Well, that’s what it’s come to, I guess. One day you watch the “Way” then soon you are on to “Walking the Camino”, the documentary. Before you know it you are buying hiking boots and a pack and ordering plane tickets and using one of those goofy camping toothbrushes. And the end of all that is that now my big daily thought is how do I just make it to tapas.
Hehe, this has been my downward or upward spiral of the last three years. I know I have talked about this before but tapas still remain the high point of my day. And we had a great tapas yesterday. We have a new friend walking with us and enjoying tapas. He made a comment on how our group looked like something right out of the Way. Yea, we both have a common ancestor. Anyway I just threw my hat in the air to celebrate that news.
This “will work for tapas” occurred to me during the night. Maybe our thoughts and talks have gotten too deep and heavy and we needed some comic relief? That’s what I am thinking.
And tonight we have a Belly Laugh Theater session scheduled. I’m still am laughing over the last one where we watched “Naked Gun 2 1/2”. Yea, laughing is good. Off to lunch. I made mac and cheese for our hospital picnic lunch. Yummy loves, Felipe.
At some point during the night’s waking moments I had one of those crystalline thoughts that I immediately realized I needed to write down. But no, fell asleep again, as I was exhausted. Remarkably the thought persisted though and I could examine it twice more as I had my random awakenings and here it is morning and I still have it!
Fodder for these thoughts come from my own questioning and from conversing with cancer campers and commandos who I am in constant contact with. Seems we are preoccupied with the “big” questions. Why this or why that, right?
But OK, my thought was, “My purpose (earthly purpose) is not to try and live forever (earthly life) but to try and complete my journey (my purpose).” Am I fulfilling my mission as opposed to just trying to lengthen my life for it’s own sake. The stress, the emphasis should be on the journey that gives my life meaning and not on keeping this old body going at all cost.
If I surrender to God’s will I can move beyond this trap of worry about the importance of my own days. What are my days anyway if I give up on my journey, my mission? They are only important in terms of what I am doing with them!
Thank you for being with me here, wrestling in the goulash I call it lately. And this opens the way to being able to pray for myself better now. “Give me the days to fulfill my mission!” seems like a prayer that makes sense to me here and now.
Off to breakfast and work. Thanks for being here for me, love, Felipe.
There was a small showing of Phil’s Camino documentary in LA Sunday. Annie posted this on FaceBook:
“Annie O’Neil
14 hrs ·
Thank you! Thank you again! And thank you again! SO many wonderful wishes, prayers and donations heart emoticon We are well on our way to finishing Phil’s Camino! I had my first public viewing of the rough cut of Phil’s Camino last night. It was a small but mighty group! It was a mix of some pilgrims, some past donors, some old friends and new friends, and it was a thrill to watch them watching Phil’s Camino! Thank you to all who went to the website (www.philscamino.com) and made a donation there heart emoticon Thank you to all who have been walking with us this entire time heart emoticon Thank you to all of you who are just hearing about Phil’s Camino and are opening your hearts along with your wallets to get this film done! Next fundraiser is in Salt Lake City! Ultreya y Suseya! grin emoticon”
Pretty dang exciting seeing this process unfold. Keeping you in touch, Felipe.
Grey here looking out at Quartermaster Harbor, Vashon Island.
Father Tom is back again with this wonderful piece from Crux. I call messages from him “Tom Bombs” as they always good and measure in megatons. Check this out:
“Our life is a journey, and when we stop moving, things go wrong.”
With these words, Pope Francis opened his first homily as the Bishop of Rome. Francis’s papacy has had a particular focus on those on the existential margins of faith. More than a pope for Sunday Mass-going Catholics, Francis has been a pope for everyone who struggles, and sometimes fails, to find God in the grittiness of everyday life.
That’s why I think the popular Jesuit pontiff would give his classic thumbs up to Oprah’s newest series Belief, airing this week at 8 p.m. ET/PT on OWN.
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The seven-night series highlights men and women throughout the world who are searching to live for something beyond themselves and to be connected with others searching for redemption and meaning in life.
The episode airing Friday night features John, a 65-year-old Australian doctor who grew up Catholic but hasn’t been to Mass in more than 40 years. John lost his faith over what he believed was the Church’s inaction during the atrocities he saw committed firsthand during the Rhodesian Civil War.
Along with his faith, John also struggled with alcoholism and lost his wife and his family. John put it bluntly: “The last 12 years have been the most miserable of my life.”
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To try to reconnect with God and with his family, John decided to complete a pilgrimage on the Way of St. James, an ancient 500-mile-journey through Western Europe to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The pilgrimage route has existed for more than a millennia, but only in recent years has it become a worldwide sensation. Along with James, more than 200,000 will make the trek in 2015.
Why do so many people come? James puts it well: “I’ve made some big mistakes. And I want to set things right. Look, I’m 65. The bells are tolling! I’m tilting at windmills. I’ve got to fix this.”
Or as Pope Benedict said when visiting the pilgrimage site in 2010: “The fatigue of the journey, the variety of landscapes, their encounter with peoples of other nationalities — all of this opens [pilgrims’] hearts to what is the deepest and most common bond that unites us as human beings: We are in quest, we need truth and beauty, we need an experience of grace, charity, peace, forgiveness, and redemption.”
If Pope Francis is right, John and his companions won’t be disappointed in their search for something more: “Time and time again, [God] bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew.”
Before Pope Francis visited the United States, Oprah told him, “I hold your life and work in the highest esteem.” After seeing Oprah’s latest production lifting up those who are trying to find God in daily life, he might say the same of her.
Christopher J. Hale is the executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. More
Hiking along in Spain but our walk could be anywhere., right?
