I grew up listening to people talk about working. And I grew up within the figures of rebels and socialists whose signs were always claiming for the opportunity to work, because “Works dignifies the person”. I listened to my uncle tell the story that he had to go to work as a milk-man when he was 13 years old, as he was the oldest of 5 siblings and he father had just died. And I started to work myself at a very young age also, during my holidays I used to sell tickets at my uncle’s carrousel (yes, I have been very good at mathematics since a small child!) Yet, it was very clear that children shouldn’t work.

It makes me very sad every single day when I see children being adults, trying to find a way to make money to support their families or even themselves. In my country sadly, this happens in many corners or street lights, but the internet is full of videos of little kids doing what they should not… and not doing what they should: playing, being cared and looked after by adults, getting a formal and emotional education which would allow them to get a job when growing up…

I am going nowhere with this post… it is just that I kept thinking on this thing about children working since I saw a post and picture in twitter: 4 children, probably all below 10-12 years old, who were cleaning windshields and selling pens in a street light, went into a pizza place together, pulled “what they have made” during the day and bought a pizza and each of them a coca cola, and were just having the best of the times together, dividing the pizza in even pieces, enjoying… then, a 5th child that they didn’t know came in to the pizza place selling candies, and when he walked by these kids, they immediately invited him to join them; and each cut a piece of their pizza portions and gave them to their new friend.

I just thought that these children, while they should have been playing, they were already recognizing the dignity in themselves and their new friend. Both in enjoying what they got through the money their earned, but also, with making their new friend feel worthy, dignified too.

From any place we hold in this society, may we learn from these little how we should treat our coworkers, but actually, any human.

Worthy loves,

Cris

July 9, 2017 / Truck Sailing

A story came up after our Tailgate Theology session today.  Catherine and I had been to Mass and the supermarket and she was driving me home.  We stopped at my job site to grab some tools and I said, “Hey, push the button so the hatchback flips up so I can throw this junk in.”  And she replied, “Lift the lever back there, this Prius is groovy but not that groovy.”  Anyway this started this conversation about cars and conveniences.

Somehow this led to my Truck Sailing story.  Catherine liked it so I will try it on you.  I have this old black panel truck that sits in the weeds here.  It used to be a going concern and as a matter of fact I drove it across country at least a dozen times give or take.  It was pretty primitive compared to things these days.  It had no radio (early sound system) but I used to turn the heater on for some distraction for instance.  Anyway on one of my trips going from west to east I was trying to make it on fifty dollars for food and gas which could be done.  At some point the battery gave out and I was running without it which involved getting some jump starts now and then from strangers.

So, that is the background.  And on this trip I was being chased by this storm going through Wyoming.  The wind was howling behind me as I pulled into one of those Little America places with a hundred gas pumps.  I had to shut down the engine before the attendant would pump my fuel ( 33 cents a gallon).  So, I thought that’s cool I will just ask for a jump.  Well the jump cost a dollar.  A dollar!

So I paid the guy five dollars for the gas and jumped in the rig and then a little light bulb came on and I opened the front doors, started rolling and sailed out of there.  Popped the clutch and off I went.  I caught the attendant in the rear-view mirror with his mouth open.  Yea, the old mother of invention thing.    And I made it all the way to New York on my budget but I never had to do that again.

Just goes to show you something, I not exactly sure what at the moment.  OK, have to take off for now.  Love you,  and remember when you get into trouble open your doors and things will come together for you, Felipe.

When you find out about the Camino, it’s because it found you, you did not find it. When you happen across the movie, “The Way” and you watch it and it is not just another good movie, rather, a call to action for your soul, that was the Camino pulling you in towards it. It found you, you did not find it.

When you are on the bus towards the airport, it’s the Camino pulling you. When you are on the plane headed towards Paris to then find the train to Bayonne and then Biarritz, and end up in St. Jean, the Camino pulled you there. Come “Hell or High Water” you were going to end up there. That’s just what the plan was. When you were born, the Camino knew it, and then it waited for the perfect time to show you the Way and then it pulled you. When you cast your stone on top of  Cruz de Ferro for something or someone that mattered to you, it was the Camino that brought you there.

Now, for whatever reason, and I truly don’t know why, the Camino does not pull everyone towards it. It gravitates to those whom it wants to pull. Those around the people being pulled cannot in most cases understand why. I don’t understand why, but when I was on the plane, the train, to St. Jean Pied de Port the  day before my 40th birthday, I was assured in my soul that something greater than me was pulling me towards it. When it was finally my turn to answer where I was from while sitting at the communal dinner table at Orrison Albergue my first day of my 40th birthday and people from around the world sang me happy birthday, I knew then, that the Camino brought me to them, not them to me.

You do not find the Camino, the Camino pulls you. It was you it wanted.

Cheers:)

Ryck

Dear Caminoheads,

A recent exchange as a result of a picture about the corn (The Corn) in the oasis (The Oasis) facebook group, started a discussion about this “Residential Program” that Phil runs for the “Training” of any individual that crosses the gates of Raven Ranch.

