening we had our big Vashon showing of Phil’s Camino and by that time the marquee had Phil’s Camino in between the films Thor and Elf. That’s good, I am probably really in there somewhere on that scale. Anyway we had a serious amount of people show up at the theater to be with us.

We had mention on TV, radio and the local paper so things were set up in our favor. But it was very hearting to play to a packed house. The film was on the big screen with good color and sound. Annie, My Rebecca and Dr Zucker were on top of their games in the Q and A. I did very little myself and it all fit together gracefully.

So, we are thankful that so many came to get the message and so that funds came in to pay the bills. Alperfect, Saint James is afoot. So, it looks like we will do it again when the hour long version comes out.

I was personally worn out after the whole deal last night and am regrouping this AM. Time to be with you here now and then off to the shop. The new wood stove is close to being installed there and I am looking forward to seeing that happen. Warmth is our alley.

Well, now it is time to start concentrating on Christmas gifts. Geez, just have a slight start on that only. I am hoping Henna will help me with that.

Good luck with your Christmas chores. Too bad that I have to say chores but that is what it feels like at the moment. So, time to go. Lovin you somewhere between Thor and Elf, Felipe.

My Rebecca just said that to me, “Well it’s your big day.” Actually, I think it is our big day. Lots of people were involved with the Phil’s Camino documentary. I hope many people can claim part of it. So, yea, the first Island public showing of our film will be this evening at six o’clock.

Annie O’Neil our producer/director is showing up here shortly to start the day. And then the day will culminate with a Q and A session after the showing. I have got to iron a shirt here, that’s what I gotta do.

Well this day marks some type of landmark on my journey here on Vashon Island. Been here 44 years and things have been up and down, touch and go at times. In some ways it seems like the whole effort has been a prelude to this. That My Rebecca would come along to accompany me. That the ten acres that we have accumulated is so that there would be a place for Phil’s Camino. And the cancer came along to throw the dramatic monkey wrench in the works and provide the catalyst for the spiritual journey which is the whole point. That Annie would come along to say that us walking in the mud were doing something significant. And thank you Saint James.

And now friends and neighbors are going to gather at the theater to see one of the fruits of this story. Phil’s Camino the film, you are amazing! May you have a long life and mentor and inspire many people.

OK, time to iron that shirt. Love you guys. A whirlwind day is about to begin, Felipe.

I cracked open FaceBook this morning with breakfast and saw something interesting. A guy from Gettysburg, PA is trying to get a hold of me. He had a name that I readily recognized as one of my school chums from New York but was it really him? So, I look at “About” and there it was “Maryvale Senior High School”. OK, hello Jim, long time.

Maryvale Schools may be one of the only public schools in the country named after the Virgin Mary. The official line is that the school was named after the road that it is on but the road was named after Mary. I think that counts.

I remember once the Gideon Bible outfit came to our school to give out Bibles. I still have mine. Gideon International is famous for trying to get a bible in every hotel room. Look in the drawers next time you are traveling and check. Anyway, I remember getting caught in a stampede as nine hundred students crushed into the lobby hungry for the Word. I’m not quite sure that would happen these days.

Here I’ve told two stories and I haven’t gotten to the one I wanted to tell. This sort of has to do with Jim, remember Jim. He was living in Nortern Arizona at the time and a Marine buddy and myself were visiting him. My buddy and I decided to test ourselves by doing some climbing in a nearby canyon. Here is the deal, we had a rope and a book on knots. We weren’t maybe the sharpest knives in the drawer.

So we worked our way up till I remember sitting on this little ledge with my feet hanging down and having this bird land next to me and looked at me like I was from another planet, guess he didn’t get much company. I’m communing with this creature and all of a sudden he dives off going straight down and just disappears in the distance like some deal in a Roadrunner cartoon. It gave me a sudden appreciation for my situation.

So, now as I am approaching the door of my seventieth birthday I don’t feel like I somehow have to manufacture danger. There is plenty around here for everyone. Well, that is it for now.
A quick shower and a walk after that. Love you dangerously, Felipe.

