It still takes me by suprise, the Sabbath Moment coming in to me early Monday morn via email. A friend, Terry Hershey, writes this weekly newsletter and to sit at the beginning of the week with my trusty cup of coffee and read Terry is special. It could be on par with Monday Night Football which has been my pick for the high point of Western civilization. They both have the Monday thing going which could be important.

The Monday thing is important and is sort of a mini of the time of year we are at now. The start of the new year full of the whole world of resolutions and the start of the week full of lists, promises and “I’ll do betters”. Terry talked about the new year head space in the post today and how … Well, you could read it for yourself, Google “Sabbath Moments”.

Time for breakfast, see you later, St James is afoot, love, Felipe.

This is my third try at a blogpost today, maybe this one will work. I might need a turkey leftovers sandwich to have the energy to get through this. Sounds good, I think I will get that out of the way right now!

OK, good one, washed it down with some cherry jello. We are eating a lot of
that these days, trying to improve our nails as the chemo tears them up so. Now no excuses, we’re fueled up and ready to go.

The toughest time of the year for me to get through is happening right now, the old bleak mid winter. The long darkness in the evenings is just ridiculous. Come June I will be outside trying to take advantage of all the daylight and work up to 9:30 at night. Now at the end of December it is getting dark five hours before that. What to do?

At Our Jennifer’s I came across a quote that was by Anonymous and went, “You only know a year if you have seen all four seasons.” Good, I get that. But what to do with winter, really? I am just not at one with it. There must be some way to use it and make it work for me. Seems like there is only so much TV one can watch and only so may books one can read.

I do find myself daydreaming of spring when the rains slack off and the sun dries out the soil and that magic medium starts warming up enough to germinate seeds. It is always such a miracle to watch those little seeds start that rampage of growth, amazing. I feel Pilgrim Farmer Juan reading over my shoulder enjoying this. Of course, he plants a thousand seeds for every one I plant but the rush is the same regardless.

But this all is not stopping us from walking these days. I was out today with Cynthia, a new walking partner who has done the Camino Norte. And it looked pretty darn Norte out there with lots of rain/snow mixed. And she busted a hole in her rubber boots to boot. Always something. And there was mist between the dark green firs. And the alders were showing reddish and the willows a yellowish to complete the subtle palette. The beauty in winter is a subtle one for sure.

Well back to work tomorrow. And doing my regular walk in the morning and an additional one late in the day for some folks coming from Seattle on pilgrimage. Yea, I am starting to realize that this here, this little Camino, is a pilgrimage for folks. They are coming to experience something different, something special.

OK, look at us, we got a blogpost hammered out on a dark evening in the bleak midwinter, no problemo. Thank you for being here.

No problemo loves, Felipe.

Right, I would love to celebrate this one if I only knew what to do. Does one actually box or are other sports OK, ping pong maybe? Or does this have to do with actual boxes? Boxes are fun, I guess. Would someone enlighten us? This is a British deal maybe. See I don’t know squat on this one, need your help.

OK, here we are, blog time. My favorite time of day, well maybe a close second to tapas. To be with you is special though, here or at tapas. If you could help me figure out the day, that would be helpful. If you could check on this blister right here, is it OK? Just want to see you and laugh at your jokes.

Ah, our daughter and grandson just checked in on FaceTime. My Rebecca usually covers this activity but she is still in the sack. Yea, had to see all the new toys that Osian got. The basketball hoop looked like a big hit, Rebecca’s idea.

While I am thinking about it I want to tell you about something that happened the other day to the Cancer Commandos. We received a nice compliment from one of the nurses. You guys know that Our Jennifer and I travel together to our appointments and we get our treatment together, well adjacent to each other. All this sort of stretches the place’s privacy policies. But we have everyone trained now to handle us together. This includes having a table right by our two chairs at the treatment center so we can unpack our table cloth, candle (battery power) and picnic lunch. There was a rumor that we were sneaking wine in but I don’t know how true that is. Anyway, the staff is always checking in to see how the pumps are doing or if we are comfortable or just to hang out with the Commandos. This time we were done with soup and sandwich lunch and we were sort of lounging with the candle burning, me blogging probably and Jennifer reading a big glossy magazine with the general chaos of the hospital going on around us. One of the nurses walked in on our cozy scene and said, “You guys look like you are in your own living room.” Somehow at that moment we were successful! Nice, Commando Caper completed in style.

OK, time to make turkey soup with the leftover of the Christmas bird. See you tomorrow. but love in the present, Felipe.

Yea, Christmas 2015, here we are sports fans! How do we do it year after year, to make it back here to this place? 8:00 AM right now, the family is stirring. I got all the dishes done and the fire in the stove is pumping out heat.

Yea, I know, some Christmas’s are more ragged than others, true. I was in boot camp for the Christmas of 1966 being mentored by Marine Staff Sargent McDonald; that was interesting and attention getting. But somehow we get through the hard ones. Maybe that makes the good ones more sweet, I don’t know.

Thinking of you where you are there, whether good times or bad, north or south of the equator, in or out of trouble, bald or hairy. Just keep walking, things will change, they always do, have you noticed? And the foundation of the whole situation is that God loves us and there is nothing we can do about that. He sent his Son, have you noticed?

You guys are the best, absolutely, love, Don Felipe of Viana.

Before light here and Christmas Eve here. A few words are better than a lot of words right now. Bless you, fellow pilgrims. Look for the star. Buen Camino! As always, love you all ways, Felipe.

I forgot to include this wonderful piece with the lovely note on the back. It is a print of a painting done on stage during a musical concert. This artist is named Spencer and is a friend of Wiley’s. Anyway, just a note of explaination in that the image is a bird’s eye view of the outline of Vashon-Maury Islands were we reside. Then there is a wonderful sunset landscape within.