I don’t know for how long he has been running this program, but I guess this has years in the making. You see? The first time I put a foot on Raven Ranch, I was introduced to “James, the most interesting man -in training”. James is Wiley’s friend and hunter buddy for Phil and Wiley, but the last reference Phil made here in the blog about James, he continues to be “in training”. In that very opportunity, I was introduced to the tasks of planting the cover crop by hand (very biblical) and then some lavender plants… and was immediately in this Training Residential Program without even noticing… and my training continued as I got home, with Phil sending pictures of the progress of my efforts, in exchange of a payment I would do in comments, and this advancing handing over of responsibilities… nevertheless, I haven’t yet received a diploma of graduation, which would be pretty handy these days when everyone has to be highly qualified…

I also know the case of Jim (from Jim and Jen) known as “the weeder”. Phil told Jen that he was “working hard to keep Jim out of trouble” and assigned Jim to the advanced job as “Director of Weed Control -in training”. According to Jim, Phil not only was kind enough to give him a break, “a package deal”, as Phil explained it to him, but also, instead of the usual $10 a session one would normally pay, he only charged Jim $7.50.  What can be told is that Jim stayed out of trouble and The Corn was a success, both facts I would consider to be successful of a job well done… but I asked Jim if he had gotten any diploma of graduation and he also said no.

But then, a question came to us: should we ask Phil for a graduation diploma, who would certify that Phil’s signature is General Phil Volker’s signature? (You may recall the issue I had recently, and it was just for my university degree…) And the answer came pretty fast: at this moment, it is only right to document and sign “The Elk Hotel Apostille Convention”, a treaty drafted by The Elk Hotel Conference on Private International Law by which such an apostille is sufficient to certify a document’s validity, and removes the need for double-certification, by the originating country and by the receiving country. This would come so handy considering the international community that have been trained in Phil’s Training Residential Program as weeders, planters, pilgrims, archers, carpenters, bird feeders, and the list continues…

I will reach out to Richard for the design of “The Elk Hotel Apostille” stamp; I have looked it up and there is not such a thing under a license yet!

Graduated loves,

Cris

Dear Caminoheads,

7 years ago today, I was sleeping in St. Jean Pied de Port, France, to start walking the Camino Francés in complete. I was about to be 40, exactly what I thought when I was 17 and I was at mass at the local church at home and heard about the Camino for the first time without having any idea what the Camino was other than it was a mean to get a “plenary indulgence”. Back then I thought I would do it for my mother who died to liver cancer when I was 5. Who knows why I had that thought, but I am glad I did as walking the Camino has lived in my mind for all those years since.

As always, if you want to make God laugh you just need to tell him your plans, when I arrived to St. Jean 7 years ago, 3 months away to be 40 years old, my life wasn’t even 0,0001 inch close to what I had envisioned it would be “at 40” when I was 17 and I had that thought, and I must admit: while I didn’t walk it with the purposes of getting any plenary indulgence, I got one of the most transformative experiences of my life, which might be the same…

We often talk about the arrival to Santiago which is great, but to me, setting out at St. Jean was even greater…

Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

~ John O’Donohue ~ Blessing for a traveler

Buen Camino,

Cris

Dear Caminoheads,

Well, what can I say? Would any of you be surprised if I say that Phil is now a “youtuber”? Surely not. Faithful to Scott Fitzgerald, our host shows us one more time that it is never too late or too early to be who you want to be. Ladies and Gentlemen, with you, tonight our the blogger and the movie star,  the one and only Phil/Felipe/The Boss/The General/The YouTuber…

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnRKbs52ujA&fbclid=IwAR1I4X3LFFgKA7YSoChwRUVdWYdEjzZkBrfszOqlhfKBHt9CpWPFmCi2TsA

Good show loves,

Cris

Dear Caminoheads,

How cool is it that our friends identify us so much as pilgrims, that when they find a reference to the Camino, they have to “officially” report to us? This happened to me on Friday.

Luis is one of my Brazilian work colleagues who became a dear friend of mine, after we shared some work together back from 2011 to 2014. In fact, I believe we were meant to get to know each other: you see, in 2004 my then boyfriend and I went to get some training in Sao Paulo, Brazil. My training was in the same hospital and at the same time where Luis was completing his training as an hemato-oncologist. Seven years later, both working away from hospitals, we met again doing research; this time to become great friends. Luis is also an amazing artist: he writes, he paints, he cooks, you name it. And he probably qualifies to be one of the most curious and knowledgeable persons in the world -along with Kevan, our reliable Caminoheads from England-. I call Luis “Dr. Wikipedia”.

