Camino people have a certain lightness, a certain playful quality, yes. You move easily and are a dream to travel with. Complaining doesn’t occur to you, no. People looking in may think you unrealistic or naive but you have scars to prove something. But beside it all you have a certain something, a joy maybe, that can’t be denied. It’s contagious.

Camino people are certainly not dowdy, dreary or overly anything. You are are not well dressed or vain. You are a sort of human Swiss Army knife. You are not proud but you take pride. You smile when your socks are wet.

I can’t say that you don’t irritate me sometimes but then you are quick to forgive me when I chafe you, most times. When the trail is not smooth you shine. Why is that? You carried my pack one day. You had food when I forgot. You forgot when I promised and didn’t come through on something else. You don’t particularly like sardines and chocolate for breakfast; no one is perfect I guess.

I LOVE YOU GUYS!! Can you tell? Felipe.

I was going to whine about how stressed out I was feeling on the Christmas Camino here but just had some major breakthroughs on my web shopping. Yea, major progress. Now feeling just slightly stressed, Christmas cards yet to start.

OK then, let’s move along in this slightly stressed state which is immensely better; got blisters on just one foot instead of both. Maybe, just maybe we can get on top of all this holiday scurrying so we can finally get to some quiet place. We deserve it don’t we?

Also, WD-40 makes great stocking stuffer, just a little hint. It is my belief that half the world’s problems could be solved with the stuff, well OK maybe a third. It and duct tape could get us a long way down the road.

Alright, time to get to work, doing a bath remodel over at Our Jennifer’s. OK, so the plan is to get a grip on all the scurrying so we can get down to some serious contemplation on the other important stuff. Hang in there, love you still and even though, Felipe.

Just in the semi disorder of the countdown to Christmas, trying to maintain equilibrium. Padre Tomas sent in this tombomb for us and here is the link to an interview with God: www.InterviewWithGodSite.com .
Gracias Padre. He knows what we need.

A few moments ago I was doing dishes, cleaning up the flotsam and jetsam of last evening’s Caminoheads Belly Laugh Theatre. We watched “Mixed Nuts” with a young Steve Martin and other early greats. Anyway, back to dishes and clumsy me as I knocked over a wine glass on the drain board and the slightest bit of leftover red wine splashed out on the white surface. And there formed the nicest little red heart, about an inch across. Just quickly and just for me. It didn’t last long and changed into common blob due to, temperature change, coefficient of friction, surface tension or some other scientific dealy bob. Anyway, I saw it and took it in.

I don’t know how many times in Spain when hill climbing and me hot, tired and exhausted coming across a random heart rock in the trail. Just quickly and just for me. Yup, sometimes it is all you need, just have to pay attention.

Time to bundle up and go walk in a few moments. Maybe some of the Belly Laughers will show up to do it with me. Here we go, love your flotsam and jetsam, Felipe.

Just talking with Riley, Wiley’s girlfriend. Yea, Riley and Wiley, I know. Anyway Riley said, “I had that dream!” She said in her dream as a child she would drive to Maury Island with her Dad and get into totally un Maury territory. Something is telling me that perhaps this is some sort of architypical gateway that we are talking about here.

Interesting that Riley’s Dad was driving her, sort of showing the way. I failed to mention that while I was having my dream I was wishing to grab Wiley so that we could come back. Hmm.

Vashon Island is actually two islands. At some point in the early twentieth century they were connected by a short landbridge. So, there is the larger Vashon and the smaller Maury that we talk about collectively as Vashon Island. We live on the larger island, Vashon. Why is this important? Well, it wasn’t terribly except I had a dream last night about Maury that is somewhat revealing and I had to give you that background to help with what comes next.

So, the dream was that I motored over to Maury and got on a road that took me past a threatening raptor, along a thousand foot gorge and into a dusty town above the timberline. I was looking for a place to buy supplies for an implied journey. None of that stuff exists on Maury except maybe a threatening raptor occasionally.

Upon pondering this dream I recalled other dream trips to Maury Island where I drove up and up in elevation and crossed a pass, could have been in the Pyrenees. That happened on a small handful of occasions. Again, nothing like that exists on Maury Island here and now, so to speak.

And on pondering all this, it reminded me of dreams that I had in the innocence of childhood where I would walk out into our small backyard and go behind the garage and there would be a different world suddenly. It was a world of color that mimicked the palette of a children’s book that I was familiar with. The colors were rich and bold and exciting.

I had never made the connection before between these dreams that are so far apart in time. They seem related and speaking of the same surprise though. There is a place around the corner from reality where other possibilities are present, exhibiting a more exciting palette. It is just a short journey with maybe an occasional threatening raptor to sidestep but possible and not that hard. Hmm.

Is this the place of sanctuary that Terry Hershey talks about? Is it a hint that reality is only so real? Is it a place to get supplies for a further journey? I don’t know exactly but will ponder on. Thanks for being here for me, love you dreamily, Felipe.

I am going to lift a couple of paragraphs from Terry Hershey’s Sabbath Moment blog from yesterday:

“Last week was Jimmy V week on ESPN (named for Jimmy Valvano’s foundation and pledge to fight and beat cancer). This year they replayed the 2014 Jimmy V award speech of legendary ESPN anchor Stuart Scott about his seven-year-long battle with the disease.
“When you die, that does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and the manner in which you live,” Scott told those gathered. “So live. Live. Fight like hell. And when you get too tired to fight, lay down and rest, and let somebody else fight for you.”
Scott said the support of his family, friends, and bosses helped him through these hard times. “This whole fight, this journey thing is not a solo venture. This is something that requires support.””

