Stretched out on the red leather couch at Raven Ranch with an hour to talk with you.  Yesterday I was at the hospital most of the day and then it rained all evening and night.  But it is beautiful right now.  Catherine came to walk with me this morning which I was glad of.  Sometimes the morning walks can be lonely.  She is going to be back here for the FaceTime with Cris in Buenos Aires this afternoon.   This is going to be a good connection I know.

Then at 1130 I have a teleconference with Kathy, a friend from Dubuque, and her friend.  The purpose of that is for me to meet my guardian angel.  I know it sounds way out there but it could open up a lot for me and I am going with it.  There doesn’t seem to be any coincidence anymore.  This is what is on Phil’s Camino today and we are going to make the most of it.  I will try and tell you about it tomorrow.

I put that so matter of factly but am totally nervous on the inside.  Really, could this really happen?  I am blessed that I have all these wonderful friends that want me to learn things.    I feel like I need a boost to get me to the next level and this could be a key component.

Then tonight Catherine has talked me into coming to Mass.  Father David is going to do foot washing and Anointing With Oil.  Foot washing is something that I have participated in before with Father Marc.  I may do it tonight if they need bodies.  People tend to be shy.  Then Anointing with Oil is an official sacrament of the Church which used to be called The Last Rights but now they give it to folks that have medical challenges as well, guys like Felipe.

Oh, I was going to give you a paragraph from Richard Rohr’s Divine Dance:

“I warn you, though, that when your calculating mind moves into place, you’ll hear yourself appraising these profound moments of judgement: “Oh that’s just a coincidence.”  “That’s merely an accident.”  “It just happened.”  Or, “Blast, why did that happen?”  Or even, “I wish I could change it.”  Inside the Trinitarian life, you will begin to enjoy what some physicists now call “quantum entanglement” and what others call synchronicity, coincidence and accident.”

Quantum entanglement love, Felipe.  (hehe!)

There was a quote in my Richard Rohr’s book “Divine Dance” that caught my attention.  It was, “It’s why you begin to find yourself smiling at things for no apparent reason.”   Wait, why, why what?    Here is the whole paragraph:

“And  remember, if it is not flowing out of you, it’s probably because you’re not allowing it to flow toward you.   And love can flow toward you in every moment: through the image of a flower, in a grain of sand, in a wisp of cloud, in any one person whom you allow to delight you.  It’s why you begin to find yourself smiling at things for no apparent reason.”

Yea, OK, that sounds like something that is worth cultivating.  I do find myself more able to be in a good mood despite the surroundings, despite the climate, despite the situation.  Really they can be quite independent of one another.

We are learning so much hanging around the Camino.   I have never in my life had a comparable time of so much personal growth.  It’s all quite amazing really.

Well, maybe I’ll quit while I am ahead today.  Have some work to accomplish while I am in the comfy chair.  Take care, see you soon hopefully, love, Felipe.

Low on Wifis this morning.  Now we have it working again.  Ah, where was I?  I have a big day planned of splitting firewood.  Getting near the end of this chore.  Next thing coming up is mowing.  Things are started to jump out of the ground, quickly turning to jungle.

This is my last day of freedom before treatment.  Actually I will be glad to hit the old comfy chair at the hospital and get some rest.  Life at the ranch can be exhausting.

I am quickly giving up hope of this blog post coming together.  Maybe I’ll just go take some pics for you.

Hoping that all is well with you there, north or south of the Equator.  Signing off for now, much love, Felipe.

I was so proud of myself for getting that hot link in the post earlier this morning.  Then must have fat fingered something and lost half of the post.  So here I am back with you.  And back to Cris and the Camino.

The hospitalero from the albergue in Rabanal said it: “the little we think we can do for the other may just be all the other needs”.  We were so materially poor on the trail but we provided for each other what the Camino itself didn’t.  We learned to help the other.   Let’s see what do I have,  four day old sausage, a liter of water, a bandaid and a head full of poetry.  Will any of that help?

Sometimes we felt like the other.  How can that be?  How can I be the other?  The lines blurred.  We learned.

OK, out of time again.  Bless you this day.  Love, Felipe.

Well we survived the weekend.  Here we are ready to take on the “real” world.  But it is Holy Week and that calls for some special attention.  Special attention for Sister Joyce as she is recovering from hip replacement surgery.  Prayers for her would be much appreciated.  And speaking of the Sister, she wrote a nice article about Phil’s Camino the trail in Salt magazine.  Kathy from Dubuque came up with the link for that:

https://www.bvmcong.org/downloads/Winter%20SALT%202017-online.pdf

There!  I’m so proud of myself when I accomplish something tricky.  Yes, Felipe and computers, kind of like “Bambi meets Godzilla”.

Cris from Buenos Aires and William from Alberta, Canada have been very active communicating with us here at  Caminoheads lately.  Maybe we all feel isolated geographically from one another but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel community here.  We are the “Flow of Pilgrims” still!  Keeping the flame alive is most important.

Cris had a quote from one of her hospitaleros recently that I thought I could do something with.

(half my blog post disappeared.  Have to fix it tomorrow. Felipe.)

It’s warming up and looking half way decent out there on the trail.  Bring your rubber boots along still just in case.  I am trying to be out of town on 4/7-4/11 so those walks will be cancelled but here is the regular schedule otherwise:

Monday 0900-1000

Tuesday 1600-1700

Thursday 0900-1000

Sunday 1600-1700

Come by, Felipe.x

Father David put on a heck of a Mass this AM.  Catherine and I were there for the Blue Collar Mass at 0800.  This is Palm Sunday celebrating when Jesus entered Jerusalem and shot us ahead into the middle of the mystery of Holy Week.

