I am sharing something with you that I feel the need to. Not that I don’t trust you to understand but because I guess I am reluctant to admit my weakness. Everyday I hear of a new lovely person who has gotten a cancer diagnosis or a new lovely person who this or that is wrestling with the cancer problem. I feature myself as strong and able to handle all this news or able to talk with them or listen to their story on a moment notice.
But it is wearing on me. I do know that I have the knowledge and ability to help others whether they are lovely folks with the direct problem or lovely people who are caregivers that are having their own brand and share. I guess I am describing a form of caregivers fatigue in myself. I must pray for strengthen for myself. I can’t really help others if I don’t help myself first.
I must pass this along to God. It is too heavy for me to carry but nothing is impossible with him. He is available, I just have to bring it.
Thanks for letting me get that out. I feel better already. Well, off to a big week. I have money making work to do and I have my treatment to do. I have my doctors and nurses to meet with. There are walks and tapas in between all that, pilgrims coming and going. Thanks for helping me cope.
Lovely person that you are, thanks for hanging out with me here, it is turning into a special little corner of the big universe. Big universe loves, Felie.x
We are moving along toward Ponferrada. It is about twenty km away. We are currently in the town of Manharin. Plenty of blackberries still for foraging as we walk.
The owls woke me up at 4 AM. It seemed like they were right behind the house, maybe a half dozen of them. What a racket and then they woke up the ravens and they were adding their own luny sounds to the song. By the time I got organized to find my IPad to try and record it they had moved off to the Northeast. One of these times I will capture it and you will hear it. More wild kingdom in your future.
Then we were off to Mass, Catherine and I. We got a chance to have coffee with Father David our new parish priest. I got his email address so we can try and get him over to walk. He wants to walk the Camino so we can break him in. After that coffee we went up to town and had another coffee and accompanying doughnut. Well we had to do our tailgate theology routine in the supermarket parking lot.
Then we hosted My Rebecca church folks for a picnic. We had chicken and potato salad and all that good stuff. And some walked the trail with me and others watched Phil’s Camino with Rebecca.
So big day. Time to relax and watch the Mariners. The best to you, love, Felipe.
We are back in air from the NW Territories Canada. It is going to be in the seventies for the next five days. This is weather to get things done in.
OK, check this out. The big news that I just saw this morning on FaceBook was that Phil’s Camino is going to be showing in Australia! This is so exciting for me. This is the first big leap overseas. Look up Heart of Gold International Film Festival on your wifi machine. It looks like it will be playing with a group of short films in six different locations in September and October. Amazing! There is a lot of interest in the Camino from Down Under. People that I keep in touch with there have been asking when they were going to able to see it and here it is their chance. I am so happy about this.
My Rebecca is having her church’s annual picnic here tomorrow. People will also probably want to walk the trail and see the film. All good.
Well, need to saddle up and get going here, chores and party prep are waiting. Thanks for all your support. Have a good one, Love, Felipe.
I am really cherishing this hour right here right now. This hour talking with you. At nine o’clock things will happen but that’s not now. It is so peaceful right here, just the kind of space to get things done, figured out, expressed.
We had three lovely visitors yesterday to walk and get the experience here. Bill and Janeen and the dogs joined us so we had a merry crew. People come to get touched by something I suppose you could say.
Today Maryka is coming for an hour of archery. She is an old time shooter and serious Caminohead. Then we will be joined by other rock solid Caminoheads Catherine y Dana who will get their first archery lesson this morning. They have been after me for a while to have this happen. Then this evening we are off to a dinner close by with some more lovely folks. Keeping surrounded by good positive people.
Just a handful of minutes left. I guess the message, today is to surround yourselves with positive, interesting people as much as possible. Everyone will prosper from that. Maybe that’s or biggest job these days, not to get beat up by negativity.
Well, time to get out the archery gear. Should be a fun morning. OK, make it happen where you are and see you tomorrow. Love always, Felipe.
Just a hint of a breeze, I can feel it on my cheek but can’t see it rustling anything. Fifty eight degrees now at eight in the morning. Going up to ninety by this afternoon.
I have a walk in a few minutes. Never quite know who will show up. The morning walks are good for contemplating and talking and saying the rosary. Afternoons are more rowdy with visitors and tapas. Today somehow I have both. This morning is scheduled and this afternoon have pilgrims from out of town so we are having a special walk. My Rebecca asked where these folks were coming from and I have to admit I don’t know. It is always interesting were folks hear about the trail. We will find out over wine in the shade later today.
Was thinking about all the great folks coming next month for the film festival. It will be a continuation of our trip to LA that we took last month in some ways. And then we will see other folks from other festivals also. We are part of the circuit now.
Well, the beat goes on as they say. More to happen with the film and the trail here. More to happen with our lives. And we will be here at the blog to sort it all out. Love as always, Felipe.x
We had an historic walk and tapa time yesterday here at Phil’s Camino. All the old Camino walkers showed up: Kelly, Rick and Maryka. Rick’s wife Carolyn was here too. The only addition I could think of is Mary Margaret but that will have to wait for now.
Maryka was last here I don’t know when, it would have to be at least a year. It was so great to have her again. We did all the usual stuff plus watched the film, it was the first time she had seen it. She put her stamp of approval on on the film and our whole Phil’s Camino scene.
I so want to get Maryka together with Catalina our official unofficial art historian of the situation here. They both bring so much to the table. I’ll have to have her be the official unofficial head of something.