Thank you Spencer!

When I was little in the snowbound world of Buffalo, New York my folks would always put up our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. This was so that there would be as much separation as possible between the celebration of Christ’s birthday and mine. Yea, it helped some. But then there was the math of it which occurred to me early on. I had’t had algebra yet but it looked to me like kids that had “regular” birthdays, in June say, got 2X loot, adding their birthday take to their Christmas take, while I was pulling in something like 1 1/2 X yearly. And this was the era of Dr Spock, with all the new thinking about relaxing the old school stuff with the kid’s upbringing. Obviously no one in my neighborhood managed to find the time to read that one as we were still living under the “don’t spoil the kid” rules then.

OK, so maybe I ranted a little there but what the heck. The important thing though is to get the separation idea. Right now I am going to show you a few pics from the birthday flotsam and jetsam. And then we will be done with my little itty bitty birthday and get back to the Advent of the Big Guy’s starting mañana.

OK, two more items: there is a podcast of a brand new interview with me and then with Annie O’Neil about Phil’s Camino. I am going to attempt to give you a hot link but…

Phil’s Camino Podcast

Also here is a link to a video of “Better Together” from Island in the Air in Barcelona, Spain. These are all folks mentored by Our Laura.

Laura’s Better Together

OK, maybe that all worked. I am slowly creeping my way up the 21st century learning curve. Sound familiar? Loves to you there where ever you are today, Birthday Boy Felipe.

First thank you to all the folks that sent in birthday wishes to old Felipe. Warms the heart knowing all you guys are out there for me. So, here are a few shots along Phil’s Camino showing you the winter by day and then shots from last night’s outdoor party. The whole situation is a little water logged but fun.

Well, it will take four or five days to start to see a significant change in the amount of daylight but believe me we are ready for it. And I know, I know it’s not a bucket of flowers but I was inspired by something Catalina our art history babe from Berkley wrote. She was winging her way through the sky on her way to Christmas destinations and emailed a birthday wish from the “aeroplane”. She is a historian so maybe we should give her a little leeway on this one or perhaps this is some super newfangled mode of transport we are not up on yet. Anyway, clarification is needed.

So, life goes on. We are crawling out from under the party debris and picking up Our Jennifer and off to the big city today for our gallon of chemo then off to a Caminohead’s dinner tonight. Yup, stamina is needed. Best wishes, love, Felipe.

Hi gang, guess what? It’s my birthday today and I am taking the day off from the blog. But who shows up with important matters to share but Annie O’Neil. Annie is an old time Caminohead with lots of credentials, so listen up!

Hi everybody, Annie here! I asked Phil if I could write something to let everyone know where we are with the film and he graciously agreed. It is hard to step in, knowing that you all — we all — come to hear his words of wisdom, his words of contemplation, his words of silliness, and to just walk together. Please forgive me for butting in like this. I just wanted to let you know that the film “Phil’s Camino” is coming right along, and the end is in sight! It looks like we will be going into the post production facility in January to finish the film by doing the color correcting and sound mixing. This is almost as exciting as walking into Santiago!

I have set up a new Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise the $17,000 it will cost to finish the film. I know that so many of you have given generously in the past. Thank you. If you feel so moved, take a look at the site, and see if this is something that you would like to share with some friends. It is very powerful to share it on Facebook, or in an email, writing about how you have supported this film in the past, and that they may want to, as well. For those who are looking for tax deductions as the year winds to an end, I now have a fiscal sponsor, so all donations are now tax deductible!

I hope you can see some photos from the Oakland sneak peek preview, where Phil’s Camino was shown on a big screen for the very first time. Wow! I can’t wait til we can all watch it on the big screen together. It is impressive, and oh so heartwarming.

I recently had lunch with Dan Bern, the talented singer-songwriter who wrote the song “Come and Walk, Walk with Me” for the film. He reminded me of one of the reasons why I wanted to make this film in the first place: this film is a beacon of light. We are living in some tough times. Even bleak times, when we hear of the tragedies at a holiday party in San Bernadino, in a church in North Carolina, in Paris. It can feel overwhelming. How do we fight these seemingly dark forces? Well, one way might be by affirming life. Affirming the light in the face of the dark. Dan told me that he was so very happy to be part of such a life affirming project. So many of you have already become part of this life affirming project, and I hope that you, too, will remember that as we make our way through these troubling times. We are doing our part! We are affirming life! We are spreading Phil’s incredible spirit and goodness, and it makes a difference. I can tell you firsthand from watching people see the rough cut, and from hearing what they have to say afterwards. Wow! If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at http://igg.me/at/philscamino2015

Thank you so much for letting me write this today. Felipe will be right back with his inimitable musings on life, love, and all things Camino! Buen Camino everyone! I am so happy we are walking together!

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

Here we are at the last Sunday in Advent. We wait on the Lord. If possible go deep to the place where this is the only thing that makes sense anymore. This is the prep for the Nativity.

So, back on the blog site level, please you have permission to read the comment and replies. None of this is confidential and it is some of the best stuff around these parts. People like Pilgrim Farmer John from Iowa writes beautifully (for a Marine), for instance, and he has a way of tweaking me and I reply and back and forth we go. This banter has produced some great thoughts and the genesis of at least one of my “want to do” projects. And there are other great personalities that bring up all sorts of ideas and angles which enrich the whole situation. So please check that out.

So speaking of Juan from Iowa, he is off on his year end’s review of 2015. Here I am giving it my best whine about how much I have yet to do for Christmas and he is showing off already working on New Year’s, gee wiz. If you had checked out the comment and reply on yesterday’s “I Do Appreciate You” you would already know that though. See how it works?

OK, enough for now. Love you, Pilgrim Farmer Felipe.