This is going to be the shortest blog post in history.  Not that I wouldn’t want to dilly dally with you but juggling with too many balls in the air currently.  Maybe more like dominoes falling.  Anyway, need to ask for a break today.

But, it’s a fresh new day today and that’s what is important.  Always yours, love, Felipe.x

Here I am, Monday morning, wrapped in my prayer shawl thinking about our walk yesterday.  The weather was cold and overcast but the walkers were warm and enthusiastic and tapas happened afterward.  That may be a good bumper sticker, “tapas happen”, just an idea.

I think it was some kind of record for Phil’s Camino, except maybe for opening day way back in December of 2013.  Anyway we had nine walkers and three doggies.  I think I managed to walk with everyone, at least for a little way.  One of the folks is going to Spain this summer to walk and that was fun to talk to her about it.

Let’s see, what else is new.  Annie just put up a bunch of festival news on the previous post here at Caminoheads.  I am headed off to California in a few weeks the accompany Phil’s Camino (the film) to the San Francisco Documentary Festival.  We are in a catagory of documentaries called Cool Old Guys or Old Cool Guys, yea, should be fun.  And on top of that I get to stay with old friends in Menlo Park while I am there.

OK, off to read Richard Rohr and Terry Hershey blogs.   Then on to my day.  OK, all the best to you, love, Felipe.x.

On February 18, 2014 I woke up and had no idea how my life would change that day. That was the day that I got an email from Phil. It was a beautiful letter, describing what he called ‘my deal’, and what I now know to be his Camino. He invited me to come and walk his Camino, and I realized that since my husband and I had plans to fly in and out of Seattle in just a few weeks time, I could accept that beautiful invitation. On March 2, 2014, I found myself on a ferry heading over to a place called Vashon Island. There I met Phil, who told me to look for ‘the guy in the red hat’, and he took me to his home. Drinking a cup of tea before heading out on his Camino I felt just as excited as when I would drink a cup of tea on the Camino de Santiago before heading out for a full day of walking! Exactly the same, no difference at all! I wished that my husband could be with us because I wanted to film the experience. I distinctly remember thinking, “Somebody has to make a movie about this guy.” Well, here we are, that somebody was me, and that movie is Phil’s Camino, a 28 minute documentary short!
We have screened the film at 7 festivals so far, winning awards at 4 of them. I truly feel like getting into the festival is a huge award, and I wouldn’t even bring up awards except that I am still fundraising, and I think it makes a difference to folks to know that the film is getting acknowledged by juries and audiences alike. Here is our schedule for June, minus one festival that hasn’t publicly announced yet:

June 2, 1 screening at the South Bay Film Festival (LA area)
June 4 & 6, 2 screenings at the San Francisco DocFest (Roxie Theater in San Francisco)
June 11 &12, 2 screenings at the deadCenter Film Festival in Oklahoma City
June 23, 1 screening at the Nantucket Film Festival
June 25, 1 screening at the AFI film festival in Washington, DC

If you have friends at any of those cities, please encourage them to go to the film festival website and purchase tickets to whatever the shorts program Phil’s Camino is part of.
If your friends are in San Francisco, I am working on getting the man himself — Phil, Red Hot, Felipe — to one or both of the screenings so he can be there for the Q&A that will follow the film. I know I don’t have to tell all of you Caminoheads how much audiences LOVE Felipe! It is a thrill to do a Q&A with him! Joy beyond joy! One of the many many many gifts that this film brings to everyone who sees it. I will be doing a fundraiser on Wednesday evening i Redlands, CA, and as I mentioned, I continue to fundraise, with the website accepting donations ( www.philscamino.com ) My book sales continue to feed into Phil’s Camino, and you can find my book, Everyday Camino with Annie at www.everydaycaminowithannie.com People also plan fundraisers, which is great: the fundraiser on Wednesday night was suggested by none other than Carol, who was Phil and Rebecca’s “Handler” when we went to SXSW. Oh yes, Phil definitely needs a handler, ha ha! Just ask Kelly and Rick, who held that job when they walked the Camino with him, ha ha! Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to plan a fundraiser. You can always private message me on Facebook, (which reminds me, have you ‘liked’ the Facebook page for Phil’s Camino yet? Also friend me, since I post there about Phil’s Camino all the time) or email me at [email protected]
In any case, I know so many of you Caminoheads have supported Phil’s Camino financially as well as prayerfully, and I am so very thankful for you. I include you in my prayers, and say prayers of thanks with every film festival submission fee, and with every bill that I pay. Phil’s Camino wouldn’t be where it is today without you. Thank you.

