Some great stuff comes out of our dilly dallys.   Right now the conversation usually centers around our kids and how they are doing.  And we talk to them and things come out of that.  And then there are the holidays looming on the horizon.  It all starts getting bigger in our minds and it can seem like a burden.  Is that what this time of year is supposed to be about?

Could we we all just take a collective deep breath right now.  This season  is Advent  where we are to prepare for the coming of Jesus.  I heard it expressed recently that we are on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem.  Can we relate to that?

Or my Rebecca who most times seems to have a different take on things than I do says that she is in a state of alert relaxation.  As in Jesus will come to her is what I see there. And why not?  Be open, be faithful and he knocks on your door.  I guess I am always doomed to do things the hard way.  God bless my Rebecca.

So, in a little while I am off to the big city to the hospital and to meet with Sister Joyce for an hour.  The snow and ice have mostly melted and the roads are clear.  I will say hello to Sister Joyce for you.  She loves you all.

A funny thing happened the other day.  I was emailing to Annie about the upcoming visit of her and the film crew to Seattle and Vashon Island.  And I had written something about getting into SJ’s office.  I was taking a short cut and meaning getting into Sister Joyce’s office.  I forgot that over the last year we were using those initials for Saint James who is the patron saint of not only Spain but Western Washington State.  Sister Joyce’s office is at the headquarters, the Archdiocese.  So Annie was impressed, to say the least, that I was checking in at the Big Guy’s office.  That was Big fun.

OK, enough of this, I have to get ready to go.  So remember about the pilgrimage or the alert relaxation, whichever suits your fancy.  Love you, Felipe.

When moving along the Camino it soon become obvious that you and your immediate party are surrounded by many many interesting people.  It becomes a traveling, “all the world’s a stage”  situation.  I don’t mean that people are playing anything other than their selves but as we all got ground down our inner selves began to show.  And these characters began to interact with each other.  This was after the beginning when we were settling into the rhythm of the daily routine and developing a passable pilgrim’s walk (limp).  And shedding makeup, deodorant, more than one kind of soap and other niceties which gave us that really cool pilgrim patina on our skinwind blown hair and that natural aroma.  Which didn’t seem to matter much with all that fresh air.

This is when we were really doing it, and when we greeted each other with the “Buen Camino”  it wasn’t a cliche but had a meaning that, “yes we have sunk our teeth into it and we are still here”.   “Still here” should probably be written with caps to express the idea that we understand and are committed.

So, I am trying to keep in touch with the various characters that impacted me on my walk and influenced you if you were closeby.  In the late afternoon after getting a bunk, showering, laundry we would be really for tapas and liquids at the daily dilly dally.  A chance to say to each other the same thing, that we understand and are committed.  All with a splash of fun and banter.  We rehashed the day’s journey and put it into context. So, during this process I would be blogging and encourage people to write along with me.  Great stuff came out of that and one thing that came out was in the following paragraph by Alvaro a man from Madrid who had studied and worked in the States and was currently was on his way to work for an event planner in Peru.  Kelly nick named him Big Al and I thought about him as the man with the smiling eyes.  Would someone translate this for us please.  And does anyone have contact info for him?

Maybe I can talk some of these characters into giving some of their comments on their day: Hoy ha sido um dia muy especial en el Camino. Conocer a esta gente y poder compartir grandes momentos con ellos te muestra el autentico significado de la vida.

Thank you all for your impact on me,  love, Felipe.

Just chatting with Mary Margaret and this new word popped up.  Yea, alperfect.  Spellcheck likes it with one “l”.  OK.  Man and machine work out compromise.

I need to catch up on all kinds of details today.  That will be fun.  I’m in the comfy chair at the hospital getting my chemo and this will be good.

So Amita, my friend on the Camino, just checked in yesterday to say that she has 125 km to go.  She is a brave soul as she reports that it is a lot of wind and rain there now.  I can picture it in my mind but totally different than the heat and crowds of August.  Love you Amita, keep going.

We we are still walking on Phil’s Camino here at the ranch.  Just want to put the schedule out here for new comers.

Monday 0900-1000

Friday 0900-1000

Sunday 100o-1100

It has been gorgeous lately but the rain will be back on Friday so wear some boots.

I am looking out the big windows here at the hospital and it is a beautiful day.  The view is to the west and and a quarter of the sky is covered by mare’s tail clouds that predict a change in the weather.  Yup.