I woke from my dreams a few minutes ago thinking about a place called Attitude. Was it Attitude, Washington? Was it a place or a state of mind? I know there is Zig Zag, Oregon and Talent, Oregon, which has a great Polish restaurant I have heard. Then I thought maybe Our Jennifer could open an Attitude B & B. Can we go to a place and pick up a state of mind?
Then I randomly picked up the local Northwest Catholic magazine that had run the article back in March about me and my pilgrimage and read a little article about local pilgrimage. About places to go without going half way around the world. Are there opportunities all over?
“As Pope Emertius Benedict XVI said in 2010, “To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendor and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness amoung those who believe.” (October 2015 edition)
Along Phil’s Camino, things in fall color. Pretty huh?
Well, I’ll give you the bad news first and get it out of the way. The blog will be down for a couple or three days as I will be out of town going to the middle of nowhere on sabadical. So you will have to fend for yourselves and trust that things will be bigger and better on my return. That’s what I am banking on.
OK, but here is the good news, I’ve decoded the secret message from Maggie on the Camino. This took a while but I finally got it:
I am just going to give Maggie the spotlight whenever she shows up. She is doing a wonderful job of reporting. Let’s do a wonderful job of sending our thoughts and prayers off to her.
“Today was a recovery day from 30.2 walk to Astorga, mostly in the rain. I came down with a bad cough and a was a bit feverish, so went to the local clinic. They were totally wonderful to me. I must say that for the 6_week Spanish class I did, followed with an online pgm Duo Lingo, it definitely is helping me.
This is the next morning. My fever broke so now I’ll definitely be feeling better. Good timing because tomorrow is one of the biggest challenges going from Rabanal to Molinaseca.
As this journey continues, the bonds between fellow pilgrims strengthens. I can walk for hours on my own, then stop at a cafe and see many with whom I have walked. We are all feeling the same; some aches here and there, fatigue, but mostly the joy of coming together. Word is out about my 80th ‘compleanos’ coming up and I’m so touched by the comments I get from so many younger people.
Just leaving now after enjoying my favourite ‘coffee con leche’. More later.”
I can feel from reading between the lines that Maggie has reached that stage when pilgrims greeting each other with “Buen Camino” and it has taken on the new meaning of, “Yea, I may have bugs in my teeth, leaves in my hair and blisters on my feet but I’m still doing it and so are you!” Been there, love, Felipe.
Going into the woods on Phil’s Camino as we move slowly along.
We are here hiking along “through Spain”. We are generally east of Pamplona. Just passed through Zariquiegui, Urterga and most recently Muruzabal. We are coming up on Obanos and then Puente la Reina.
Our current schedule is Monday 9-10, Tuesday 4-5, Thursday 9-10 and Sunday 4-5.
I may be taking a few days off for hunting trips but will try to have someone here to walk with you. Onward, Felipe.
I found one last sunflower blooming. Sort of small, bedraggled, isn’t she beautiful!
Remember in Spain the metering of water and electricity. Here at home I turn on the tap water or the light switch and it just goes whether I really need it or not. There along the Camino at least the water taps ran for a certain time and then shut down. Ah, including showers! Including the public fountains for valuable drinking water out in the middle of nowhere, which made a lot of sense. Water conservation all around. And similarly the electric lights mostly ran on motion sensors which lead to some interesting moments in water closets and stairways. Electric power conservation all around.
All that took some getting used to but I sort of got in their groove after a time. The intermittent shower was my least favorite though. Here at the ranch we are used to watching our water use during the dry summer season anyway. So back home here I have made some difference in our electrical use by seeing light in a different way. Instead of lighting a whole big space evenly better to light the points where people gather. If there is just one group then bringing the light in just to them makes them special, an ambiance thing.
Bringing this this all back to “Monday Early” like the title of this post, I was up early, 0630, and had made myself breakfast. I was just sitting down at the kitchen table after having just turned off all the extrainous lights. Just the one over the table was burning and I was grooving on the ambiance thing while getting ready to enjoy my breakfast when…
My Rebecca is a substitute teacher in the local school district. She has an old time certification that says she can teach in K through 12 which is the whole thing from youngest to oldest. So, she is the perfect substitute. She is perfect in another way which I will attempt to describe.
So, yea, the phone rings at 0700 and it is Barb the secretary at the Middle School. She is trying to find a substitute to fill in last minute for a sick teacher. I wake My Rebecca and she can make it from a dead sleep, to cold pizza breakfast to the middle school classroom in less than an hour on a Monday morning. Now that’s perfect! I guess I have given her good training putting up with me. Amazing.
Just a description of our morning. Me trying to snuggle into cozy Spanish ambiance and My Rebecca zooming by me in a cloud of dust to ride herd down the road. OK, then, I can finish up this post and do a walk at 0900. The rain has stopped but I will need boots in the wet grass. Good luck getting your week started, love you, Felipe.
Catherine is going to pick me up in a moment. Off to be at the early Mass at St John Vianney’s at 0800. We’ll get our spiritual batteries recharged.
I hope my day is reasonable. Yesterday I was really fatigued from the chemo. Could barely work the TV remote, that’s bad. Feeling half way decent at the moment.
Thinking of Maggie on the Camino west of Leon. What an inspiration for us, yes? I wish I were there to roll Compeed out ahead of her like a red carpet.
Go get’em Maggie! Can’t wait for her musings on her pilgrimage.
One of the readings today was from the New Testament book of Hebrews. It just jumped out at me concerning having confidence to pray for oneself and one’s own needs. This is from a very modern version called the Message. Hebrews 4:16 says: “So, let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.”
This has to do with my struggles described in the October 13th post: A Mix Of Confidence And Desperation. Well, that’s all I have for today. Still feeling tired. The best to you, love, Felipe.