So, we had our first Sunday tailgate party today in the parking lot of the supermarket.  We wrote a card for Sister Joyce and talked with passerbys.  This is one of the things that we do best.  It was not exactly warm out but we made it happen.

We made this elaborate plan to pilgrimage to church on Good Friday.  It sounds like the perfect day to do it but I forgot that I have to be in treatment that day.  Maybe we could hike on Thursday instead.  OK, off to plan B.

I just by mistake started playing the Camino Podcasts on my pad here.  This particular one is an hour on El Cid and Roland two famous historic characters associated with the Camino.  That sounds really interesting although I don’t have time to sit still for an hour.  Annie and I did a podcast for Camino Podcasts back a few years ago.  Think that it was something like number 2 or 3.  Yea, check that out sometime.  It is called Phil’s Camino maybe or something similar.  I will try and listen to one of those on my next treatment day at the hospital when I am confined to the comfy chair.

Yea, Holy Week, happening right now.  We will talk more about it as the days unfold.  Once again thanks for being with us.  Alperfect once again, love and stuff, Felipe.

We have been batting this topic of hospitality around for a few posts and dear neighbor and general coconspirator Catherine send this comment in yesterday.  This was so lovely and well written that I am just stealing it whole cloth:

“So beautifully expressed, Felipe. One of my largest lessons on the Camino was how grateful I felt for the smallest acts of hospitality, from people along the route and fellow pilgrims. I remember one morning, it was early and pouring rain, we had taken a wrong turn and were a mile or so off the way. We found a little cafe where we could dry out and get some hot coffee before heading on. The owner of the cafe insisted on driving us down the road where we could rejoin the path. He roused his wife to mind the cafe and loaded us in his tiny car for the drive. An American woman had recently gone missing and he wanted to reassure us that the way was safe, that the Hospitaleros and cafe owners were concerned about us pilgrims and deeply respected our endeavor. It was nothing and it was everything because of the intention with which he offered. We never know when we will need hospitality and as a result feel honored to offer it when we can. It was and always is a pleasure to have you and Rebecca in our home, and as Dana said let’s do it again soon, before its too late for spring nettle risotto. Camino love Felipe.”

So, if or short term topic is hospitality and our long term topic is about how our Camino really starts in Santiago, let’s put them together maybe.  So, if the Way has taught us to love God and our fellow man, to be trusting and open, to risk, to share, to be present to all situations and to be grateful for what we have.  So, if we are grateful then we are likely to be relaxed enough to be generous.  If we are present to all situations we will notice when someone needs something, food, drink, shelter, acknowledgement, encouragement.  So maybe we will feel moved to share what we have in time and treasure.  We will make ourselves vulnerable.  We will risk because we have learned to see Christ in others.

This isn’t always easy but we are working on it.  And we will need help and hospitality ourselves as we go down the trail.  It’s all a two way street, the give and the take.

OK, make it happen, always in love, Felipe.x

Geez,  it all start so very innocently.   I thought, OK I’ll do this one online banking move before I do the blog.  It was probably clumsy me but managed to get locked out of my account and it took talking to two real people to get back to where I started.  Life used to be so simple, now there is this extra layer that seems oh so vital, oh so can’t do without.

Before this all started I was admiring how the steam was rising off my hot coffee and thought maybe that would be a blog.  I don’t know if you see steam off your coffee where  you have central hearing.  Here in the early morning when the wood fire is being nursed into existence it is still chilly and steam definitely rises off my coffee.  Little did I know that the steam would be rising off of me after my friendly online banking worked me over.

But it is a trade off, at worst or at best.  Yesterday FaceTimed with Cris from Buenos Aires for an hour.   She described the weather changing to fall down there as I was sitting outside in the middle of glorious spring here.  All that is a little strange to grasp.  We are all striving to be less provincial I suppose and need to learn to encompass that.

This Sunday is the start of Holy Week, Palm Sunday.  And Easter will be my Fourth anniversary of entering the Church.  I am so happy with that.  I am really floating along on their support.  I am a patient in God’s Hotel and finding that a happy end in itself.

Yup, time to get out of my jammies and face the world.  Time to tackle the firewood project.  Two more trees to fell and split up.  (madrona here or madrone in California, Arbutus menziesli, madroño in Spanish).  It is an important task of the calendar as the wood has to dry for most of a year to be ready to burn well next winter.   OK, you are my favorites, love, Felipe of the North.

We had the pleasure of dining with Catherine and Dana last evening.  Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, asparagus, kale and I made some cornbread.  I love seeing a whole golden brown roast chicken, it has got to be a celebration.  What a great occasion but at the same time a simple meal.  So great eating over there, a form of sanctuary really.  The hospitality is so thick and wide that it makes up for all the chaos and clutter of the day.

We need a constant reminder to hold that space for someone coming.  Maybe we don’t know who that is but that doesn’t really matter.  We offer hospitality because that is who we are or who we are trying to be.  Maybe this blog is a form of hospitality.  We organize the space to offer you a place to rest and recharge away from the chaos and clutter.  Yea, I like it.

Short and sweet today.  I start my day out by having a 9 o’clock walk and have to find my boots.  We are back to the mud and the puddles after all the latest few rainy days.  We are having a kind of herky jerky escape from winter.

OK, you are the best.  Keep smiling.  Love, Felipe.