Early Sunday afternoon here.  I went to two different church services this AM.  Catherine and I did the eight o’clock as usual and then I trekked to the Methodists to hear the testimony sermon given by one of my Bible Guys.  OK, that was totally enough church for one day.

Yesterday we published Cris’s great thoughts on walking the Camino.  Gracias amiga!  Maybe I will pick out three things that jump out at me and touch on them.  I know that different ones will interest you and maybe throw a comment at us in the next few days.

“As a Pilgrim I know there are yellow arrows everywhere the point is to be attentive enough to see them (even in the Camino where the arrows were painted, we lost the path several times).”   This is a good reminder that there are yellow arrows for us now we just have to be quiet enough, or perceptive enough or bold enough to see them.   In our hustle bustle mode that we can get in all too easily we must miss all sorts of helpful arrows.

“You have to wish the Camino to be long.”   Whoa Cris!  Like you don’t want to come out of the oven half baked?  OK, OK.  I thought they were all plenty long.  Or is it that you want it to continue indefinitely in a symbolic way.

“The answers come when it is time to understand them.”  This is such a great one that maybe explains why I personally got so much out of the Camino because I did all the preparation that I did.  Walking the 500 miles on Phil’s Camino reading The Everyday Camino With Annie had me in the zone to start with.  Gracias Annie!

“There is no road, the road is made by walking.”  This may be the best explanation of Phil’s Camino yet!  There is nothing there until you give it importance.  I like it.

Well, I probably didn’t do Cris’s lovely writing justice there.  But perhaps we have just begun.  OK, thanks for being with us in our journey.  Sunday kind of love, Felipe.

Good morning!  Cris from Buenos Aires wrote this comment recently.  I just moved it wholesale from the comment section so that you would have a better chance of seeing it. Then maybe tomorrow we could talk about the things that jump out at us.  So, everything after this paragraph is her writing.  Thanks Cris, Felipe.x

Hola Felipe,

Hope today’s walk was a nice one! This thing about being a pilgrim outside the Camino is close to my heart. My life changed after the Camino and it was because “I was a pilgrim”. After my first time walking, I wrote the lines below… I do believe we can be a pilgrim after the Camino, but the Camino is not essential to be a pilgrim, I think the requirement is to see life as a pilgrim would do, the Camino just give you the chance “to try it” for a certain number of days…

Hugs to you all up there from down here,
Cris

“As a Pilgrim I trust in people and I know there is a lot of people out there offering their help and their hearts. I am open to the things they offer without judgement, I try to recognize they are a fellow traveller (some of them starting their journey, some of them in the middle, some of them not yet started), I try to have in mind that not everybody has had the advantages that I have had (even when there were the sad events in my life that pushed me to my journey, but also the amazing companions I met to guide me -among so many other things-).

As a Pilgrim I am sure I do not need too many things to be happy: just a good pair of walking shoes, a comfortable backpack, and allow the time to stop and have the “cafe con leche con tostadas” in the early morning.

As a Pilgrim I know there are yellow arrows everywhere the point is to be attentive enough to see them (even in the Camino where the arrows were painted, we lost the path several times).

As a Pilgrim I learnt:
-The fellow pilgrims are the best gift we can receive.
-The walking starts with the first step.
-You have to wish the Camino to be long (Konstantino Kavafis)
-Everywhere is walking distance if you allow the time.
-The answers come when it is time to understand them (Rilke).
-There is no road, the road is made by walking (Antonio Machado).
-Being attentive is a great attitude.

As a Pilgrim I experienced that the walking was not always thru stunning landscapes, easy fields, sunny and warm days, nice albergues, or nice hospitaleros, though, we kept walking and eventually, we arrived to Santiago. Then, life has not to be different: eventually, we arrive where we are expected (as it is in the cover of “The elephant´s journey” from Saramago, referring to the book of the itineraries).

In the Camino I learnt that if you ARE a pilgrim, you are a Pilgrim for ever.”

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The sky is looking incredible.  The barometer is up and we have one good day of weather.  I’ll take it.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be back to rain again.  I have to mow like the wind today to catch up to the grass around here.  The Camino trail will get attention.

Well, yesterday it was about 3:30 and I was thinking that I pretty much had a wrap on the day.  The landline phone rings which has been infested with junk calls lately and I am tempte

d to disregard it.  But I do look and it is a number but no name but it is a Vashon number so I answer.  It was a good friend from church and walking who wants me to take her to the nearest emergency room.  You drop everything and go, right?  This is your Camino right here right now.  Just because you didn’t see it coming becomes unimportant.

We we’re so synchronized that we just drove right on board the next ferry to Tacoma without a wait.  So, in the end it all worked out.  It was a panic over pains but the tests came up good.  So a referral was generated to see a specialist and we were on our way for late evening teriyaki.  Back on a late ferry and all is well.

