I was emailing with Annie yesterday and we were writing about inspirations for blogging.  And I was saying that I thought that I did my best work when something was bugging me.  That thing could be a bad thing or a good thing in normal thought.  But it is something that sort of clings to you and hangs around.  It is good ammo for blogging and good probably to get rid of it, which of course, makes room for the next one.

So, very ironic that this AM with my well deserved first cup of joe, what is floating in there but a big juicy fly.  I would put that in the category of bugging, wouldn’t you?  That was minutes ago and right in the middle of my half baked  thoughts about what to blog about this AM.

Back to that in a minute.  What really needs to be done is to write a brief statement for a newspaper add that will appear in the Beachcomber about a donation drive.  Yesterday I blogged about the documentary film idea that is struggling along.  A lot of creative work is being done but until we get some financial help behind that we are not going anywhere.  Big money from big sources is proving hard to come by.  So, we are looking to get local and focused on raising funds from “just folks”.   Our daughter, Tesia, is going to do the graphics for the add and she asked me to provide some text for the appeal.  So, I thought that I would combine that with doing this blog and then there is the fly also.  Hmm.

“This morning there was a fly in my coffee.  This life there was cancer in my body.  What I have learned I would like to share with others who are suffering.  How can we rise above our circumstances and do more than we thought was possible?  How can we stay inspired and possibly inspire others?  We are looking for a way to fund a documentary film about my journey through the medical world, spiritual world and the world of the Camino de Santiago.  Please help us fund this small project about the search for  healing in…. ”

There, how is that so far?  Not quite there but pretty darn good.  Have to get the last sentence hammered out.  How about,”Please help us in our search for funds to tell this story about one man’s search for healing in a complicated world.”  Sort of, but too complicated.  “Help us to tell this story about one man’s search for healing.”  OK.  “Vashon, help me  to tell one man’s story about a three year search for inspiration, connection and healing.”  Not bad.  I like saying that to Vashon.  “Vashon, please help me to fund this small project about one man’s search for inspiration, connection and healing in a complex world.”   All right, let’s see what that looks like all together.

“This morning there was a fly in my coffee.  This life there was cancer in my body.  What I have learned I would like to share with others who are suffering.  How can we rise above our circumstances and do more than we thought was possible?   How can we connect to something larger than ourselves?  How can we stay inspired and possibly inspire others?  I am looking for help to fund a documentary film about my journey through the medical world, spiritual world and the world of the ancient mystical Camino de Santiago.  Vashon, please help bring to light this small project about one man’s search for inspiration, connection and healing in a complex world.”

Well, I think that is good.  Need it pruf readed.  OK, so I am off to walk with Kelly and Signe in the cool of the morning.  Walking seems a soothing rest from the details of life.  Saint James is Afoot, Phil.

Here are two things that just came in:  One is a story on NPR about the Camino:

http://www.kplu.org/post/new-film-explores-reasons-why-people-young-and-old-walk-500-miles-across-spain

And two is NPR story about new thoughts on cancer treatment:

http://humanmedia.org/wellbeing/tabs.php?t=1

That’s all for now.  Phil.

That’s what Ivette says about things.  And what things are those?  Well, it is time to let this cat out of the bag.  There is a movement afoot to create a documentary film of my journey to Spain and the walking the Camino there.  This all started with the idea that the success of my rehab after cancer treatment is noteworthy and would be helpful to inspire the countless cancer patients out in the world who could use some better training along with their treatment.

The ability for me to even think about this journey is wholly a gift to me.  A big part of that gift is the training and counseling that I have received at Swedish Hospital.  Another big part is all the support that I have gotten from family, friends, church including the Archdiocese of Seattle.  And finally the opportunity that the Camino de Santiago has given me to participate in something that is meaningful, significant and doable for me.

We are terribly last minute with this film idea and we are looking for a miracle to have this happen.  And as Annie has told me more than once, we have already had miracles and we need to continue to expect the good.   I have a team of people on the East Coast and West that are using all their creativity to bring this together.  This is totally shoestring but not outside the box.  Possibly we will be able to just capture the raw footage initially.  There is much more to the process but maybe it is one thing at a time.  People in general are inspired by my story and this will carry the film forward to it’s conclusion even if it is just one step at a time (sounds like a Camino to me).