Luis called on Friday to share that he took a few days off work the week before and traveled to a “Fazenda de Cafe” (a coffee farm) that is a hotel these days, and during the weekend, as we, pilgrims Caminoheads were celebrating at the ranch, he went for a walk in the nearby village called “Rio das Pedras” (River of rocks) and found the shell of Santiago and a sign indicating the Camino passed through it and he couldn’t help but thinking about us (yes, he said he thought of us all). Luis promised a picture, but has not yet arrived, nevertheless, I went to look it up and the Camino is called “Camino dos Diamantes” (Diamonds Camino?) and it seems it is a recognized Camino too.

I just found this neat… I know there are many Caminos everywhere, but the synchronicity really makes me feel this all is special… Luis and I often talk about that our friendship was meant to me, and 10 years later, we keep getting signals!

Buen Camino!

Cris

Dear Caminoheads,

Ron and I have a passion in common: we like to follow the podcast called “On Being” by Krista Tippet. Krista is a very particular interviewer, some of the people I recommended her love her, and others cannot stand her. Very human, right? I am on the side of enjoying very much the conversations she manages to create with her guests. And lately, as we were arriving to the Oasis, I have been reflecting quite a bit on a question Phil has had us pondering for so long... What have we figured out?

Krista ends her conversations almost invariably with the question“What does it mean to you to be human?”  and while pondering about the arriving to the Oasis, our familiar arrival to Santiago, togethernessing in this blog, and other minor matters just like those ones (ha!), a conversation between Krista and Bruce Kramer -and educator, musician, who was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)- came to my mind. I listened to it on the Saturday of the Oasis, as I was driving to the city for an unexpected dental appointment (all is ok, although I am still a bit sore). I thought to share a few pieces with you…

“There was a place where you write that as an educator, you had learned the difference between opening to possibilities through questions and closing creativity with answers. And that then as ALS became part of your experience, the question you were — you started to be able to ask to turn that was, “How shall we grow into the demands of what is beyond us?” Which is a different question from, “How shall we fight this?”

…

We think we’re going to leave something of ourselves. But education is an act of faith. It’s faith in the fact that human beings have the capacity to grow and that as humans, we can become better. We can become more compassionate. We can become more understanding. And no matter what it is that afflicts us, that affliction can become a part of us that makes us better people.

…

And healing does not imply that your life is suddenly going to lose all of the struggle, all of the challenge. What it does instead is it strengthens us for what is next…”

Growing loves,

Cris

I just want to get out a few words to you to show you that I am still kicking.  Our days have been packed including the four days of the Oasis.  But I had a dream yesterday morning that was notable.  The characters in this dream we’re actually in bed with me.  There is a first.   I was elbowing them to get some room.  Crazy.

Felipé.x

Posted by Cris on behalf of Phil/Felipe/The Boss/The General

Dear Caminoheads,

((Thank you, but it is not needed. Indeed, you do not need to make a donation for me for offering an unbeatable word for scrabble. It is just a corollary fact from today’s post.))

PNEI is the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous, endocrine and immune systems of the human body. The main interests of PNEI are the interactions between the nervous and immune systems and the relationships between mental processes and health. And as we know, we are experts on this topic here at Caminoheads.

I love neuroscience, and the more I become aware of the way my brain works, the more I love neuroscience. Why? Because we have never been more aware that we create our own magic kingdom or our own hell by the way we think; and we have the power to do the same with those we interact with, because our words reflect what we think, so we can make someone’s day or we can let them down with just a few words. My field of work (in my other job, I mean, not my Caminoheads South American Bureau Chief job) is related to immunology, and while we know a lot about interleukins, cytokines, biomarkers, macrophages, glial cells, etc. we also deal a lot with what we call “placebo effect”. However, the more we reflect on placebo effect, the more it sounds like PNEI… Why? Because the way we think, the way we talk, the way we live, the way interact with others has a clear impact in our health and the health of those we interact with.

~~Maybe you are thinking that I am mixing my jobs and writing in the wrong place, but please stay with me! ~~

Have you found yourself saying that getting to know Phil changed your life? And what about getting to know Felipe? And for the pilgrims, what about having walked the Camino? And for those who read poetry, doesn’t poetry change you? I am sure your answers are all “YES!!!!!” And have you wondered how is that these things changed your life? Do the exercise. I bet that some of the answers may include being less fearful of illness, being more able to accompany others who are going through an illness, learning about the goodness in people, increasing your trust in the strangers, giving images to your inner world,…

From a biological point of view, these changes we have made are measurable: the area of our brains that process fear are smaller, we secrete less glucocorticosteroids and catecholamines (stress hormones) and as a result we have more serotonin (good humor hormone) and our metabolism has less inflammation. All of these translates into less fear, less stress, more good humor, less weight, lower blood pressure, healthier arteries, knees that hurt less, etc. Bottom line: we are healthier and happier, and probably as a result, we will live longer.

I asked to someone who was present at The Oasis how it was, and this person said: “Rejuvenating”. Phil says that walking is “healing”. Here, we say that blogging is “Togethernessing”…

Psychoneuroendocrineimmunology Loves,

Cris