Ron from Virginia, newly minted Caminohead, got all inspired and did some research for us.  Yesterday we were talking about GK Chesterton and I was feeling like I ought to get in gear and read some of his stuff.  But where to start?  He was so prolific that it is hard to choose for the beginner.  So, kindly Ron came up with this handy dandy link “Chesterton a guide for the new fan”.

http://catholicexchange.com/reading-g-k-chesterton-a-guide-for-the-new-fa

I don’t know if that will be a hot link or not.  I would like it to be a hot link but I am having a personal technological breakdown at the moment and that is the best I can do.  I know enough to be dangerous so you have to be aware of that.  I might look like I know what I am doing but no, not so much.

In other news the Autumn here is filling up with people coming here from out of town.  And we have some trips happening also.  It should be interesting.  Usually there is a drop off when the weather changes to rainy blowy but this year we are going to keep on partying it looks like.

What’s the corn news Felipe?  Today is day 23 of having the stand open and selling our sweet corn.  First we had the early variety which lasted for 16 days.  It was slow to start but it kept in the freshness zone for quite a while.  On day 17 I started picking the later variety, Bodacious, and although good it doesn’t seem to have the longevity of the earlier stuff.  All of a sudden it seems peaked.  I was hoping to have a 30 day season but may not make that.  Oh well, those expectations were expectations and we all know how much trouble they can get us in.

Sister Joyce is scheduled to come out today to “walk” Phil’s Camino.  I say that because she will probably drive our sit-on mower around.   It will be fun to have her.  Also I have a couple of cousins showing up from New York later today.  Yea, I better get moving for now.  Off to work.  Thanks, Felipe.x

Yesterday the blog mistakenly got entitled, “We Can Help Ourselves”.   That was supposed to be “Can’t” but I’m leaving it.  Maybe that’s as true in it’s own way.  We did help ourselves by choosing the Camino way back when.  So in effect we can help ourselves.  I can see both sides of that one.  So, we’re leaving it.

I discovered the lending library at St. John Vianney’s.  My Rebecca and I watched a video about the author GK Chesterton last night.  But not just any video.  This is from Bishop Robert Barron’s series called “Pivotal Players”.  Man, the Bishop did it to me again.  So well done.  So informative.  So beautiful.  So inspirational.  Chesterton was such an interesting character and so prolific.  And the story is told so well in this video.  See if your church as it or the library.

Whatever the Bish touches is pretty darn golden.  He did the ten part series called “Catholicism”.  We saw it in our RCIA class four years ago.  That really affected me.  So I am looking forward to watching this whole new series.

Well, it’s day 21 for having the corn stand open.  I don’t know if I am going to make 30 days or not.  That is what I was shooting for.  The later corn is ripening so quickly that it might be all over sooner.  But it has been fun trying.

Have a good Tuesday.  Love Felipe.

Let me apologize for not getting with you yesterday.  We had a lot of moving parts going on to keep us busy.  And then lastly Sherie showed up with her friend Mary from Tacoma to walk and tapa.  So they stayed for dinner of venison and corn on the cob.  Yup, life on the farm, all very Norman Rockwell.

It kind of struck me today as I was doing the morning walk how crazy we Caminoheads are.   Not that I was thinking about Sherie specifically, but she helped, but just pilgrims in general.  But Sherie is in there and I’m in there.  We all have been changed and set loose.  Annie is in there as well as well you know who you are.  Annie put it, “we can’t help ourselves.”  That is part of it too.

It is delightful really and I never seem to tire of it, this Caminoism.  It is the Way.  It is the Way of St James or a close offshoot of Jesus Christ the Way.  Before Christianity had a name, before that word was coined, the movement was called the Way.  It’s all related, right?  And it is real, workable and accessible.  That is the beauty of it.

I weep while writing my good blogs so I know which ones are good.  This is a good one.  Have to go do some work, Labor Day, no holidays around here apparently.  Miss you, love you, Felipe.

Just picked nine dozen ears of corn, that’s some kind of record.  We are in third gear here with production.  That’s good being this is Labor Day Weekend.  Should be able to sell everything I put out there.  And the quality is supreme.  This is it, we are peaking.

Remember yesterday we were talking about Wiley and Hanna and the new dog.  So check this out, an old family friend sold them a runabout and a trailer for $11.  The boat was $10 and the trailer $1.  Hanna’s father Jim is got them all running around cleaning out old gas,  filling up with new gas, finding life jackets, washing and scrubbing.  They want to take it out for a spin today, wasting no time on these four day weekends, squeezing the most out of it.

I’m going to run over and see what time the launch is going to be.  Can check the corn in the stand and see how the supply is holding up.  Man, action central around here, no time for naps.  OK, talk to you in a moment.

OK, the sailors are out to sea and they don’t seem to be answering their ship to shore phones.  Well their was just a FB post with them frolicking so must be good.  Having too much fun to answer their phones.  So glad Jim the mechanic is with them.

Well, the character of this post seems to be all four day weekend.  Might as well go with it.  My Rebecca and I off to dinner with friends, probably BBQ.  Then tomorrow have Mass with Catherine then off to visit one of my old hunting buddies in hospice.  I’ll have to prepare for that one.