Back a year and a half ago when Annie had Phil’s Camino the film in for consideration at the South by Southwest Film Festival something happened to cause me a change of mind. We had been working on the film for nearly two years at that point and it was ready to start showing it in public. And that is where that process all started at that festival in the spring of 2016.

In there somewhere the news got out that the festival team looking at entries watched 800 short documentaries and chose 12 to include that year. Yea, we were one of the twelve, very heady. So, trying to wrap my mind around that lead to a new way for me to think about what we had. We had something amazing in our possession, a pearl.

And now, what I am trying to say to you is that I am having the same realization with Phil’s Camino the trail. With Catalina being here recently and us working on our upcoming book about it I saw that pearl thing happening again. And it was magnified by the thoughtful papers that her class had written about our meeting. Here was another wonderful thing with great potential.

I am left humbled and with a feeling of great responsibility with this realization. Holding this pearl in my hand and wondering what our futures will bring, I am amazed as the Camino goes on ahead of me. Recently a realization occurred that the more I do, the more I do. What does that mean Felipe? That means that the more things that I participate in the more opportunities come up to participate. The Camino goes on ahead of me with St. James here in the background somewhere.

In the film I remember saying at the outdoor party at the end that, “This is a great way to wrap up my Camino experience.” Very ironic as our dog Sture died a few moments after that happy comment and the dominoes have been falling over ever since and I am foreseeing more in the future.

So that is what is going through Felipe’s mind today. Time to go, see you tomorrow. Love, Felipe.

A soggy morn on which to get together with you. The wood fire is going and there is strong brew in the Mr Coffee so it is time to blog. Hope that you are all doing well here at the tail end of November.

Last evening I finished up a stack of written reflections that came from Catalina’s graduate class on Art and Pilgrimage. We had a great video conference last week that lasted over an hour. So the students wrote up some thoughts about our conversation. Well, I was deeply moved by what I read in these papers.

Perhaps I can get permission to share a little of it with you. Maybe a sentence or a paragraph from each one would be enlightening. We are the ones searching for insight remember. I will check with Catalina to see if we can do that maybe for tomorrow or soon.

When I say reflections I am really meaning it. They went all out after seeing Phil’s Camino and conversing with me to give a historic view of what we do here. And a clearer view of what we do here. They were connecting a lot of dots to give us a picture.

Yup, I am happy that this all came about. Let’s try and pursue it further and see where it leads us. You’re a peach, love, Felipe.

Geez, Felipe has been overwhelmed with pilgrim business, that’s what has happened. I could blame it on the lovely Catalina but that would only be partially right. We had a serious backlog of business for one. Then we had to plot the course of our ship, our new book. Notice how I am saying “our”.

Our is the right word. I can’t really give you the details but a plan has emerged, a good plan. All we needed was a time to get together and let our flint and steel spark. So, things will be set in motion.

That is what I am telling you that a good thing is in the wind. As Sister Joyce says you have to tell people something and you have to ask something of them. So, you my faithful readers please participate in giving us some feedback. Catalina has been sending out emails to as many folks as possible who have walked here at Phil’s Camino asking for reflections. Can you do that for us?

And maybe you have read this blog and learned something or were moved. Please send something in. You can put this in the comments for this blog and I can forward them.

You see part of this book is about me, Felipe, part is about you and part is about the new emerging interest in pilgrimage and it’s importance to us. We are on some sort of threshold to a new way and pilgrimage seems to hold some clues and foreshadowing of what that is. You are a part of that, you see?

Please send in something that you think expresses your feelings about walking and talking at Phil’s Camino or Caminoheads blog. This could be prose or poetry, a recipe maybe. But please be a part of this. This is our future unfolding.

Ah, I have a walk in fifteen minutes with folks from out of town. The beat goes on as they say. Well, it’s alperfect once again, Saint James is afoot! Love you guys, Felipe.

A couple of big days just happened and Catalina had me hopping pretty much the whole time. We got a whole lot of work done on our new book. It’s about the trail here at Raven Ranch.

Will be back with you tomorrow morning God willing. Love you all, Felipe.