I’m back at the hospital for my routine every other Friday visit. All good. Seattle is almost deserted. Traffic a dream. Everyone must be at the mall hey?

Wow, we had a good get together yesterday. 1t was a whole new constellation of personalities than who we have had in the past. That was fun to have happen. And everyone brought so much stuff, we have leftovers for a week. So yea, all good.

I getting pretty excited about picking Catalina up early tomorrow morning from the airport. She is always a breath of fresh air for everyone. I have a feeling that we have a lot of work to accomplish in a day and a half beside drinking wine and eating leftovers. Oh man, turkey sandwiches with lots of mayo, I’m ready.

Then the showing of Phil’s Camino on Vashon coming up. How cool is that. There is a lot of response on FB, so that’s good. And I think that folks are coming from the hospital too. I would so love to pack the Vashon Theatre. It would be great to make some money and put a dent in expenses and have a good time too.

So things are cooking here, keeping the Camino energy going for ourselves and everyone around. Isn’t it great that we have this calling and have the energy to pursue it. Really I don’t know what I would be doing now if I would not have this to concentrate on, to focus on. Probably be worrying myself to death over one thing or another.

Have to tell you that Cris in Buenos Aires even did a little Thanksgiving celebration down there yesterday. She has had a Camino buddy from the States visiting so they rigged up some kind of deal. Maybe they have a pic for us.

Well that’s about it for today, sort of in between things. So, good to be with you again. I’ll take off for now and try and find some lunch around here. See you tomorrow, leftover loves, Felipe.

Well, we made it this far to another Thanksgiving and most of the time in good style I might add. Half my brain is working on a prayer for the table today. It’s coming along. My Rebecca will be up shortly to get the bird started. What is it 20 minutes per pound?

We are really excited about coming events here starting this coming weekend. Catalina from Berkeley will be here to further our project of the book about Phil’s Camino the trail. The film has gotten a max amount of attention the last couple years of it’s existence but the trail has been in the background. Yet the film grew out of the trail so it will be good to get back to it for an exploration.

I should talk about Catalina for a minute. She came on board to help Annie with the film and she has been in and out of things since way back then. She is a scholar, pilgrim, professor and historian, oh yea, and a wife and mom to two gorgeous children. She has all the bases covered. I see her life as being a balance between the days of Hildegard the Healer and modern day Northern California.

The idea for the book was hers and rightly so. With her expertise she was able to see things in the mud and the grind and the prayers of our Camino here, something that just wasn’t obviuos to me anyway. Just as there are shines to Lourdes in France all over the world which were built so that locals who couldn’t get to Lourdes could participate in the healing, she picked up on the parallel phenomenon here. This was all built for/by me thinking that I couldn’t go to Spain and do the real Camino. She saw the historic connection. Love her. She calls the project here land art.

So land art it is Catalina. Well, maybe water art too as the season progresses here with the rain and current series of storms. So the book will try and capture this through the eyes and feelings of the pilgrims who have walked here. There have been close to 300 folks from all over the world who have come and participated. I have email addresses for 95% of them in the logbooks. So you all will be contacted and asked to write up your impressions of the situation here. Please find the time and energy for that.

So, also coming up on the calendar is the hometown showing of Phil’s Camino on December 1st at the Vashon Theater. That is a Friday evening. Anni, Rebecca and myself will be there to answer all you questions and to make you laugh and cry.

Here is some info: www.vashontheatre.com . At 17723 Vashon Highway SW, 206-463-3232.

OK, time to go. Have and great and meanful day. Love your gravy, Felipe.

What the heck would Hildegard think? This concerns the hospital, Swedish Cancer Institute. This is my 108th treatment today and I walk into the waiting room and there are no jigsaw puzzles. 107 times I have walked in and have done jigsaw puzzles and now no puzzles.

Seriously, in some sense the jigsaw puzzle table is the best thing that happens here. Patients get together and talk to each other and work on the puzzle together. Other than this, interaction is close to nonexistent. That is it’s value getting people together. There are enough mechanisms and procedures that keep people isolated from one another and we don’t need another.

Then the magazines, the staple of the waiting room are gone. No more Time, National Geographic or People. What would Hildegard think?

And the plants gone. So, OK, the puzzles and the magazines get passed around to too many people maybe and they catch stuff from one another. But the plants.

It all some new program to protect us from one another. OK, well buy new puzzles everyday then and incinerate them afterward. There must be some way.

We’ve heard of deja vu all over again. This is like 1984 all over again. Sorry to be ranting and raving but can’t help it. Maybe a little turkey and dressing will help my attitude.

OK, enough of this. Have to get back in the gratitude mode. I want all of you to have a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels to and from. Love, Felipe.

We have a date and a time. This showing will be December 1st at 6PM right there in the heart of downtown Vashon. I know it is First Friday Art Walk evening. There should be plenty of folks up in town for all that.

I will have to tell you early on that the show has a twenty five dollar price tag. It’s a fund raiser and it is all going to complete the hour long version of Phil’s Camino which is very close to completion but we have bills to pay. You will be a part of this effort to get our message out by supporting us with your presence.

If there is someone that you think will benefit from being with us, bring them. Everyone that is, has or is about to start with a battle with cancer will get a lot out of seeing Phil’s Camino. We will be available after the showing in a Q and A session. You will love this. You will laugh and cry, I do.