So let us walk forward today knowing and feeling the presence of our Camino Family that Phil has created here. How lucky we are to walk together!
Buen Camino,
Annie

Annie O Neil
Producer/Director: 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

310-403-4228

Back from Mass with Catherine and I feel full.  Mass is a meal and I am full today afterward.  Part of it is that it is Pentecost Sunday a major day in the Church calendar marking the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Disciples, to the World.  Father’s Mark’s homily was magnificent as usual and included the phrase, ” We can’t do what we don’t remember.”.   That is the basic idea of  this holy day and  of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is the spirit that dwells within us and is a reminder of Christ’s message, love as the centerpiece of life.

And part of the Mass today was the realization that Father Mark will be leaving soon to be replaced by another priest.  So, we were savoring him in a way.  Savoring his brand of heart, his brand of poetic communication.

What else is happening?  This I just noticed is the 800th post on this blogsite.  Pretty dang amazing!  We have been gabbing for almost two years now.  How can that be?

So, we have a walk later today, hope things cheer up a little outside as it is overcast and chilly today.  A friend is coming with her whole meditation group to be here with us.  Yea, never a dull moment!

Well, time to get started on my day.  Hope to see you or talk to you soon, love, Felipe.x

Yes, we are walking on Phil’s Camino and yesterday we  the halfway mark on our second trek “across Spain”.   Since the coming of spring we have gotten more visitors and pilgrims from out of town.  So, it is here for you when you get a chance to be in the neighborhood.

Physically the trail here is in good shape.  The winter standing water is gone and most days it is warm and dry.  Might need boots for a morning walk when the grass is wet from dew.

Monday 0900-1000

Tuesday 1600-1700

Thursday 0900-1000

Sunday 1600-1700.

See ya, Felipe.x

I’m here on the red leather couch wrapped in my prayer shawl.  It’s early and a little chilly and it is keeping me warm.  This beautiful shawl came in from a lady in New Zealand who sent one for me and one for Terry Hershey after reading Terry’s latest book Sanctuary, where I was mentioned.  Thank you kind Kiwi woman.

Also a heavy package came in yesterday from Tom up in Minnesota with six beautiful wooden signs, all with Phil’s Camino themes.  Tom started sending these to us in March.  Then in April he drove all the way down to St Louis to the APOC Gathering to see our documentary and bring some more signs.  The guy’s on fire.  Thanks Tom.

Then yesterday I picked up an old friend, Ivette, from the airport.  Great that she will be here for a visit.  Thank you Ivette for making the effort.

Then yesterday Nancy from Oregon showed up to walk Phil’s Camino.  I don’t know exactly how she first heard about us but she contacted me and we worked out the details for her visit.  Very nice soulful visit and first class Caminohead, Nancy is.  Thank you.

Roan, Cynthia’s big Irish Setter will be with us for a few days.  He loves to walk Phil’s Camino.  It will be fun to work with him again.  Thanks Cynthia.

So yea, things are coming and going here at the ranch.  Everyday we are learning more and connecting better.  And everyday we have to remember to be thankful.  The best to you all, love, Felipe.x

Our Catherine and I walked Phil’s Camino yesterday morning.  We did our usual three laps engrossed in our usual great conversation.  Then we decided to say the rosary together as we walked another lap (.88 km) because  the layout of one lap is in fact a giant rosary.  We walk and say the prayer and know where we are by the six bird feeders which mark the six places that “Our Father’s” are said.   Although, sometimes I use the actual rosary as I walk,  increasingly I am just using the walk as a rosary which has a great feel as long as I don’t get distracted by too much along the way.

So, we said it out loud and I added a few explanations here and there so our timing didn’t always work out but we got it done just the same.  With a little more practice we will work though the prayer and there will be just the right amount of time and space to say it and that is with no frills, just the basics as I learned out of the Magnificat Rosary Companion.

This little beautiful book the “Companion” has reproductions of famous frescos (paintings done on wet plaster) mostly all by a man known to us as Fra Angelico.  They mark various important places in the prayer.  So my memory has captured these images and they appear to me at the right points “along the prayer”.  So, the trail, the six bird feeders and the mental images work together to give a beautiful new way to experience this age old prayer.  Works for me anyway.

My good email friend Kate Barush (Catalina B) will be up here at Phil’s Camino over this Memorial Day weekend to check this out first hand.  She is an Art Historian from one of the Catholic colleges in Berkley.  It will be fun to walk, pray and work with her on this.  Annie O’ Neil brought us together, thank you Annie.