Well, I think that Todd is going to write something up for TGIF.  It was great to see him recently.  It will be fun to see what he comes up with.

Alperfect loves, Felipe.

Early on somewhere around Viana, Emily was with us.  She was at the picnic there at the church ruins.   It was one of those things that we lost track of each other and I felt bad about that.  But I found an earlier post of mine from that era of the Camino where she had left an address for her blog and I looked her up that way.

I have yet to hear all her news but it appears that she is in school in France.  So glad that this is happening and when I find more news I will let you know.  Perhaps she will want to write some more here.  And her blog is: eogibbons.wordpress.com  .  Yea, check that out for pics of some other familiar Camino characters.

Character number two is Angela from Australia who was with us later with Mary Margaret, Sherif and company and up to somewhere short of Leon.  She was delightful to walk with.  She shared with me stories of her beloved Father.  Mostly I remember her beautiful smile amidst all the pain she was in.  It was her birthday somewhere along in there and we got separated before the party which was regretful.  But there are birthdays to come, right?

It is so great to be reunited with these two wonderful folks and I might get them to do some writing so we can hear their  thoughts.   There is no reason that we cannot share our journey with each other and offer prayers and encouragement when needed.  Right?  Why did we met in the first place, just for a few days together?  Remember God is a gathering force and when we gather we are in tune with him.  Gather on!

So, Monday, it is.  Time to get back to work after the big Thanksgiving weekend.  The best to you and yours, love, Felipe.

Look at this, just came in.  Is this a thing of beauty?!!  Look at those coats; it’s not August.   But together again in Madrid for a day or two, a short time anyway.  Short but sweet I am sure.

And I took this pic a couple of hours ago before dinner.  It is the first quarter moon the way it was in Viana in the early part of August when we were there.  Sigh.

Love sighs, Felipe.

Well, we all survived the holiday.  It is fun to gather and toast.  Hopefully your group keeps politics and old worn out history under control.  At it’s best it is a giant dilly dally with the emphasis on gratitude which should sound familiar to pilgrims of all flavors.  And I want to thank our gracious hosts Bob and Delilah and their lovely family.  Actually, they are folks that we have known for years but have only recently found the right excuse to party with.

I had my iPad with me and I snapped a few shots.  Maybe not enough as I think about it now.  I didn’t get a pic of the turkey whole, which was cooked so tender that it literally fell apart on its way from the roasting pan to the platter, which is a good thing.

Well, I have some of my guy friends coming for breakfast.  Yea.  I have to go and start cooking.

Steve and Philip came and we made egg mc muffins and had a good time and then right in the middle of that Alida is trying to FaceTime.    So, we make a connection and there are all the Angels on one screen, Anamaria, Laura and Alida and they are all together in Madrid.  AmaZing!!  They are hard to keep up with.

And then it snowed here this morning:

Snowy love to you, Felipe.

Here you go Sir, con mucho amor:
I don’t like it when I see that the world is unjust. I don’t like it when people are treated unfairly. It has driven much of my life. It is why I undertook a Masters in Non-profit Studies. And why I’ve chosen to work for NGOs. It is why I frequently consider the ethical implications of my consumptions.

However, there have been times when the injustices of the world would make me angry and emotional. So much so that it would become an unhealthy state for me to be in.

Whilst on Camino I asked, how can I stop being so emotional and angry about the injustices in this world? I knew that if I wanted to live healthier and happier I needed to resolve this.

My third night in Spain I had a resounding dream. I had been telling some attractive woman I was walking the Camino. The last words I remember hearing from her were, “watch out for the unforgiving meadows”. I awoke suddenly, it was still the middle of the night. I remember thinking that it was somehow significant but couldn’t quite see why at the time.

It was over a week later that I realised, forgiveness was the answer. I had to forgive the unjust, the unfairness of the world and then I wouldn’t be so angry, so emotional.

Forgiving doesn’t mean that I condone these unjust actions. And I’m not going to stop fighting for justice and equality when necessary. It just means that I can live healthier and happier when I forgive those who have hurt others.

But more importantly I can also live healthier and happier when I forgive those who hurt me, including myself.

Cherry, Berlin, Germany.

It’s Thanksgiving today, a truly American holiday.  It occurred to me yesterday as I was Skyping with Gracie in London that maybe folks outside of the States needed a little tutorial regarding this day and its significance, so here it goes.

“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.”  ~  Johannes A. Gaertner.