Today, after training, I am opening an account at US Bank that will be able to accept donations to help fund this process.  I will give you more information on that soon as I know it.  This kind of thing doesn’t happen without a certain amount of money.  Enthusiasm, smarts and creativity will only carry us so far.  If you have any ideas about finances let me know, sooner rather than later.  And pray for us.  St. James is Afoot, Phil.

OK, took quick shower, kicked off the Crocs and climbed into bed. Really tired after a full day. Rick was with me this AM, after Mass, and we did 6 1/2 miles on some really challenging terrain. Then after lunch my spiritual advisor Connie and her husband Jim came to walk and talk for another mile here at the ranch.
Then Rebecca took me out for some culture and I managed to sleep through half of that. So, what I am attempting to do here at the moment is to see if I can produce a reasonable blog post on the Kindle in my current exhausted condition, something similar to evening on the Camino.
So far so good! But really what I want to tell you about is the realization that I have had about my current fellow travelers. Never can I remember being in the company of so many high quality personalities as I do now. Father Marc, my spiritual advisors, doctors, nurses, family, friends,, Camino buddies and the Amigos. I am literally being passed from one to the next and never am I in fear of falling. What an amazing feeling and truly so far so good!

Last night I tried to do a post from my Kindle while I was exhausted and ready to turn in.  Sort of a Camino simulation.  Could I pull it off?  And I actually got it written and it was beautiful but somehow, somehow the Kindle eat it.  It got lost in the sauce, as they say.  I cried, well almost, but I was too tired.

So maybe I can recreate the idea and emotion.  It was so like my original inspiration for blogging, Julie from “Julie and Julia”  who was making a complicated French dish from Julia Childs every evening after work and sometimes it was successful and sometimes the souffle didn’t.  There is a certain amount of drama here and there.  By the way, the title of that failed blog post of mine was 10:41 PM in case the Kindle spits it up at some point.

Yesterday, Sunday, Rick and I went to early Mass and then we did a 6 1/2 mile trek on a beautiful trail that I hadn’t ever been on before.  And then later in the afternoon one of my spiritual advisors, Connie and Jim her husband, came to walk with me here at the ranch.  What was starting to dawn on me was the realization of what good hands that I am in these days.  Never is my life do I remember being in the company of or being inspired by so many grade A personalities, spirits maybe.  That day I start with Father Marc and he hands me off to Rick, Rick hands me off to Rebecca and then Rebecca hands me off to Connie and then I go and read an email from Annie in the evening.  The day before, Saturday the same, as I started out with eight great guys in my weekly bible class and then proceeded through my day.  I am being gently carried from one to the next.  The same at my hospital days with my beloved doctors and nurses and Sister Joyce.  Buoyed up is the best phrase that I can come up with.  I am truly blessed.  Thank you all.

The three amigos had their weekly meeting and wine tasting this evening.  We had Portuguese wine so I hope that is OK.  We checked out my new boy pack.  We talked about communications.  We talked about how to get pix from a camera to my Kindle and then onto the blog, this blog.  We talked about training for the coming week.  We talked about how we have only one month to go!

Kelly, I have talked about some in the past.  He is in his sixties like me.  He is a retired school teacher.  Now he keeps himself busy helping his daughter remodel her house and he helps with their two children.  I started calling him Padre because he has an eerie resemblance to Padre Pio the Italian saint.  Kelly lost his wife to cancer a year ago.  That is not the reason I chose him to go with me but I used to see him out in the rain and the dark of winter walking alone and I said there is the guy.  He is also slower than I am so that is helpful!

Than there is Rick who we both invited along because once he heard about our idea just couldn’t control himself.  He is like a piece of spring steel physically, seventy years old and walks circles around us two.  So, we nicknamed him Mario like the race car driver.  I worked with Rick in the past and we always had a good time together.  Rick and his wife, Carolyn,  run a nursery where they grow beautiful landscaping plants.  This keeps them busy and in shape.  Padre and I figure that with Mario’s speed he will be able to sprint ahead late in the day and line up the hostels and dining when we are on the trail!