Annie O’Neil, the director/producer, will be flying in to be with us. My Rebecca will be on hand to keep my story straight. And of course I plan on being there. We will have DVD’s, Annie’s book and T-shirts, patches and Phil’s Camino maps available for sale.

If you have been reading this blog you know me and the film and the trail. You know My Rebecca and Annie. You know that the sun shines on us and the rain falls on us but we keep going. It would be great if you could come and be with us and support us. Thanks, love, Felipe.

The blog yes, is some sort of unworldly secret connection. It’s special and after more than three years of working on it everyday it seems invaluable and irreplaceable. I treasure you guys at the other end of it. You and you reading it and commenting occasionally make it all complete. Thank you.

Somehow if I could only make it earth shaking every single day. Well, after all this time of writing it I know that isn’t realistic. I just checked, there are over 1400 posts of which maybe 10 percent stand out. OK, well maybe that is a good percentage really. When I start each post I really have no idea how it will end up and sometimes just sometimes I hit the jackpot.

Yesterday I was writing about how Herb stopped by to walk. After our two laps in the rain he came in the house to have a cup of tea and warm up. Somehow we got talking about the Bible reading from that morning at Mass. It was a parable, the one about the three guys that got three different amounts of money to invest depending on their capabilities. One guy gets 4X, one 2X and one 1X. The lord of the manor who gave out the money returns and asks the three how they did. So, the guy with 4X doubled it and the guy with 2X doubled it but the guy that got the 1X buried it and returned it to his master just as he got it.

OK, so the first two guys get “atta boys” and the third guy gets punished severely. So what’s with that? But remember it’s a parable, it can’t be understood with normal earthy logic, that’s the deal. We have to use heavenly logic to crack it, to penetrate it, to understand it. It is really about how God distributes power. If we are really capable as the first guy He gives us a lot and then we are supposed to apply ourselves and be fruitful. If we are given less capability we are still to follow that way. But if we are timid and fearful as the last guy and don’t live up to our capabilities then He will find fault with us.

So if I continue that logic even the guys with 4X can’t bury it. No one can bury it. But what about the guy that gets 3X say and tries really hard and somehow looses everything through no fault of his own. He did everything he could but was not successful. He’s good don’t you think, right?

Parables can be frustrating and they are supposed to be because you just can’t get there from here. We have to think less like we normally think and more like God thinks to make any progress on understanding them. They are other worldly.

Well, time to gear up for the morning walk. It is brightening up slightly and the rain has stopped. Today is supposed to be nice for the Seahawks game in Seattle. See you tomorrow, Love, Felipe.

Another great double negative. That was My Rebecca commenting on me realizing that I didn’t do my morning ritual blog post. It just got way from me I guess. Just a little too much going on these days.

Well, maybe the big news is that we got our turkey for Thursday’s feast. We have seven folks coming to the feed. Well and a baby. He’s going to be star of the whole show I am sure. Thanksgiving is maybe our best holiday in the sense that everyone seems to agree on it. The vegetarians may try and build the bird out of celery or something but that’s about it. Nobody doesn’t like Thanksgiving.

Herb one of my buddies from church came and walked with me this afternoon. We did two out of the three laps since it was so rainy. One of our November storms happening. Herb helped me way back in 2013 to lay out the trail in the first place. We all say thanks to Herb. None of us don’t like Herb.

Hey, time to go. Thanks to you too for being here. Love, Felipe.

Deep into November now. We have weathered a few storms so we are sharpened up on the drill. Gone but remembered are the lazy days of summer which always appear never ending. Ahh. But we remember we have tough genes handed down to us by our ancestors, people who got the rough winter on turnips and prayer living their stone hut that they where thankful for.

We somehow have to mine our new territory for inspiration or humor or whatever will keep us afloat. I hear the fire in the woodstove crackling in the next room. Yes, warmth is one of our allies.

Last month Wiley, James and I were sleeping out under the stars in eastern Washington. The experience reconnected me to something very basic. I was reconnected to the fact that nights are cold and a challenge in themselves. We with our insulated dwellings with modern heat lose track of this. A cold night is sort of an abstraction. But sleeping out and waiting for dawn for the sun to finally creep across the landscape to finally finally warm my bones was not an abstraction. This daily “winter” that we have largely bypassed is a real thing and would be helpful to be reminded of. Somehow there are lessons there that we have forgotten.

Well, I am out of time for now, for this day. There is always tomorrow for the blog, my ever present companion. Yup, stay warm and stay inspired wherever you find that. Love you from afar, Felipe.

A little rainy lately but no standing water on the trail. Lots of robins. Beautiful skies.

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

We,are walking Thanksgiving for sure. Felipe.x

It is occurring to me during these approaching dark days of winter that building up our strength is an good objective for my “down” time. I have to remember the coaching that Dr Zucker gave me at rehab early on in my cancer career. He was big on making oneself stronger through regular and organized work.

We pray for strength and this is the basic idea that all prayer really rests on. We pray for strength for ourselves and for others in our challenges. We will always have these challenges, that is our work. But having strength is the key to successfully and gracefully managing them.

We live, we love, we deal with our challenges. All that takes strength. So, I made up my mind that instead of complaining about the dark evenings I am going to use them to build myself up in all ways.

Well, time to get ready for our Thursday morning walk. We are in between rain storms so that is good. Maybe I will get a chance to say a rosary. I love Thursdays and the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary (The Baptism in the Jordan, The Wedding at Cana, The Proclamation of the Kingdom, The Transfiguration and the Institution of the Eucharist). Miss you, love, Felipe.