So, I just wanted to bring you up on the current news on Fra Angelico (1387 – 1455), which needed doing.  We need to dust him off here at Caminoheads and put him back to work.   OK, got to get ready for my city trip and the rest of my day.  Dusty loves, Felipe.x

I had a special request to see more of our little animal friend Schnoz.  We are making that happen for you Erin.  Also a video from Lucia, my Italian Camino buddy, by the late Lucio Dalla,  national treasure.  We are sticking with the animal theme as this one is entitled “Attenti Al Lupo” ( my translation – Beware the Wolf).   Lucia turns me on to all kinds of great Italian music and culture.

I got a lot of comment on yesterday’s post “The Best Compliment Ever”.   It was a kind of Springtime breakthrough for me, casting off winter finally.  So happy to share it with you.

Also, people write in to Caminoheads, after seeing our YouTube stuff and get hung up in the Spam filter and don’t make it through to me.  I know you are out there, keep the faith, alperfect.

And ” Treatment Center – the Musical” has struck a cord with some of you.  Let’s keep thinking and meditating on it and bring it into focus.  I’m seeing it as a platform to talk issues and bring hope.  Alperfect again.

Off to to walk on this gorgeous morn, anon, musical loves, Felipe.

It’s my every other Wednesday treatment day at Swedish Cancer Institute.  It’s my 69th chemo treatment, gosh really?  And the last few months I have been in this rut of thinking my visits here were looking like the repeating day in the movie Groundhog Day.    Remember?  Yea, it was my own little pitiful movie, “Treatment Day”.

Anyway, walking through the parking lot this morning I decided that that had to go, go far away.  I needed to remember that this was treatment for me, for my benefit and the alternative of not having treatment would bring radical changes to my well being.  So, I made the old attitude adjustment, right there in the time that it took to walk across the lot, no muss no fuss.

Then inside shortly afterward a woman came up to me and asked, “How come you are so  happy?”.  Like here you are with cancer and you’re happy.  Aren’t you supposed to be glum?   I was lost for words at first but realized that it was an incredible compliment.  I was happy on the inside and it was spilling out.  Nice.  Thank you.

So, yea, life at the hospital, trying to make it fun.   How can that be?  Well, here for instance, I just absconded with an AARP mag from the waiting room and what does it say on the cover?  It says, “Best Sex Ever!  We Show You How  Page 52.”.   OK then, groovy, this could be better than the sixties.

And one nurse I just learned was an English Major so I am hitting her up for help with the blog, gramer and speeling stuff.  And she has a great singing voice and we decided that there needs to be a musical called Cancer Treatment Center.   Maybe the least likely place in the world, where you think that there would be a musical, bursts into song!  We need to work on this.  This could be the next big project after Phil’s Camino documentary.  We have a vision!

So, life goes happily on and love you, Felipe.

Just paid GoDaddy $33 and some cents to get Caminoheads.com for another two years! Now I have to last that long and have that much to say.  Hmm.  Can he do it?!   We’ll see I guess.  Who would have thought that I would have made it this far and had all these fabulous adventures.  Right?  So stay tuned.

What else is new?  Speaking of fabulous, a gorgeous blue sky up there this AM.  The exact kind of sky we dream about all winter here in Seattle.  Thank you.

Also, received a nice email back from Joyce Rupp, author of, Walking In A Relaxed Manner, the book that I have been raving about lately.  I just took a chance and wrote her letting her know about Phil’s Camino and the happenings in Dubuque.  She lives in the great state of Iowa.   What can I say but Caminoheads recognize each other.  Thank you.

I need some more coffee.   OK, there, alperfect.   So, yes, the topic of the next two years.  It reminds me of our wonderful neighbor Gladys that insisted on buying a new garden rototiller at age ninety three.   Never quit, right?   Well, there you go, kind of answered my own question there.  I guess how many days God gives me, I will try and fill with blogposts on how to keep the Camino Flame burning.   Because the Camino never ends, right?  Always new friends, new vistas, new ideas, new insights.  Really, I couldn’t have guessed at all the wonderful things that have happened in the last two years.  And couldn’t have guessed at all the wonderful people that I have met along the way also.   Thank you.

Yea, I have heard these words, “In non medical terms, God is keeping you alive so that you can complete your mission.”  That’s pretty heady.  I’m honored.  I will do my best.  Thank you.

Off to see Our Jennifer, will say hello for you.  Only the best blue skies for you today, love, Felipe.