I know that it is a little early but I just doned my really cool camo Santa hat that one of my archery students gave me. Need something to cheer me up at the moment. Sture being gone is leaving a pretty big hole in our winter evening. Well, it feels like winter.
So, we are all cleaned up after the big reunion weekend. The pilgrims have come and gone. They travel so lightly and well that they don’t really leave much of a footprint.
Watching the flames dance in the wood stove and thinking about your warm hearts scattered around the world. Join me, won’t you. I am going to propose a toast to the prince of dogs: Thank you Sture for your tremendous heart, love you, may we all be as robust as you.
I am going to be shy a post over the last few days but it has been super busy and every nook and cranny of our time seemed to be filled. We got to the Island on Saturday after being with Sister Joyce and we spent the rest of the afternoon capturing a couple of hours on the Camino here at the ranch. And the weather, although stormy and rainy in the morning gave us those hours with beautiful sunshine.
Then yesterday after church we were busy again with sometimes two cameras going at once to get everything in the remaining hours. A little crazy at times but it was a great opportunity as the weather cooperated again which around here and in this time of year is a miracle. So the afternoon progressed to the evening and people arrived to be at the potluck. And we were still filming into that and doing a last minute interview with Dr. Zucker and me and Annie and me. And it seemed like the super heavy topics were there at the end. And finally it appeared like we were talked out and we could go eat and relax.
Dinner was great as we had provided chicken and Italian sausages cooked by our dear chef friend Stephen. And Rick and Carolyn had made paella and Kelly a chocolate cake and there were salads galore. So it is dark by now and our son Wiley has the bonfire going full bore and finally everyone is having a drink and getting getting in the mood.
So this whole time Sture our beloved dog who has had end of life type issues with his health was cruising through the crowd looking for leftovers just like normal. He is next to Rebecca and myself and he just keels over and was gone in a minute, like dead in a very short minute. Yea, right there so quick and easy right with us and right in the midst of the the whole gathering. Amazing.
We carried him out on a quilt made by my grandmother and put him in the back of my truck were he loved to ride. We laughed and we cried.
The film crew has landed here on Vashon Island. They are at Kelly’s albergue for the night. They had dinner there last night and a big old dilly dally happened afterward. Rick and Carolyn and Rebecca and myself were there. What a great bunch of people. We were a few short of a cosmic quorum but we had a great time anyway.
We were there although recalling there is sometimes difficult.
Annie O’ Neil will be joining our merry band and we will descend on Sister Joyce’s office in Seattle for a film shoot later this morning. All good. Spent two hours with Sister Joyce and then back to Vashon to film outside along the Camino in an unexpected sunbreak.
We had a big dinner with all of us at our place and talked and laughed till we couldn’t anymore. Then off to bed and another day awaiting. Really hard to write this post when ther is so much going on but of course that is the way it was in Spain. Love, Felipe.
To: Phil Volker <[email protected]>
Subject: A Friday tale
As we were leaving Castrojeriz at about 7 a.m. on a Monday morning, facing the very steep mountain path ahead, I told my companions to go ahead because I wanted to pop into the large church we were passing in order to ask for extra strength. Alas, as so often in the smaller towns, the church was locked until noon Mass. I remarked with irony that despite my motivation for the Camino being religious, I was feeling quite spiritually ‘dry’ as we had also arrived too late for Sunday Mass the day before. Shoot, I said, I spend more time in church back home in Long Beach than I have here on the Camino!
Trudging along, up and up, sweating and breathless, everyone passing me, I finally reached the top and took the requisite selfies. Companions long gone, I started down the dusty descent alone and suddenly spotted…a monk ahead of me! Was it a mirage? I sped up and greeted him with ‘Buen Camino’ and he smiled and replied but said he was Polski and we discovered that my Polish and Russian were inadequate and he didn’t know any English, French, German or Hungarian so we couldn’t communicate.
