Hey, good morning. Excuse me, I have to warm up my coffee, got cold while I got sucked into FaceBook. OK, that’s better.

Kevan is out of England and showed up a few weeks ago commenting on the blog here. He seems a world traveler and overall interesting fellow. He wrote a paragraph about Carl Sagan. At the moment I can’t remember the thread of our conversation but this story is a gem so with his permission I am putting it up today.

“And, as best we can tell, humans are the only conscious beings capable of seeing beauty? Of course the only other beings we’ve ever encountered are on this planet so perhaps our knowledge is a tad limited. Now how does a dog see a waterfall or the Milky Way stretching across the sky? Obviously we can never know. I was reflecting on the strangeness of life a few days ago when I was reading about Carl Sagan, the astronomer and broadcaster,is seems that his grandfather was a human ferry in eastern Europe on the River Bug, I think part of the Austro Hungarian Empire then. He would for a fee piggyback people across the Bug at a shallow spot! Could he, the grandfather, ever have foreseen the plaques designed by his grandson have now exited the solar system on the sides of Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2. I had to look up the Bug, it’s the border between Poland, Belarus and the Ukraine and it turns out I’d crossed it 3 times my self but by train(2x Trespol, Poland to/from Brest, Belarus) and bus(x1(I flew in) Lvov, Ukraine to Prezmyel, Poland)no piggyback’s for me!” Kevan from England.

That reminds me so much of one of my favorite stories, Mr Lucky Straw, a Japanese folk tale. We read it to our kids endless times. Anyway here it is for you:

Story of Mr Lucky Straw

lucky loves, Felipé.

A lot of great comments came in today on yesterday’s blog post. Cris CSABC even went so far as to say that it was “tattooworthy”. I’m not sure who made up that word? Somebody must have because spellcheck isn’t buying it.

Anyway, we were talking about searching for beauty. About how you have to leave a little time in life for this. About how you have to be on the right wavelength. Just some thoughts.

Today, I know a different day. Which direction should we go in? Maybe there is a neglected “C”. Oh, I know. There is Catholicism news. Catalina our Historian here at Caminoheads sent a book for me. That is good as I was temporarily out of reading material. It is The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything by James Martin, SJ. SJ stands for the Society of Jesus, a Catholic order, and that is the official name of the group that we all know as the Jesuits. Catalina teaches at the Jesuit Seminary in Berkeley, CA.

So, I am familiar with Father Martin because he wrote a book that I raved about several years ago entitled Jesus a Pilgrimage. I was so enthralled with that book. As I remember it covered maybe fifteen or twenty Bible stories that the Father wrote about at the spots in the Holy Land where they happened. In other words it was a “plein air” sort of reporting of the stories we all know and love but with the addition of the wind and the waves and the sand of the locale. Brilliant idea!

So, I am off on the Guide which is a look at St Ignatius Loyola, the founder of SJ and his teachings. It starts out with the concept of finding God in everything which is hey where we are pretty much coming from so we are jump started. And what is not to love about the title? It points to a certain amount of humor that I appreciate.

Well, off I go. Have to catch up on the mowing. I was working on the steering of the riding mower. It could only turn right and not left which wasn’t that handy. But the parts finally came in the mail and got them in yesterday.

holy moly loves, Felipé.

We have been talking about the role of observing in our search for beauty. That’s good and helpful but other factors are appearing. What about having the time to look. If our noses are constantly to the grindstone we will never see anything different. We have to allow some time. Our schedule can’t be so completely full that there is no room for some serendipity.

That surplus of time was one thing that made the Camino so special. Of course one among many. But there always seemed ample time for everything except maybe when you were trying to beat a rainstorm to town. Relaxing into ample time is such a good place. It seems hard to achieve most hours back home though. Maybe it takes active work to stay in that zone as much as possible. Worth the effort though.

Simplicity plays a role here too. Having a complicated life does not lend itself to having time. Simplicity on the Camino was a hallmark item. Everyone that was walking was in a way simpler place than where they came from. There then was time and place for magic.

That’s it though, leaving time and place for magic. Yea. Beauty is more than an object under the bright lights of a museum. Remember we were saying that it could be thought of or appear as more of a process. It could be an uncovering as something of beauty partially shrouded by fog. To see it might require a more active form of seeing or some waiting or coaxing.

To search for beauty may be more of a commitment than we first thought. It is not just something that randomly happens TO us but more of a journey or vocation. I can remember a practice that I started in Spain of staying with a beautiful scene. Just standing still and looking as long as possible. Disregarding the urge to take a pic, just looking. Being with it to fill one’s tanks.

OK, walk at 9. A beautiful morning, sunny and still cool out there.

filling one’s tanks loves, Felipé.

Yesterday our son Wiley showed me a geode he had found. I didn’t ask where. I was impressed from the start. Maybe you don’t know what a geode is? Heck, I don’t even know if I am spelling it right. It is a hardened glob of molten lava. This one was a little smaller than a baseball and roughly spherical. They are spewed out of a volcano and traveling maybe miles through the air cool and form along the way. There is an outer shell and if cracked open they can be full of beautiful crystals. This one had white quartz crystals inside.