A lot of our history is lost in the mists so time so my rendition of this story rests largely on the the common generic elementary school model which is basically what we all cling to dispite all the attempts to make the record straight.  This all took place in the seventeenth century on the East Coast of the US in the area of Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.  So, the story goes that the European folk, who are called Pilgrims (yes,Pilgrims) came here largely on faith to set up a new life free from religious persecution.  Maybe they were short on practical knowledge and survival skills.  Due to the help of the Native Americans the Pilgrims made it through their first year and here they were at harvest time.  Things were so abundant and joyful that they decided that a big dinner party was in order so they invited the local tribe members who helped make their survival possible.

And this thanksgiving meal at harvest time with definite types of foods that the new environs provided is the basis for what we do on the fourth Thursday of the month of November.  Also, included is the gratefulness that we all owe God for the bounty of Mother Nature.  Also included is the idea that we invite family and friends and new folks and strangers so that everyone has somewhere to go and everyone gets fed.  We try our best to make that happen and it goes to the extreme that American service members will be served hot (or semi hot turkey) on the battlefield or in the MON ( Middle of Nowhere) or wherever on this day.

Because Gracie in London, who is a native of Australia, had never tasted some of these foods I will run through the menu.  Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without these although there might be a variation or substitute in an emergency.

First of all the centerpiece is turkey which is generally a farm raised bird now but the original was the wild turkey which there are still plenty of and may grace the table of a hunting family.  Think about it being a giant chicken but with a chicken weighing a few pounds and a turkey weighing ten times that.  It is generally brought to the table whole in all its golden brown roasted glory and carved there.  White meat comes off the breast which goes to the white meat people and the dark meat coming off the legs goes to the dark meat people.  Yea, Americans either are one or the other.

Cooked inside the body cavity of the turkey in the oven is the mysterious stuff called stuffing.  It is little cubes of bread with onion and celery and herbs. Everyone’s different family has a old family recipe that reflects their separate traditions and that they cling to no matter what.  Rebecca makes one based on corn bread which reflects her Southern upbringing.  It is spooned out of the bird on the table when the bird is served.  Sometimes it is baked separately in a pan to shorten the cooking time of the turkey.  But in the old days it was “stuffed” into the bird.

So, next are the mashed potatoes (white potato generally), smooth and creamy served with a brown gravy made from the drippings of the roasting bird.  Fancy gravy would have giblets in it which is the cooked and diced heart, liver and gizzard.  This follows the “waste not want not” rule.  Next to that is cranberry sauce which is a tart dark red sauce or perhaps relish made from this particular swamp berry.    Then there will be a veggie, perhaps green beans or Brussells sprouts, generally something green.  Can you visualize the whole plate with the different colors?

Then, another must is the dessert of pumpkin pie.  A pumpkin is a squash that grows on a vine in the garden.  It is big and orange.  So the pie is made by cooking the meat of the pumpkin and adding other things to make an orange custard and that goes onto a pie crust.  No top crust so you can see the great color of it easily.  It is usually served with a dollop of whipped cream on top.

There, I think that I did the thing justice.  I am a white meat guy by the way and Rebecca is a dark meat person so we balance out beautifully.  So, wherever you are, Happy Thansgiving To you and yours.  White meat loves, Felipe.

Before I get started on that I want to put my walking schedule in here:

Mondays 0900-1000

Fridays 0900-1000

Sundays 1000-1100

This is here at the ranch.  Wear your boots.  Come walk and talk with me and whoever shows up.

My Rebecca belongs to a group called the Vashon Free Range Folk Choir.  And last evening they were singing as part of a multi faith gratitude service.  I got roped into going to the service but it was lively and just what I needed to start getting out of my doldrums with the death of Sture.  So somehow Rebecca and I wound up going along with a small group afterward to one of the local restaurants for a drink.

So, beside the two of us there was a dad of one of my archery students, the local head guy with the Sufis, the abbot of the Zen Center and the abbot of the Russian Orthodox Monastary.  Also included were two folks that I really wanted to touch base with who are the parents of a young man that recently took his own life.  What a crew!  What a dilly dally!  It was extremely jovial and informative.  I am so glad that I was there.  It was really high and the parents said that it was the first time that they had smiled since the death of their son.  It is hard to see how that all worked but it did beautifully.

So yea, the trail goes on, the surprises continue and the dilly dallys are there for the taking.  Amazing.  Dilly Dally love to you, Felipe.