Caminoheads for sure. Mary Margret and Sherif caught in a Sheriff selfie.
Good morning or whatever time it is there where your body happens to be at the moment. Rebecca and I Skyped with Gracie last night who is now in London getting hunkered down for the school year. Skype and FaceTime and really all this e-stuff are like miracles to me.
All right back to our pursuit of a defination of Caminohead. Let’s review: a Caminohead is an individual that is a hiker at one end of the spectrum and a pilgrim on the other. And additionally he/she is someone who is interested in what the Camino de Santiago means, offers, facilitates. And further this is not an exclusive group. everyone is welcome that comes with a willingness to open themselves up to possibilities. Yes?
You know what, my Camino calls and have to close for now but we are making good progress and things are becoming more clear. And more clear is good. Love! Phil.
Hi. What if we continue on with what we were talking about yesterday. And as Kelly would say, “Let’s review.” I don’t know how many times he used this on me as I am a slow learner apparently. So, I was telling you the genesis of the name Caminoheads and how that got started.
Next hopefully will come a defination. How about: a person that has walked the Camino de Santiago or wants to or is interested in it? That’s a good start. OK, I have thinking about this particular topic for a while now and it just occurred to me to do something unorthodox. I am going to jump ahead and go for the jugular on this and say, at the farthest reaches of my thinking, that a Caminohead is someone that has a longing for God and has been attracted to the Camino because of it.
And look, in between those two ends we can conviently fit all sorts of folks with all sorts of ideas, thoughts and motivations. The last thing that we need is an exclusive club, right? This has to be a club where the readers come together and learn from each other, support each other and celebrate each other.
Well, we made vast progress. Maybe we can gather a few more ideas and then tomorrow boil this down to something workable. I have a walking date in a few minutes and need to go for now. How about tomorrow? Love, Phil.
What the heck is a Caminohead anyway? Good question, let’s work on that. Maybe I need to back up and give you a little history of my thinking. Within the last year I heard a quote in Spanish that went, “The Camino is a drug it will hook you.” And that entered my thinking and started roaming around.
Then one day about six months ago, back before Spain, I needed a name for this blog and a few things came together to gel and form Caminoheads. One obviously is the druggy sort of connection. There are potheads and all sorts of heads, so why not … The other component, you are going to laugh at this one, is cheese. There is a brand of string cheese (mozzarella) that we started buying to put in the kids lunches when they were in school. They were these individualied wrapped units just right for snacks. I still buy them and some are in the frig now, I think. Let me look. Yea, there we go, Frigo String Cheese and they are called Cheeseheads!
There is a little Cheesehead guy on the wrapper that looks like he is the more energetic brother of the GoDaddy guy. He’s got a crazy smile and crazy string cheese hair. So the addictive notion of the Camino combined in my right brain with this guy and the result was, well, you guessed it.
I think that we could continue this thread tomorrow. I want to try and hammer out a definition of Caminohead but for now the sun is out and maybe I could get some tractoring in. Thanks for being here. You guys are the bestest, love, Phil.
Yea. So Alida sent me her favorite recipe for flan which I whipped out earlier today. We just tried it and it was excellent and very different from the box stuff that I had been making before. I am very proud of myself! Haha. Felipe.
I am thinking about the direction that this blog is headed. What to do next. Maybe what to do after that. It’s a good thing and valuable but I feel a need for it to expand and deepen. It’s all going to get better.
Still barely light here. I like to blog early while everything is quiet. Speaking of which this is opening day of deer hunting season here and I’m expecting to hear some shots any second. It’s opened till the 31st of this month and I am planning on getting one in the freezer at some point soon. High quality venison is one of our menu items.
But I am off to my weekly bible class in a few minutes so hunting will have to wait. I cherish this time together with my bible guys so it is all good. Signing off for now, you guys are the best, Love, Felipe.
Now there is a Kelly quality quote. I came up with that. Yea. Maybe we will explore it’s meaning soon. But for now I have to be brief. I am walking in a few minutes and if I am lucky I will have some company.
