The year was 1966 and there I was, there we were, at infamous Parris Island, South Carolina. This takes the cake for my craziest Christmas ever. They say there is the right way and the wrong way and the Marine Corps way and I was definitely armpit deep in the Marine Corps way.

Actually I was there for the whole holiday season including Thanksgiving. The program was twelve weeks long down from sixteen weeks during peacetime. The leader of these merry times was my Chief Drill Instructor Staff Sergeant Everette MacDonald. I actually tracked him down a while back and talked to him for an hour just before he died. My knees were shaking the whole time.

But I just really want to tell you about the Christmas “Party” that Sgt Mac Donald threw for us. For weeks packages had been arriving from various guys mom’s with goodies. We looked on with joy. They were all carefully stacked in one particular closet. Then sometime at the appropriate time we were informed that it was time for the party. We were aglow as the boxes were laid out before us.

All the Assistant Drill Instructors were there for the festivities. And the announcement was made that training commenced in ten minutes so we had 9 minutes and some seconds to finish all this stuff up. One hundred and seven guys ripped into this mound of boxes and started stuffing things in our mouths. There were boxes from maybe all the States, Canada, Mexico, Indian reservations included. No one knew whose Mom’s stuff was whose which was kind of a Holy Communion in itself. I remember eating half a dozen candy bars wrappers and all. It was nuts but we survived and had a “good time”.

Just a little cheery glimpse into Marine Corps training holiday type. It was always challenging, demanding and included some sort of spiritual/ historic component. Also, it was largely geared to teach how to operate in environments that don’t make sense. I just wanted to throw this paragraph in because I think that this is key in dealing with cancer. Cancer does not make sense, no way. But somehow I have an advantage and have been able to operate there, just a thought.

cheery holiday loves, Felipé.

Here it is before anyone is up. Time to think of you and yours in places near and far. Wondering how you are. Wondering how you are faring. Well, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.

There are so many wonderful posts on FaceBook this morning. Thank you for sending those around. My favorite was Ronaldo’s (CABC) with the sugar packet nativity scene. Just like some pilgrims would cobble together on the trail.

Well, cuteness, cleverness and profundity escape me this morn as the yule log burns on TV. Just want to wish you a Merry Christmas and thank you for your friendship.

Only the best loves, Felipé.

Here we are at Christmas Eve. Wasn’t it just the Fourth and the Veranda. Yea and now to but a few last minute items in order. Everything is looking pretty organized for the holiday tomorrow. We are off to Henna’s parents place here on the Island, just a sleigh ride down the hill.

I signed up to usher this evening at the Christmas Vigil at 5pm. That is more fun than work but somebody has to do it. But by going tonight I can be free in the morning to be with the fam.

Oh and there is a walk this afternoon because it is Tuesday. No holidays at Phil’s Camino apparently, everyone keep marching. It is a little wet out there with a little standing water in places and the intermittent creek is running. It looks like winter but we are still walking.

There was just a story on the news about a little Christian town in Syria that now is in a peaceful zone and able to celebrate Christmas after many years of conflict. Just a little feel good story that they like to throw in at times like this but still we need to be thankful. Thankful for that instance in particular and thankful for our own wide spread peace and religious freedom.

Time to get to my last minute preparations so I will leave you with a hug and a warm place in my heart for you there at your place wherever near or far. Thanks for stopping by.

vigil loves, Felipé.

Yesterday afternoon no one came to walk with me so I did one lap and then we raced for the ferry. And then on up I-5 to Edmonds, WA. Henriette brought a friend with her several weeks ago to walk here and Donna has a labyrinth set up in her backyard so we went to walk it. It was a party in the semi dark with candles and torches and music. Sort of very medieval there.

Then Henriette and her daughter Emily and us found a place to have dinner and talk it over. Emily is a US Naval Officer and serves aboard the aircraft carrier Gerald R Ford. In the process of dinner she is telling me that she participated in a 5k run that consisted of laps around the flight deck of the carrier deck. And not that many laps either. It was so Phil’s Camino, so labyrinthine.

Just all kinds of movement was going on during our seven hour trip. I am so glad that we went as we were needing to get away from the ranch for a while.

To change the subject completely it is Cris’s birthday today. Please send her your love in one form or another. Happy Birthday Cris!!!

labyrinthine loves, Felipé.

Yea, last evening we were out in the dark and the wet walking Phil’s Camino with boots and flashlights. Torches would have been fun, maybe next year. That was a first, walking after dark that is.

And we had a birthday dinner, venison chili by My Rebecca and Jen. And with cornbread. That was with Jim and Jen. And Charlie came in about time for birthday cake. Earlier Catherine and Dana were here for tapas.