“You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, anf the manner in which you live.” There are some mighty fine words to warm the hearts of Cancer Comanndos near and far. A lot of times we go on with the things that we do without the benefit of it being put into words like that. Thank you Stuart, well put buddy.

“This whole fight, this journey thing is not a solo venture.” There is a Camino deal if I ever heard of it. Maybe substitute Camino for “journey thing”; funny little way of putting it but we get it. Thank you Stuart.

Well, here we go begging, borrowing and stealing our way ahead. Seems to be what we are good at. Thanks for checking in on us here at Caminoheads. Remember we are smack dab in the middle of Advent. Seems all good to me, love, Felipe.

My breakfast eggs are on to boil, the fire is going strong, Aretha is singing Gospel in the background and I am savoring this week’s Sabbath Moment. Caminoheads comes out once a day to report on a journey, Sabbath Moment comes out weekly, Monday morn, to bring a deeper, broader look at the our world. It is written by a good friend and Vashon Islander Terry Hershey. Do check it out because if you like this you will like that for sure.

Terry and I fly on the same Spiritual Blue Angels Flying Team. Flying wingtip to wingtip with Grace without a worry. Today he was talking of a Christmas battlefield truce that happened in World War One. A sort of wave of kindness in the middle of the opposite. And this very morning, minutes before, I was sending kindness into the war zone that is my chest. Mine being sort of a mini of what Terry was inspired by and writing about. Amazing.

OK, making chicken salad for lunch for Our Jennifer. Moving on to handle the day, love you all, Felipe.

I was in Mexico in the early 1970’s, on a December 12th I first ran into her. Well, I ran into the celebration of her appearance which is pretty close to running into her. The enthusiasm that she inspires is over the top from what I observed.

Really don’t remember the small stuff but the rowdiness after dark was a thing of beauty. Lots of fireworks were flying around the town square lighting up the night. I was ducking stuff and amazed at the scene when the bull showed up. This was a metal contraption in the shape of a bull with four human legs propelling it around. The whole outside was packed with rockets and the bull would charge the crowds and cause general panic. As it ran around the square it would dodge into various buildings and rockets were coming out doors and windows. Wild and crazy all around.

The meaning of all this was sort of a mystery to me until much later when I learned more about Our Lady and the history of Mexico. Great stuff isn’t it? I think it wouldn’t hurt if we weren’t a little more enthusiastic about our beliefs around here. Enthusiastic love, Felipe.

All of the time we live by the watchwords of “Don’t get overwhelmed.” This meaning don’t let the bad stuff become too much. Keep in charge of the situation in other words. But this week has been exceptional in a little different way.

What do you think of a week that was full of remarkably good things to be on the verge of overwhelming. Not that everything was easy or unchallenging but it all was exceptional. Maybe I can power through this now and give you a rough idea.

Wednesday was my and Our Jennifer’s big every other week big treatment day. This is such a hurtle to get over and it isn’t always pretty but we did it once again. That was Wednesday and it is an all day project.

Then Thursday morning we received a blessing from Father Marc at St John Vianney’s here on the Island. He is such a positive warm person and so supportive of our mission. This is so inspirational to have this kind of backup.

Then back to the hospital on Friday to complete our treatment. Sister Joyce saw us afterward for an hour at her office. She was on her A game for us, all guns firing, if I can say that about a Sister. After hearing what was new with us she gave us a talk on the “thin moments” of life. These are moments when the distance between us and God is very close, when the veil is very thin. These are the moments that we would love to repeat, to experience again and again and again. Maybe specifically it would be the birth of a child or intense beauty or witnessing a heroic moment. We know it by our longing to get back there. These “thin moments” are glimpses of heaven according to Sister Joyce. Yes. This is rich juice to get us through the low times.

And then this morning I spent some time with friends talking with Art Kopecky who is president of Telious. This is an organization that oversees over a hundred men’s small group bible classes in Western Washington. I have been going to one on the Island for ten years now. And my other great connection is that Art walked the Camino this last summer and I had a chance to help with his preparation. Also a cool detail is that he took my walking sticks and used them and they went across again. Anyway, it a shot in the arm to be with him and just another good thing for me.

OK, just one more. I told you that I am overwhelmed. Then this early morning was one of my talks with the cancer messenger. He had me looking at a miniature scene like a diorama in a museum or interpretive center. It was a rectangular expanse of forest and we were looking down on the canopy. This was so thick that the ground could not be seen from our vantage point. It was clear to me, though implied, that there was a trail down there beneath somewhere to be walked and we were looking down on it in a bird’s eye view. And he said, “This is the day that you have.” Yes, simultaneously clear and obscure.

Well, there you have it. Have to go Skype with Angela in Australia. It’s all happening, this is the day that we have, love, Felipe.

Here we are in Advent, the few weeks before Christmas. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about the Camino and some of you that were there for me. That was in hotter than hot July and August. Maybe next time start May first or September first, right?

But that isn’t where my thoughts are today. What about those few hundred hardy souls that walk every month throughout the winter. Thinking about them, praying for them now. Hard corps, those guys. Buen Camino from our armchairs!

Well, Our Jennifer and I are off to Seattle today. I have to get my drivers license renewed while she does some Christmas shopping. Then off to the hospital to get our pumps off. After that we have meeting with Sister Joyce to wrap things up. Then dash out to catch a ferry before rush hour. That’s the plan and nice when things go uneventfully. But Commandos can handle the random hurtles anyway.

Yup, well, you have a good one. It’s good though uneventful or eventful for God enjoys our personal stories. Give us strength Lord, that is what we pray for. See you tomorrow friends, love, Felipe.