He was pulling his backpack in a little cart behind him and indicated that his feet (in worn leather street shoes) were in very bad shape so he couldn’t wear it on his back. I wanted to help him or at least distract him, so I remembered a Polish Christmas carol that I sang every year in a concert at the Abbey Liguge in France. I sang Mizerna Cicha – he grinned ear to ear and sang along and our steps were much lighter as we realized how funny it was to be singing a Christmas song in August in Spain.
We soon reached the lovely Hospital San Nicolas and stopped to rest with dozens of others. Among them was a Polish man who spoke English and had a conversation with my monk. The man came to me and said, ‘Mary, Brother Angelo says to tell you ‘Different tongues, same heart.’’ Then Brother Angelo came up, gripped my head and blessed me in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
And I said to God, ‘You sure work fast, Lord!’
<BroAngelo.jpg>
Love,
Mary Margaret
“My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne.” last words of John Maynard Keynes, English economist
Rebecca and I have a friend that is in a Blues Brothers cover band and is the Elwood character. It is a great act and the music is great and I play the heck out of the CD driving around in my pickup. So when the song Mustang Sally comes on I’m loving it and Anamaria, the Princiss of Viana, comes to mind. And I say to myself that maybe, maybe not. Could she be Mustang Sally?
Well, my question was answered yesterday. I, on impulse, FaceTimed her at a time when I thought that she should be done with work. But she was there by her computer and said sorry still working and said that she will call me after work. So what happens but we wind up FaceTiming as we are cruising on the freeways through Miami on the way to the gym. So, I have never actually seen this happen before much less imagined it with my twentieth century brain. But here we are multitasking through the city and Anamaria is giving me a detailed tour of the sights by pointing the phone out the window. This building is this and this building is that. So, yea, at a certain point I had to bail out. I just had to say to her that I loved her but this was making me way too nervous and I had to go. “Back it down a little bit child!” as the lyrics go.
It’s a great story but way too undignified for the Princess of Viana, don’t you think? I made that all up. But, but, there is big Princess news. She was accepted in a Masters program at a university in Madrid for marketing and will be moving there for a year! Yea, and she said that she could walk some more Camino. Awesome thought!
So all’s well that ends well and another day on the trail for all of us. Well, we are coming into the dock and I have to wrap it up for the day. Love you all to the Mustag Sally max, Felipe.
Everything in the Universe is going according to plan. Wow, how is that for starters. Sometimes this stuff just jumps out, thank you Holy Spirit.
This weekend the Rebecca, Jessica and Todd of the infamous film crew will be here. And Annie and Maggie who have been tirelessly working on the “Walking the Camino” documentary film will be here. Annie has been producing my documentary film which is in the construction stages, all good, with St. James helping Annie at the helm.
Sunday afternoon and evening we are having a Camino party and film shoot. If you are a local reader of this blog and are being drawn like a moth to the flame on this please come. But call first please so we know about numbers. Please don’t be shy. So, that is here at our place on Wax Orchards Rd. 1400-1600 walking,
Another part of the big plan.
1600-1800 potluck and 1800 on a bonfire gathering. Bundle up as we will be outdoors. We do have shelters, tables and Coleman lanterns.
Yea, and our crisis with our beloved dog Sture has been eased through meds and procedures. But his basic bad problems remain so we are happy that perhaps we will have a few more weeks with him. This having a problem come up just before the film crew comes is reminiscent of me having to have a root canal two days before we flew out to Spain in July. But all part of the big plan I know.
A late Fall pic taken down the road from our place on Vashon.
My trail is rough right now. I’m sitting in the comfy chair at Swedish Hospital getting my big two week chemo treatment. It’s not what you would call fun but that is not what is bothering me right now. I think that I mentioned that our beloved dog Sture was sick and that was bad enough but now we know that it is a terminal situation. He is suffering from liver failure and we need to put him down. So, we are having a family meeting tonight when I get back to make a plan.
So, if you will forgive me, I think that I will sign off for today. I am totally distracted and need to attend to the situation. Tomorrow, being another day I will try again. There is a reason for this to occur right now so maybe that will become apparent. Thanks, Love, Felipe.