So, I had a good birthday. We didn’t get to a bonfire. Maybe next year for that too. We need young guys for that, Wiley and his buddies, those are the fire builders.

And I just want to think to several weeks ago when Gigi helped us with a new IPad and new IPhone. That was all compliments of My Rebecca and Henna. Here I am trying to figure out all this new electronics that my gals gave to me for my birthday, early presents.

Catherine and I were off to Mass this morning for the 8 o’clock. It is the fourth Sunday in Advent with Christmas Eve next. I have to work that one with my new usher position. I like being an usher. As a kid all my buddies’ Dads were ushers and I looked up to them. So it is a natural for me these days.

Speaking of these days we are supposed to be off to a Winter Solstice labyrinth walk this evening. It is over the other side of Seattle so a little bit of a drive but maybe I need to get out. A friend of Henriette’s built this labyrinth in her backyard and throws this party every year and we are invited.

Yup, that’s it for me today. Christmas on the horizon.

ushering in a birth loves, Felipé.

Here is a video of a birthday wish to me that Pilgrim Farmer John engineered for me from the Vocal Artists of Iowa. Check this out:

James Taylor/Joni Mitchell/JFK/Ernest Hemingway, and Phil

I recently watched a Facebook video clip of the Howard Stern show. On the show it had James Taylor. It was from 1997. It was a short clip of James Taylor playing his acoustic guitar and singing “Woodstock”, a song written in 1970 and originally sang by Joni Mitchell. This was the first time I actually heard the lyrics clearly. James Taylor sings very clear; I can always understand what he sings unlike other musicians. As he strummed his acoustic guitar he sang,
“We are Stardust
We are Golden
We are Million-year old Carbon
And we got to get ourselves
Back to the garden”
See it, here:

Wow! I heard this song so many times and never actually knew or maybe realized the power of the lyrics. To me, “We are stardust, golden, million-year old carbon”, meant that we all came from the universe. The phrases, “And we got to get ourselves back to the garden” meant to me from where we came, we were sent back.
We came from the universe and we end up, back to the garden, to the earth, to the universe.
This struck me profoundly.
It struck me hard because it is a complete, non-religious (perhaps) but spiritual way of thinking about mortality. No matter what, when it is all said and done, we go right back to where we started.
JFK mentioned it best. In a speech at the Americas Cup dinner in 1962 in Newport, RI, he said,
“It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins, the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going to back from whence we came.”
The audio of the speech is here:

He said the same thing Joni Mitchell wrote in another form. “And we got to get ourselves. Back to the Garden.” —–“We are going back to whence we came.”
This is all relevant, I believe. To me this means that we are all here for a reason, we are stardust. We need to make the most of the time we have as we will all go back to the garden, back to the sea.
I am not quite the religious man, but I am very spiritual. I appreciate religious beliefs, but I am defined personally to my spiritual ones. I think the Native American Indians were on to something. The Camino to me was a complete spiritual experience. Still is. The gift that keeps giving.
I cannot finish my little post to you all without mentioning Phil. When I think of Phil many things come to mind. Humor, humility, humbleness, steadfast, leading. I think Phil has found himself in a reluctant leadership position with us. You know what they say about all of the great leaders…..it is that they never intended to be the leader, they were chosen. I am reminded of this with Pope Francis. I believe him to be not only a religious man, but I connect with him because to me he is also very spiritual. Also, I believe him to be a reluctant leader. Those are the best ones.
Oh yes, one last plug for the most important quality of them all I perceive, courage.
JFK greatly admired Ernest Hemingway. When he wrote “Profiles in Courage”, he reached out to Ernest Hemingway to ask permission to use what he had written in a one of his books.
JFK wrote in the beginning of his, “Profiles in Courage”, “This is a book about the most admirable of virtues—COURAGE. ‘Grace under pressure,’ Ernest Hemingway defined it.”
Courage. Grace under pressure. —The calm in the center of the storm…
When I return to the garden, or to the sea, I ask myself, what will matter the most. It will not be the material things, the money, the power and prestige. It will be the memories. The memories of family, friends, my veteran brother and sisters, co-workers, and even the “enemies.” The great talks and the long walks.
The Great Talks and the Long Walks.
Back to the Garden. Back to the Sea.
Garden and Sea loves—
Ryck

Yesterday, just because, I bought a flock of ducks in the name of Caminoheads Blog. This was from the Heifer International website. I love Heifer. So a flock of ducks along with training will go out to some family somewhere out where it is needed. It was only $20 and that seemed like all I could afford after concluding my Christmas shopping.