Just a reminder to me how our well thought out and sacred schedules are sort of made to be broken like rules.  If your fellow pilgrim needs help that is what you do right then.  You don’t call back later and say that you have a slot next Tuesday.  Well, and I was kind of honored that I was chosen for the task also.

OK, sort of life as it happens around here.  That’s the report for today.  All good.  Have a great weekend, love, Felipe.

What the heck does that mean Felipe?  Well, last night I was watching a sports interview show, Joe Buck’s ” Undeniable”.   He was interviewing Abby Wambach, women’s soccer star.  At one point in the show she was relating the time when as a result of a talk with a trusted coach she dedicated her life to soccer.  She didn’t put it that way. She talked about it as making her love of soccer a lifestyle.  Hmm.

Out of coffee, be back.  OoK, love my new Mr Coffee by the way.  Oh, I have a walk in 40 minutes, back to it…

Anyway, to the topic.  So, what is it that is grabbing me with Abby’s story?  Maybe it is the idea that there is another level with our interest in pilgrimage.  Can one have a live style of a pilgrim?  What would that look like?  Do you have to walk to have it?  What if you are too old or gimped up to actually walk.  It is a quest anyway, something with deeper levels than the physical walking.

Yea, we got more questions than answers.  Something to ponder I suppose.  But I know that this whole idea of pilgrimage in the largest sense which we are dealing with is something amazing.  My mind is jumping back to the book “Pilgrim’s Progress” which closely matches the ideas in this conversation.  It was a major book in the Western world, read second most to the Bible.  It is kind of out of vogue now.  Maybe I need to reread it.

OK sports fans, time to find my boots and logbook and get walking.  Hoping that Commando Bill will show up.  I think that he has to be at the hospital later today but maybe he can squeeze it in.   You come by when you get a chance too.

Ok, love as a lifestyle, Felipe.

Well, it is just one of those days when it is a challenge to focus.  The old brain flitting around like it has nothing better to do.  Geez, what does it take to calm down.  Maybe could blame it on the planets or something.

Those were a nice couple articles about pilgrimage in Scotland and England.  I was searching for a third article but now I think that there was only two.  Anyway, it is nice to see routes opening up to give people more opportunities and opportunities closer to home.  Maybe this will take some of the pressure off major routes like the Camino Frances.  And maybe this will bring some income to the country places that always seem staved for cash.

There was an article not long ago in Backpacker magazine about opening up trails in the West Bank.  People were retracing certain journeys in Old Testament history.  It is all very new and a little iffy but moving forward.

Maybe if you hear of something of interest along these lines you could put a link in the comments and we could chat it up.  It would be good to encourage this sort of thing and especially if they are in our own backyard.  Wait there is one in my backyard!  Hehe.

I am going down to walk in a Camino in California in July sponsored by the Santiago de Compostela Catholic Church in Forest Park.  It is a one day deal, I forget the exact date.  We will have more as it gets closer.  More opportunities for us.

On person that I am anxious to meet there at this event is Edie Littlefield Sundby who just brought a book called Mission Walker.  She had big time health challenges and decided to walk the Camino Real all the way up California.  This is the trail that connected the missions.  Hopefully at some point I can get her to write a little bit on her experience for Caminoheads blog.  She will be book touring, join her somewhere.

Yea, it’s all Camino if you can get Camino feelings, or experience or friendship from it.  Right?  Blisters are not enough.  Mileage is not enough.  But it has to be that transformative thing.  That’s what we are looking for gang, that transformative thing.

OK, off I go.  Have a list of things to do that is making me anxious.  Calm down Felipe and tackle them one at a time.  It will come together.

Talk to you tomorrow.  Chat it up, love, Felipe.

Our trusty Mr Coffee finally brewed it’s last cup of Joe and gave up it’s last puff of steam.     Made it to town for a brew and another machine earlier.  So, things are back to normal here at the ranch, cafe con leche abounds.   Time to check into the blog here and mess around.

Yesterday we were talking about pilgrimage in Scotland.  And today there is more material if I can find it.  Seems that one newspaper article spawned another on this topic.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/15/modern-pilgrims-retracing-britain-ancient-routes-christians-atheists#img-1

Yes, this one is more about pilgrimage in England but it is basically the same idea.  Why is pilgrimage, an ancient custom, so appealing to us moderns?  What is it giving us that we aren’t getting elsewhere?  How do we create more?  How can I take in more?  Questions I have anyway.

Somehow I think there is another current article that is related to this.  If anyone can come up with that link I would appreciate if you could get it to me.  We want to check it out and talk it over.