Just thinking of our group, of all the folks that come and walk and eat tapas. What a fantastic world wide community. This is our group, pilgrims from all over the place, what could be better.
Just sitting out on the deck in the morning light. A five mile an hour wind is blowing from the SW. Our daughter and family should be back home by now after an all night flight to the East Coast. The washer and dryer are making their particular noises. A car goes by. I’d forgotten how much noise and commotion two year old can generate. He’s a cute little guy though, busy trying to figure out the next thing. But it is quiet now.
My Rebecca is reading me a book, A Man Named Ove, I don’t know exactly why. I mean it is not uncommon for her to read to me but I’m not sure about this particular book. I am supposed to learn something maybe. The protagonist is a troubled soul and he can’t seem to escape himself. His mind is wrapped around the axle as they say, you just want to put him out of his misery, well I do. Maybe that’s the wrong attitude. Maybe I am supposed to feel I am glad that I am not that guy.
I find it very freeing to be out in nature to be able to be outside my myself there. That is what I am feeling right now sitting here listening and looking out. So great to be able to give myself a break.
A bevy of cars go by, ferry traffic. But what I am seeing out here in the distance is the fecundity in the plant world right now. The hawthorn, pear and apple trees are so loaded with fruit that they are sagging and look distorted. This is the time of year when main branches break and whole trees can be destroyed by their own success. A lesson here maybe.
Well, have to get back to the clean up, rounding up toys, putting the guest room back together, getting ready for the next guests. You will have to come some time. Be good to one another, love, Felipe.
Hey there Felipe-
There is no real brand new news today, although we have gotten into a few more festivals we cannot announce those until September.
Oh, wait, there is news!
As of last week, we have officially made our submission to the Academy to be considered for the 89th Academy Awards in 2017! Our Oscar category is Short Documentary. Yay!
Closer to home, I am getting ready, with the help of Carol Sorvig, of course, to submit all the names for the rooms we will be reserving at Ft. Worden. It is very important that you let us know ASAP if you would like a room there. The deal is a flat fee of $125 for a room from Thursday night until Monday morning. As I understand it, because they are offering Team PHIL’S CAMINO such a great deal, that is the flat fee, even if you don’t stay the entire time.You can let me know at philscamino@gmail.com if you would like to reserve one of those rooms. FYI, that is where Phil and Rebecca will be staying, and also CO Producer Denise Williamson, and Executive Producers Maggie and Bill Lynch. Executive Producer and Supervising Editor Doug Blush will be around, too!
I will be announcing a mini fundraising campaign for September and on into the Fall shortly. Still fine tuning that one 🙂
Anyway, how wonderful it is to be walking together on this beautiful day we have been given.
Love you.
Peace-
A
Annie O Neil
Director/Producer: Phil’s Camino www.philscamino.com
Co-producer and Pilgrim: Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago www.caminodocumentary.org
Author: Everyday Camino with Annie www.everydaycaminowithannie.com
Tory, Felipe and Ken at Raven Ranch after walking Phil’s Camino.
“The first man who actually measured the earth was a poet. The very idea of any man going out and taking the girth of the planet he lives on (and sometimes gets lost on) is in itself poetic. Wherever did he get the notion it could even be done? And just how did he do it? Didn’t it take a lot of apparatus, higher mathematics, and celestial engineering? Here if anywhere scientific curiosity mixes with poetic wonderment and they become the same thing.”
I remember vividly browsing in a secondhand store and opening a book randomly to that paragraph. How in the world could one guy be so lucky as to stumble across something like that? It doesn’t say much but it says a lot.
This is the way chapter three opens in Mapping by David Greenhood. He is writing about Ptolemy who was a resident of the ancient city of Alexandrea. He got it in his head that he could do this thing, measure the diameter of the earth and he did it with amazing accuracy, sort of in his backyard, well in 500 miles anyway. The book goes on to explain the method and calculations but we aren’t going there fascinating as that is, read the book.
What is important here is the idea, the fact that an individual can have a vision and act on it and accomplish something quite amazing. And not really an ego sort of thing but maybe closer to a contribution sort of thing. How do we rise above all the commotion of our lives and neighborhoods, so full of drama, to find a vision that is creative, different, helpful, inspiring. Are we capable of coming up with things on our own? Doesn’t it take organizations with resources, facilities and backing?
This whole notion of this possibility has been immensely inspirational to me. It is the sort of spirit of how Phil’s Camino came to be perhaps. There is a line in a Mary Chapin Carpenter song, “Couldn’t it happen?” Well, couldn’t it?
All this really got started this morning with reading Sabbath Moments blog by Terry Hershey my neighbor and buddy. Last week he had a story about a young Iraqi woman who competed in an Olympic swimming event and came in 28th. Yea? Well, she recently escaped from Turkey across to one of the Greek islands with a group in a small motor boat. Along the way the motor conks out and she and a few others jump in and swim the boat to Greece. And this week he had a story about a Iraqi man, a cellist who came out on the street and played shortly after a car bomb went off and killed a bunch of innocents. The swimming to Greece to deliver the boat and the playing the cello even while the dust settled were beautiful examples of this ability to envision and act.
OK, 471 words, long winded. Thanks Terry, thanks David, thanks Ptolemy, thanks Iraqis for inspiring us. Love you all out there in the big world, Felipe.