OK, time to prep for the dinner party, have to be in the right frame of mind.  OK, if I know you I miss you and if I don’t know you I still miss you.  Same same, love, Phil.

The stars are out and the corn is ripe.  Well, it is daytime now and that was last night but I’m still gliding along on the energy.  Started picking the late corn yesterday which is really the main event.  The early corn is well early.  It is tender and delicate.  I know you are early.  Yes, yes we love you still.   But it’s just that the late corn is so much more, well corny.  It’s high harvest, it is.

Back to the hospital today.  Dana is driving me, the dear.  Blue sky out there and it is going to be hot through Tuesday.  Perfect corn ripening weather.

The new addition to our family is fitting right in so far.  Wiley and Hanna adopted a rescue dog from Baja, a Belgian Shephard, female, 35 pounds, 7 months old.   I got a feeling we got the perfect farm dog.  A Belgian is like a half size German Shephard.  We got like a half sized ranch here so perfect fit.

So, that’s the local news.   Was thinking some more about the mazes and the labyrinths.  What if they were really the same.  Well, what if the journey is the same but it was all in your mind how you looked at it.  A reversal may seem a dead end to one person and their walk would suddenly turn into a maze because they couldn’t go beyond.  Where if you kept going it would be a labyrinth.   I might be on to something?  Hmm.

Well, have to get out and move around.  Thanks for showing up today.  Alperfect it is really.  Love, Felipe.

I salvaged this word from my daily cleaning of spam from the blog.  FUTURAMA!   That’s just what I needed, a glimpse of better things to come.  I have a few minutes before my morning walk and just wanted to report in to you.  Yesterday’s blog seemed pretty gloomy but that was accurate.  In itself it was a pretty good scan showing minor growth but we got caught up in the expectation thing, wishing and hoping for better for a reversal after two months of hard work.

Well, I should practice what I preach at this point.  The road to improvement is never a straight line or even grade, there are ups and down and even reversals along the way.  But the overall trend in upward.   That’s what I say to students in archery.  Don’t let the memory of your last arrow affect your next arrow.

Last year I walked a labyrinth for the first time.  That was at Grace Cathedral with Annie and Padre Tomas.  I had never done one because I mistakenly thought that it was a maze.  A maze has dead ends where a labyrinth has none, big difference.   You go and you go and you go on the labyrinth.   You can see your goal at the center but as you move forward on this trail you move away from the center at times.  And at other times you are moving closer.  It is not a spiral that sucks you toward a vortex but it is something far more interesting.  It shows you this way, this Camino, where there are ups and downs or ins and out but if you keep going you will get to where you want to go.

Well did we successful make lemonade out of lemons there?  Ah, five minutes till my walk.  Wiley and Hanna got a new dog and I thought I would get her to join me today for the trail walk.  OK, here I go.  Thanks for all the comments and emails.  Love, Felipe.

I don’t feel real wordy at the moment but feel a need to communicate that the scan went OK but not great.   Things showed a slight amount of growth when we were trying for some shrinkage.   We made a discision to do some more of the heavy duty chemo to see if we could knock back the tumors.

Well, all that is not too exciting and I feel exhausted just from the anxiety involved I guess.  Anyway I think I will take a pass on writing today but have a TED Talk for you that just came in an email from Padre Tomas.  It is David Whyte:

https://ted.com/talks/david_whyte_a_lyrical_bridge_between_past_present_and_future?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tedspread-a

So thanks for coming.  See you tomorrow.  Love, Felipe.

Off to the hospital to get the scan today.  Ah, it is the worst part of this whole deal really, psychologically speaking.  Anxiety can run rampant on you.  But we have talked about that before.

What I have really been thinking about are neighbors.  95% of the time when the topic of neighbors comes up it is in the context of some bitch; that’s a verb.  It’s about how they tend their garbage or how they trim their grass, that kind and of stuff.  With the horrendous storm down in Texas the word “neighbors” takes on a whole new meaning.   They are the ones that are going to save your butt.  That’s important.

Just as on the Camino when we learned that we can all irritate each other we are the same ones that save each other.  Right?  We need to make sure we treat our neighbors well is my point this morning, start today.

Feeling neighborly, love Felipe.

Annie pointed out in a comment that the story about Eratosthenes working on his calculations in his backyard was a lot like Felipe building the backyard Camino.  Yes, yes that is the point exactly.  It is the same energy, the same focus.

Do we always have to look elsewhere for our answers?  Don’t we have capabilities both through education and through native intelligence?  Isn’t it something that we used to do more often or commonly.  Somehow the big boys downtown have us mesmerized into thinking that we can’t get along without them on every little thing.

Just a line of thought that we have opened up here.  I don’t know how far it can go in the next few minutes.  Walking this morning at nine o’clock.

I used to call it as shipwreck thinking.  In other words what can we do with what we have at hand.  We are washed up on the beach and we are short on tools and materials but big on creativity, what can we do?

Really I have to go.  What a day!  The sky is blue, the corn is growing, the trail beckons.  So glad you came by.  That’s beginning to sound like Mister Rogers Neighborhood.  Anyway, love, Felipe.

Monday 0900-1000

Tuesday 1600-1700

Thursday 0900-1000

Sunday 1600-1700

Come by, Felipe.x