I think it was Mary Margaret that said when she travels she carries a little bottle of olive oil and a little bottle of salt. So she can always buy bread, a tomato and some cheese or whatever and be set for a meal. Nice. Almost seems too simple.
The other day I went exploring in the oil department at the local super market and came away with the really expensive stuff. Well not the most expensive but the second most. The most expensive brand bottles were dusty and they were over there expiration date. I just want to taste some really good stuff. And it was really really good needless to say. Too expensive to use for general cooking purposes but great for on bread or salad.
And in the process of reading the labels I got the idea of the different characteristics of the different oils from different locales. So I have a lot to learn and a lot more fun to look forward to. This particular brand that I bought has a resins pine taste that I like. It is from Tuscany.
So if anyone has some good olive oil knowledge that they would like to share we could put it up on TGIF. Speaking of which Mary Margaret sent in a great Camino rememberance that we will feature this Friday if I can keep my days straight.
Well, have to go for now. Saint James is Afoot, Love, Felipe.
p.s. ~ I didn’t say anything about salt but what can be said?
It’s late and I haven’t blogged today. What to do? You know by now that I am driven to make this happen everyday. So, I’ll do my best. This is not so much different than being on the Camino and trying make a blog happen in the evening after an exhausting day.
Today was memorable. Kelly, Rick and I put on our long awaited Camino slide show at our church. We had about fifty folks come to hear us and watch the slides. Even Sister Joyce was there. It’s always fun to try and put the Camino into words. Although impossible we are somehow getting closer with each try.
Just want to remind us that there are still pilgrims walking now. I have been keeping in touch with Amita who is close to Leon walking in the wind and rain. She is one tough cookie. Say a little prayer for her. I need to check my phone and see if there is anything new from her. She is such an inspiration. Go girl!
OK, I think that this effort lives up to our not so strict quality standards. Hope that your day is going smoothly. It’s cold here and I find myself longing for the heat of Spain in August. A hot cup of tea will have to suffice for now. Love, Felipe.
Winter day with poor shot of Mt Rainer. I will try again.
Late Saturday morning here on Vashon. The sky is blue as a result of the high pressure system and should remain so for more days ahead. Things colder than we are normally used to. I’m here babysitting my sick doggy. The Vet did some stuff to make him relatively comfortable. So he is hangin out.
The really good news is that I was over at my friends Dick’s yesterday andhe kind of lost it and made five apple pies. Nobody does that. So I gott a piece to bring home which I shared with Rebecca. She immediately calls Dick up to say that it is the best pie she has ever had. So today, Dick gives me a WHOLE pie with the message that flattery works. Yea, see.
Sister with the Pilgrim Beatitudes. Thaink you, they are a treasure.
Spiral stair to ultra funky bell tower.
Simple but beautiful alterpiece
Anyway back to the other Camino. Kelly came up with a pic of the Sister what was at the gnarly old church on the hill where we got the Pilgrim’s Beautitudes. The church itself was in a grove of trees and you walked to it. No road or driveway or parking, old school. Maybe I will include a few more pics of it. The spiral stone stairway to the ultra funky bell tower and the beautiful relatively simple alter piece.
And the Sisters were always smiling, well not always always but you know most always. Whatever they would be up to no matter how mundane or ordinary they were smiling away like they know something we don’t. Hmm.
Then the the topic of really gnarly dudes that you would see occasionally walking like they just live on the trail. Sometimes they would be walking the other way, the wrong way which always attracts attention. Yea, these guys were the cool grad students on campus and we were the dorky freshman, like you can’t even approach them. I bet they had some stories. Needless to say that I don’t have any pics of them although they closely approximated the architipical St James Pilgrim look, if you can picture that.
OK, Thansgiving holiday is coming up here in America when we are thankful to God for the rich bounty that we enjoy. So if you don’t know about Thanksgiving Day you had better Google it, it’s a good one. You guys are peachy, Love, Felipe.