I’m so jealous, what a find! We have volcanoes all around us with the closest being Mt Rainier which is approximately 50 miles as the crow flies. Guessing that is where it came from but how long did it roam around waiting for Wiley to pick it up?

But it is more than random this meeting, the guy has a knack. He is very observant and highly tuned in to the structure of things and slight variations set off alarms. He has always been a wiz at finding four leaf clovers. He can pretty much do that in his sleep. I may have found a few in my life but it is hard work for me and not fun. Several years ago he noticed a structural difference in a nettle plant that set it apart from others of it’s species. It was growing along the side of the Camino here and I don’t know how often I had passed it not seeing. It was a genetic variation and rare.

Well, what am I getting at? Yesterday we were talking about St Luke in the Bible, the physician, and his knack to observe and report details. I am thinking basically about beauty though and how it is tied in with observing. Cris, the dear, our CSABC, recently quoted D. Whyte on the topic.

“Beauty is the harvest of presence. Beauty is the cultivation of presence.”

stuff to contemplate loves, Felipé.

Ah, Saturday and just got done with my Bible Guys class on Zoom. We took on one of Christ’s miracles, Healing A Man’s Withered Hand. The story is told in three of the four Gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke reported on it. It is interesting to me to see how the three accounts vary depending on the author’s sensibilities and priorities. Luke was definitely attentive to the details of the physical situation and that lead to an good discussion. He was the physician in the motley crew that Jesus picked to be Apostles. I asked well, what do we know about what it meant to be a doctor at that time in history. We had to admit that we didn’t know much but that this ability to observe and capture detail seemed to be his superpower.

It wouldn’t hurt us to practice becoming better observers. I remember after getting back from Spain I could see an ant wink. Moving at three kilometers per hour did a lot for that. And observation and paying attention, which we know is important, are closely related.

Ah, and I need to report on more news about my clinical trial. I did say on Thursday that they could shut down my trial because they might consider it too expensive to keep it open for the last participant. Felipé, last man standing or last man walking. Anyway we heard that we got financial aid to cover the cost of the drug if we had to start paying for it. Clinical trials are a freebie. So, slipped through that wicket. Another celebration!

I have been working on the Elk Hotel which is our expedition tent. We, Wiley, Jamesie and I, are trying to get our gear organized for a couple of hunting trips up in the Cascade Mountains. One in September and one in November. We totally missed any trips last Fall as we were all too busy. Now we are doubly motivated to make it happen this year unless the area slips back into a Phase One Covid Response which would probably cancel it all.

Had a great Zoom yesterday which was a Phil’s Camino documentary QandA with the Cancer Support Community in San Francisco. It was fun and rewarding. There were too many attendees to run it as a standard Zoom so we were on a panel and the host asked us the questions submitted. So we weren’t actually seeing the real folks. Which worked but is another degree of separation. Anyway, I kind of swashbuckled my way through that. And you will be able to see that if you wish as it was recorded and I may be able to get you the link here in short order.

So, kind of a newsy post today. Remember today Annie has the Zoom with some or all the pilgrims from Walking the Camino, Six Ways to Santiago.
It was already this morning and then is at 3PM Pacific.

after while crocodile loves, Felipé.

I sat down at my desk and keyboard to start working on my SubBlog for Felipe for this 7th day of August, 2020. I happened to glance at my wall calendar to confirm the date and saw that the month displayed was FEBRUARY! Does that not just speak volumes for what this crazy year has been like? Five months of the year eclipsed without my need to consult the yearly calendar! Nothing to schedule ahead for, no date to “work around” for competing activities, no week-long events that have been part of our life flow forever.
I at least have the advantage over so many others in that the seasons dictate my life flow more than days, weeks, or months. Spring, for preparing and feeding the land and for planting the seeds that will become, hopefully, our financial livelihood. Summer, which we are now just reaching the apex of, for tending those growing crops, and keeping in check all those other growing plants that, if in the wrong place, have become “weeds”. Fall, when all of that tilling and tending and watching-over is transformed in short order to the intensity of harvest. A nervous “weather-eye” always present to predict a calamity that can, in a pitifully short time, derail all those carefully laid plans for a smooth harvest. And Winter, for 40 years our most difficult season, as livestock require more care and feeding then than at any other time. But, semi-retirement has lifted that burden, and now it is more plan and regroup time, and if things go well, some get-away time.
Which brings me to the actual intended theme of this post. I”ve been thinking frequently lately about the “seasons” of our lives, and it dawned on me, maybe a little too clearly, that I’ve entered “The fourth quarter”. Even if I live to be a hundred (not likely or even much desired), I’m in THAT quarter. (My much-weathered tree image above could relate to that condition.) And this thought subject relates to one of the (many!) things that fascinated me about our Hero Felipe. Those of us in my age bracket who are blessed to enjoy “good health”, can be fairly confident that we have a good dozen or so years left to enjoy and experience all that life has to offer. In contrast, for most of the last decade, our Phil didn’t know if he was in the “last quarter” or already thrust into “overtime”. This evokes the emotional scene from “Phil’s Camino” movie where he searches for that elusive “Just one more line”. But, to his lasting fame, he has handled it like a veteran quarterback who relies on carrying out the game plan all the way to the anticipated victory. He was smart enough, and humble enough, to listen to and learn from all his “coaches” and side-line advisors.
And, just as importantly, it was up to him to decide just what “victory” would look like, what “victory” would mean to him and his family and his Camino Following scattered all over the world. Reading his Blog all these years we get to be inside his brain as he dissects all the elements of his condition. How he looks at all the individual components, and how they can fluctuate from good to bad to unknown to indifferent.
And keep in mind, this is all going on during Phil’s “fourth quarter”, and the clock is running, but is the clock for him or against him? In our own personal world, there are so many times when we urge the clock to Hurry Up! And then there are times when we beg it to Slow Down!
Phil and I both benefit from the long ingrained knowledge/faith that our Last Quarter here on Earth, is just a warm-up practice game for the never ending really big show that comes after that.
To close this out, how often have we missed the “big game” and know how it ended, and are really bummed that we missed it, but in the interest of saving time to see it, we just tune in to the “Fourth Quarter”. I didn’t even get to meet Phil until both of our Fourth Quarters had started, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!