So, we have a plan.  Yea, for once.  Kelly and I are flying to Madrid where we land on St James Day, July 25th.  We are busing to St Jean in France  to the start.  We will walk to the 17th of August, somewhere around Leon,  where Kelly will put me on a bus to run me up the road to the west.  Later that day I will get to the monastery at Samos and meet Rick.  Kelly will be on his own for some personal inner Camino till his son Michael will join him to do the last 100 kilometers.  And Rick and I will walk from Samos to Sarria and do the last 100 kilometers.  God willing, Rick and I will be at the Pilgrim’s Mass at the cathedral in Santiago at the end of the Camino on Sunday August 24th.  Then the next day Rick throws me on the plane for Madrid and then I am off to Seattle.  Will be traveling with the time zones this direction and will arrive the same day.  Then next day I will be on my way back to Swedish Hospital for an appointment with my psychologist and have a scan later that day.  Rebecca will probably have to strap me to a hand truck and deliver me there.

All three of us amigos are practicing Catholics and all along this Camino there will be religious activities and events to participate in.  We are planning on the moderate pace of 12 miles a day to allow us time to do this.  “It is not a race!” as Kelly, or should I say, Padre reminds us.  And our parish, St John Vianney, here on Vashon has written letters in Spanish for us to announce that we are on official pilgrimage.   And at Mass toward the end of July we will be blessed for our journey by Father Marc.  All official, right?  Let’s get started!

Our son Wiley is currently on the PCT with a group of buddies from Vashon Island.  Three of them started at the Mexician border this Spring and have been hiking north.  Wiley flew to Bakersfield and joined them after a tough catchup march.  They are all together now and you can follow their progress on this wonderful blog: http://postholer.com/journal/viewJournal.php?sid=6b34a74cf7fe895c5864a24e075560d9&entry_id=46275

The PCT is it’s own brand of Camino for sure.   There is personal challenge.  There is camaraderie,  There is adventure.  There is a rolling party, There is a chance to get away.  There is danger of physical and physiological meltdown.  There is physical beauty in spades.  Yea.  So, we are thinking of these guys and praying for them as they journey onward.  They will come back to us inspired, healthier, wiser and new and improved.

To borrow  Dr. Seuss’ quote from Annie O’Neil’s book, “Your mountain is waiting so…. get on your way!”

I have 15 minutes to do this so a little short story is in order.  Rebecca, my dear wife, and another lady had the job once of doing an estate sale.  The people whose property was to be sold were some of those amazing folks that lived through the Great Depression.  They were very frugal and watchful and never threw anything away it seems.  So, Rebecca and Susan are sorting and pricing and displaying in preparation for the big weekend sale.  And they come across this cigar box with the writing on the lid, “Pieces of String, Too Short to Save”.   That’s it!

My personal movement numbers:

6/22/14 – 5 miles, 17673 steps.

6/23/14 – 6 miles, 17941 steps.

6/24/14 – 1 mile, 7910 steps (treatment day).

6/25/14 – 4 1/2 miles, 17332 steps.

6/26/14 – 0 miles, 8979 steps (treatment day).

Really,  poison goats came up in the last twenty four hours.  Flying monkeys in the “Wizard of Oz” I’ve seen, flying fish I have seen, poison frogs I have read of but poison goats, a really new one on me.  This all started in a dream that I had last night.  I was denied access to Mexico at the border because I had a record of trying to bring in poison goats to their pristine country.  What?  Typo, something lost in translation maybe?

Maybe you could make the argument that poison goats would be an improvement.  Maybe a vanguard agricultural project.  Maybe an activity for a new wacky holiday.  Maybe goats were given standard health shots in US that are not allowed south of the border.  Well, needless to say, I did not come up with these great goat ideas in my dream.  I didn’t get there the “firstest with the mostest”.

I am off to see one of my doctors and one of my spiritual advisers today.  I will have to run this one by them.  They have heard it all and will bring clarity to my situation.  Maybe it is some new strange chemotherapy side effect that I have not run across yet, although that would be hard to believe.  But I will bring it up.  Thanks for sticking with me through thick and thin, Phil.