Rebecca purchased a leather couch yesterday. It is not new but it is beautifully broken in, burgundy color and very Spanish looking I think. She is redoing the living room. Thanks Rebecca.
I got a message from Anamaria and she is feeling better. So, whatever you are doing, keep doing it for a while yet, please. You guys are the best, love, Felipe.
I’m off to a busy day in the big city so I need to talk with you now. And I don’t know what to talk about really. Ah but I do!
You know along the trail when one of us or anyone was having a bad time, a bad stretch of personal road we would be there for them, no question. Well our beloved Anamaria is having such a time right now. Her personal road is hard because she, the wonderful girl, is heart broken over the death of her beloved friend.
We are all connected by bonds that we don’t always understand but regardless we feel them. I am reminded of that old song “When There Is Something Wrong With my Baby There Is Something Wrong With Me”. Please be there for Anamaria now in your own way.
Yes, what could be more important than that? What are we here for if not to support each other on the Camino. It still goes on, yes? You’re the best, Felipe.
“I try to stay sober and then I see a beautiful flower.” This is one of my thoughts that I wrote down on July 8th and just found. This was before Spain. I was already getting in the zone here on Vashon.
A good robust response to beauty is a beautiful thing, yes? And I know that we all felt that because we all laughed AND cried all the way across that beautiful country where we were in and out of beautiful churches, and met beautiful people and had beautiful surprises. That looks all good to me. Love, Felipe.
Somewhere along the trail Rick picked up the nickname Quick. Pretty cool huh? I think that came from the film crew’s creative depths. And he was and is quick for sure.
Rick is from here on Vashon Island. Kelly trained with him a lot and I trained with him some before Spain. I say some because it was harder for me to join Rick because of scheduling. And one time the three of us did get to walk together which was hilarious to the max. Those guys are soooo funny together that there were times that I could bearly do the one foot in foot of the other thing.
But in Spain we were never together like that either. Kelly was with me for the mountains and the Meseta and then Rick was with me from Samos Monastery westward to Santiago. I was blessed to have them both for they kept me organized and moving in their own ways.
Rick’s way was to help me by figuring out the lodging for us which was problematic in the last 100 km due to the robust flow of pilgrims. He enlisted his daughter Maryka, who speaks good Spanish, to help with cell calls out to potential places. We even stayed at a dairy farm one night that he engineered. Rick to the rescue!
One day we walked a long way to a town that we thought had bunks but was full up and we walked on another ten km to the next town. It turned out to be our longest day, 35 km, I think. But anyway Quick hiked ahead to that town, left his pack and came back to help me. And he carried my pack the last 1 1/2 kilometers. What a guy. Rick to the rescue once again!
And so now I have realized that something has rubbed off on me from Rick, and actually from Kelly and Sherif too and that is I am now cooking. Yea, as in guys cooking and I am pretty excited about it too. So thanks Rick for being a part of that inspiration for me.
He is so quick that he got us on this post twice!
Well, I have to get this published since it has already taken me more than one day. Guess that I could blame it all on the Seahawks game last night or the fog on the water this morning that slows the ferry to a crawl. Or I did have technical difficulties also with the iPad. Just little obstacles on my daily walk. You’re the best, Phil.
Walking schedule:
Friday October 10th 0900-1000.
Sunday October 13th 1000-1100.
Monday October 14th 0900-1000.
(this is here at my place, just show up, we will maybe get Wednesday mornings going soon)
Kelly, excellent Dilly Dallier and super Caminohead.
I don’t know how many times that Kelly saved my sorry butt on the Camino in Spain. I owe him so much and he was the perfect partner on our journey. Just one example, he always said that we were Slow and Steady. Here on Vashon in training I was faster then he was so I got the nick name Steady. Then somewhere in Spain we switched and he took over being Steady. Let’s say that we complemented each other beautifully.
Thank you Kelly for the help that you gave. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your smiles. Thank you for your “Kelly’s Quotes of the Day”. And maybe most important, helping me deepen my faith. You’re the best buddy, thanks for putting up with me.