Semper Fi,
Pilgrim Farmer John

(Thank you John, you are a very important part of this whole lashup. Or maybe it just wouldn’t be the same without you. Very nice post but I wanted it in February! Look at your calendar once in a while! Hehe!)

Back from the Institute and back from the big city. A little glitch in the weather as we speak. But the good news is that I am back on the clinical trial. My pancreas numbers had snapped back to the OK zone after three weeks of rest allowing me to continue. Yea, so proud of Nugget and the crew.

It seems that I am the last participant in this trial, last of 40. Dr Gold thinks that they will shut it down in a month or so because they can’t afford to keep it going for little old me alone. That’s the prediction. So, there are still ways to obtain the drug so that he can administer it to me. If I were the anxious type I would be all afluster by this drama but I’m good.

Scan again in three weeks. How much fun can one guy have, right? So, there are hurtles and wickets to go through but we continue. Maybe the important part is that I get to continue and see all the folks that I have become friends with at the hospital. It is fun now to go in and mix it up every three weeks.

A walk here in a half hour. The little bit of rain has settled the dust outside. It will be cool walking today. I have missed some laps in the last few weeks when it was too hot to get them all in.

OK loves, Felipé.

I have a few hours this morning at the ranch before I have to jet off to Seattle and the Institute. We will see what kind of news I can drum up from Nugget and the rest of the gang. Three weeks ago, where we left off, I was grounded because of bad numbers. I will give it my best shot today and we will see.

The sky is blue and the sun is starting early. Yesterday I did notice some leaves starting to fall, the start of the slow slide into Autumn. The wet early summer is over and the dry Mediterranean summer is upon us. We go on relying on our trusty wells to provide enough water for our needs.

It all seems so calm here. I am thankful after seeing the video of the news out of Lebanon. Obviously prayers are needed for those poor inhabitants. And of course medical help and supplies. But what a year. It is all so sobering.

Where do we fit into all this chaos? What part do we play? What do we hold that is helpful now and at later stages. It will be a long slow crawl out of here to the other side. I can’t help but think that our pilgrim knowledge and sensibilities will play a part. Just for the positivity of it at least and who can deny that.

It is Martin Sheen’s eightieth birthday here yesterday or today. I personally owe him so much for my introduction to pilgrimage and this whole world that I have entered into afterward. And the same for you. His film was a very important link in keeping a certain flame lit. Thank you Martin and a very very Happy Birthday to you!

Off I go.

happy Wednesday loves, Felipé.

Come by, we are open. Everyone keeps their distance.

Monday 0900-1000
Tuesday 1600-1700
Thursday 0900-1000
Sunday 1600-1700 (tapas after)

Miss you, Felipé.

PILGRIMAGE IN PLACE

Ladies and gentlemen! Drumroll please! I am pleased to announce that our Pilgrim Table zoom call this Saturday, August 8 is a reunion of pilgrims who walked the Camino and were filmed as part of the award-winning documentary film Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago. Yes! We will have two Pilgrim Tables that day: 9 AM and 3 PM Pacific Time. I will post the zoom links one half hour before each start time at Pilgrimage in Place on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/annieoneilpilgrimageinplace/

I also send out an email the night before to our email list. Come and join our Pilgrim Table and find out how everyone from the film is doing these days! You can view Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago on Amazon Prime. 🙂

Please let your friends and family know that this historic reunion is happening! Share this far and wide, and let’s see how everyone is doing! See you all around the Pilgrim Tables on this coming Saturday, August 8!