All good all the time.  Such a gorgeous day outside, I have to bail on you.  You have what it takes.  Make it happen for yourself and those around you.  Pilgrim loves, Felipe.x

A few days ago our lovely art historian Catalina sent in this article and it piqued my interest.  I have seen indifference and ignorance of the process and the power of pilgrimage.  Always it seemed a more or less passive activity.  Even that seems amazing since we at Caminoheads consider pilgrimage up there with sliced bread.  But the word hostility came up.  What?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/13/church-scotland-asked-reverse-centuries-hostility-pilgrimages/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_em

They are seeing the light there in Scotland.  With all the interest in pilgrimage worldwide it seems it is finally coming up on radar.  What is this phenomenon and why is it appealing when interest in churchy church seems at an all time low.  Something is going on.

Speaking of pilgrimage we have a walk here in a few moments.  Phil’s Camino, maybe the world’s smallest pilgrimage, is a going concern.  Time to find my rubber boots and logbook.  The trail is still wet but the grass is starting to grow and trees are blooming.  Come and walk with me when you get a chance.  Love on the move, Felipe.

Happy Easter hither and yon!  It is a beautiful morning here.  Hope that is the case where you are.

In a moment I will be searching around for my Easter tie.  There is one that always reminds me of this morning.  Catherine and I off to Mass at 1000.   Then at 1600 we have a walk.  Then I got an invite to Catherine and Dana’s for tapas and lamb dinner.

Cris from Buenos Aires sent a Easter greeting for us.  Thanks Cris, Happy Easter!

“We don’t realize all the good we can do. A kind, encouraging word or helping hand can bring many a person through dark valleys in their lives. We weren’t put here to make money or to acquire status or reputation. We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts, and when we find it we are meant to give it away generously.”
John O’Donohue ~ Dawn Mass Reflections at Corcomroe Abbey

Find it, hold on to it, share it.  Immense loves, Felipe.

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It is such an odd quite moment.  We just relived the most horrendous day possible and now just a deafening lull, waiting for the promise of tomorrow.  We just are left to stew in our own juices without any outside influence, sort of back burnered.

Just got back from my Bible Guys class.  We did some learning, some laughing.  It is a good time for all of us.  Last week I did the lesson and did the first half of chapter 9 0f Acts.  This was the dramatic conversion of Saul (Paul) on the road to Damascus.  Philip took over for me and did the second half today which was mostly about Paul now being persecuted for his new beliefs.  The tables have turned.

Anyway, we laugh a lot in between trying to figure stuff out.  Which seems like a pretty good balance.  We can only handle so much learning and then we have to enjoy each other or maybe experience each other.  It is kind of like this Saturday between things where we just have to ruminate, goof off or soak up.  There is only so much good or bad the we can handle so we have to switch modes to keep our human thing going.

Well, I am going to get out in the sunshine, it’s calling me.  Looking to warm up my bones.  Miss you, love you, Felipe.

It’s Good Friday and I feel my usual Good Friday slightly off center experience.  It is a day to not do things that involve power tools or other sharp stuff.  I am distracted is the best way to put it maybe.  Although maybe another way to look at it would be to say that I am distracted all the other 364 days of the year.  This day I am actually doing what I am supposed to be doing.  Post Camino thinking right there.

At the hospital for a few hours.  I dropped My Rebecca off at the airport on the way.  She is off to Amherst MA to see our daughter and her family.  She had this giant check in rollie bag with about fifty pounds of gifts for the grandson.  What a Grandma!

I saw an eagle flying during my travels earlier, a hopeful sign for Felipe.  And the computers were down at the treatment center and I walked in and they started working. So, you see.  Maybe that’s all connected, right?  Remember quantum entanglement from yesterday.

Speaking of quantum entanglements I had my meeting with my guardian angel yesterday.  This is a most interesting phenomenon.  There was a lot of information which came across  in the process and that was all pretty other worldly.  And what did you expect Felipe since you were dealing with angels.  I am pretty overwhelmed by all that and I really want to process it before I get to talking about it too much.

But, I would say that I learned a lot and it opened my mind to thinking in that direction. I know there is a whole realm of angels and angel activity but never really thought about it too much since it seemed isolated or separated from my life.  But I now don’t think that is true.  It may be that there is a whole lot more involvement than I had thought.   It is all so heady and I am as I said still processing the whole thing.  It is better if I keep these new cards close to my chest for the time being.  Maybe I could say that it gives me a lot to consider and contemplate.

I am going to try and get back to church this after noon and do something that I haven’t done before and that is the Stations of the Cross.  Catherine will be there to guide me.  The weather is iffy at best.  There is a Mariner’s baseball game tonight in Seattle and the temperature is predicted to be 51 degrees to start and then down into the forties as the game gets going.  Are we calling that spring?

OK, time to go.  Have a meaningful Good Friday.  You’re the best, love, Felipe.