But none the less we know that we are rich in more ways than we can count. We know that we have been granted so much. Yes, I know we have worked hard, yes. But things have gone our way more often than not you have to admit.

So, I am challenging you to give $20 to your favorite charity in the name of Caminoheads Blog and tell us about it. What kind of things will you come up with? This is a chance to toot you favorite’s horn.

Let me tell you about how Heifer got started. I think that it was roughly 1947 when the brand new state of Israel was founded. The Israelis were in need of so much. Some folks hired a ship and put out the word for seagoing cowboys (?) and bought up a herd of young cows and they set off across the Atlantic from the States. I’m not sure but I don’t think anything had ever been done like that before, well since the Ark. And Heifer is still offering opportunities for twenty dollars on up, like ducks, goats, honeybees.

Several years ago I pooled all my Christmas funds and bought a whole water buffalo that we all gave together. A water buffalo can cost you $250. Sounds like a deal to me, a little more than the price of a latté.

Well, Friday here and we are in the middle of a massive rain storm. Good weather for ducks they say. Time for me to start serving our fleet of vehicles. I can do that in the dry.

ducky loves, Felipé.

My commute was yesterday but this line from Perry Como Christmas song is stuck in my head. It was on the clock/radio this morning like Sonny and Cher’s song in Groundhog Day. Anyway battling with the traffic was yesterday with my trip to the Institute.

Yea, I had my scan early and hung around to get the intrepid interpretation from Nugget (Dr Gold). So, the good news is the situation remains stable. My little growies remain stunted and frustrated. Well, I really don’t know about the frustrated part and I don’t want that anyway. I want them happy with the situation and not thinking about striving for excellence. Yea, the Doc was happy so I am happy.

A little sad because my research nurse Kristina is moving to another department and I will miss her charming self. She gets me through this process with a minimum of wear and tear. But to my surprise the replacement is someone that I have worked with before and liked. David who has walked the Camino a couple of years ago will be with me, how perfect is that.

So life goes on, things are different but the same. Here at the ranch the Christmas tree is all set up. We are going with the table top model these last few years due to the lack of kids. And the manger scene is set up here on the coffee table. Henriette came in and spirited the Wise Men out of there and they are now over across the room on top of the turntable. I forgot, yes they don’t show up til the 6th of Janurary. OK, OK, minor point. She said something about Protestants under her breath. No, I made that up.

There were some nice comments for Karen from Caminoheads about her post yesterday. Make sure to read those. And thank you all for comments that you write. I have always welcomed and appreciated them as they help bring all this to life.

OK, off walking in a few minutes. There is a break in the rain til noontime today when some major wet will hit. I spent some money yesterday getting some supplies to beef up my two pop up shelters against the storm.

Time to go loves, Felipé.

Hola Caminos!

It has been a difficult day today. My scan unfortunately showed that my cancer is back. I had a strong inkling it was from my blood results a week ago. It’s in a couple of lymph nodes.

However Dr Tan doesn’t want to treat as I have no symptoms. In fact I feel more well than I have in months! So it’s watch and wait. Next scan in March.

It’s a strange feeling to know it’s back and to be receiving less treatment than ever. Less medical treatment that is…. I can walk. I can pray. I can do mindfulness practise. I can live…

After the appointment, I walked into Maggies (the support centres for cancer in the uk). To my astonishment I found a group of people talking about the Camino. I found myself a respected elder talking about places, accommodation, routes. It felt like the best treatment ever. Talking put me back in my joy-in-Spain… the walking, the folks I met, the Beauty. Ahhhh

Pouring out Camino salve onto my sad heart.

Karen

A rather foggy early morning here at Raven Ranch. Just like that I hear a raven calling, right on cue, like they are reading this over my shoulder. There has been a lot of bird activity around the trail with the feeders full and the hawthorn berries ready. Everybody that should be here is here. Well no, I haven’t seen any waxwings yet though.

Henriette is coming this afternoon to talk and walk. I made corn salad for her which it is one of her favorites. There is lots of frozen corn to be had close by and it will be served up whenever possible. And corn salad is one of my favorite ways.

I am thinking about the corn for the coming season. I need to make some changes and try some new things there. Farmer John had some ideas for me when he was here last year about crop rotation. And I want to try planting New Zealand White clover with the corn to act as a green mulch and help suppress weed growth. Striving for a better way.

There are just a few more days of darkness before the 21st or 22nd whenever the solstice is. But it always takes me at least a week after that for me to start to notice a change in the length of the day. But then it really starts to be an evident and important thing. Next the late winter flowers will be strutting their stuff. And that is the start of it all.

One of the items on my list for today is to find our manger scene and get it set up. OK, I can do that.

setting up the manger loves, Felipé.