Dear Caminoheads,

My fellow Bureau Chiefs are just amazing, and we seem to be developing some sort of mind-reading thing, as there are 2 deep and touching comments on the post from yesterday that must be read by all, and they came very handy as today I am not feeling great, I guess I caught some bug and my stomach isn’t happy.

Here is Ronaldo’s… Remember: he is our Bureau Chief once in the USA East Coast, but fell in love with Astorga and the meseta, and moved there along with his main love, Anne.

 

When this ‘war’ first started, having no idea that it would go on even this long, I had the feeling that the restrictions limiting personal contact enjoyed by Spanish people (kisses as a common greeting, for example) would contribute to mental health issues apart from, and potentially longer lasting than, the virus particle itself.

But from my vantage point as a new-comer to this community in northern Spain, I have observed wonderful resilience and great community responsibility despite many deaths and infections. Many businesses have closed, and recently a few new ones have opened, people here do respect mask use and personal spacing and hand cleaning upon entry to businesses, and perhaps most important, I think I can see smiles underneath those masks.

So I hope that you too are smiling under that mask and that your smile encourages others to ‘Carry On’ even if there is a ‘war’ going on.

Cris signed off with HTL. Do you know what HTL means, at least to me? Hug Too Long, that kind of contact that is long enough to release some magic things in our bodies that overcomes physical and emotional pain, brings a flow of warm memories and makes one want to do it again.

HTL loves,
Ronaldo

 

Virus free Loves,

Cris

This past weekend Argentina media was over-flooded by the news that the deaths due to COVID-19 reached 100.000. Today, 20th of July, we celebrate “Friendship Day” (Día del Amigo), and roughly one third of social media was taken by pictures of folks gathering as if nothing would be happening, another third taken by pictures of folks that were good friends to others and are no longer here due to the pandemic, and the remaining third by pictures of those who are madly missing gathering and hugging their friends.

I couldn’t help but thinking on this letter to the editor that I read last year. There is a reason behind the three attitudes that have filled up the social media here. “Our hunger is of contact”.

 

Letter to the editor from a Spanish 27 years old man: “Hug me tight, that you never know” 

Any child of my generation has a common memory: being forcefully stuffed at your grandparents house. “Eat it, that you never know when another war may come”, my grandmother used to say, even when all had left in the plate was a single chickpea.

Her biggest collective trauma was hunger.

And because of that, since those times, treasured, providently, every occasion of feeding as if it could be the last one, and saw in each full table, a privilege.

Meanwhile, we, able to throw away half of a fridge in the garbage with no regret, grew up in a bubble of presumed safety, convinced that nothing would happen.

Now we get our first wound.

Yes. This pandemic is our war, our hunger is of contact, and I believe that our trauma will be isolation and distance. That is why I wonder if in the future, we would not become in provident treasurers of affection and will tell our grandchildren phrases like the tittle of this letter: “Hug me tight, that you never know”

(Ricardo Ramos Rodríguez, Zaragoza)

HLT Loves,

Cris

Yes. Today the post is going to be short. I just wanted to send a huge Thank You to you all, the amazing neighbors of Caminoheads neighborhood! The Boss is right when he says you are the best (well, I should say “we”, because at the end of the day, I am one of you too even if I have the password of the blog! :D)

The number of emails received, the details provided, the offers for rides, the “how can I help?”, the enthusiasm… all of that is just amazing… it makes me think on this story Phil told us many times about his Camino family in Spain: “We were louder than the Italians”… I can see why he said that… we seem to be a replica of his Camino family in Spain 😀 😀 😀

So, today, I just want to say THANK YOU!!! You are making the organization so much easier!

 

As Phil says: allperfect loves!

Grateful Oasis Organization Committee

Dear Caminoheads,

LET ME WARN YOU: THERE IS AN AMAZING OASIS-STORM BEING COOKED AT THE RAVEN RANCH!!!!!!!!

I am very happy to report that I had an AMAZING conversation with The Boss (a.k.a. Phil or Felipe) and Rebecca yesterday about the Oasis. I did my best to take the most accurate notes, but there was so much laughter, great ideas and jokes in between that I hope I got everything right; if not, I will amend it later! We are FLEXIBLE.

As for the plans, we already have a number of great ideas: there will be walking Phil’s Camino, we will hang out at the ranch, we will have activities in the island as we did in the Veranda, we will gather around the fire with a glass of wine and storytelling, and we will adjust all of this as we go, as we would do if the weather conditions change. This year we will have an innovation: we will have SIESTAS in the schedule!!! Also, for those who cannot be physically present, we will have online Oasis Activities (I must admit, this requires a bit of engineering, but hey, we also have pilgrims and Caminoheads with engineering training! 😉 )

As I said before, the Oasis will be exactly like a day in the Camino. Going or having gone to the Camino is not what makes you a pilgrim. Pilgrims are those who are happy “figuring out” things as we go and are not afraid of the weather conditions. If there is rain, we just pull out our ponchos and we make jokes about the rain, or we ask for a hug to warm up. It is that simple. We are FLEXIBLE.

 

Bottom line: RSVP to [email protected]

Add in your email when you are planning to arrive and to leave, how many of you are coming (families are more than welcome!!), where you are staying (or planning to stay), if you will have a car and can offer a lift or if you need a lift; also let us know if you are coming online and if you need any help. All of this can be fine-tuned later as your plans get more solid, but share with us what you know right now. This RSVP bit is extremely useful to help us planning meals, the number of chairs needed, and logistics. And THANK YOU to all who already emailed!

 

I close my eyes and I see one of these delicious tomato sauces or Guinness stew that to taste great require boiling at very low heat for hours and hours… Get ready to come on the Oasis days to make the most of it. We will be waiting at the Tapas table August 20th to 23rd.

Oasis Loves,

Cris on behalf of Phil/Felipe/The boss and His Rebecca

 

Yes. Sorry Caminoheads! But Here is another post about rocks!!! It might sound boring,  but would it be even possible a Camino without rocks? Would it be possible a Camino without the rock we carried from home? Would it be possible a Camino without the Cruz de Ferro? Would it be possible a Camino without burning or leaving something at Finisterre or Muxia?

 

In the past weeks, for different reasons, I have been involved in different conversations about acceptance, letting go, dropping a weight, unburdening, decluttering… surely you understand what I was talking about, right? (Be patient with me please! Spanish is my mother tongue, but have a life-adopted Brazilian father with whom I speak Portuguese and I am trying to write to you in English, so at times words aren’t exactly equivalent).

The conversations were around “what would be possible for us?” to do in the different circumstances we face in life when something is needed from us?

I was telling a friend of mine why for me this idea of “letting go” was difficult, and that for me, “dropping a rock” was more possible. He asked me why and my first thought was the action we, pilgrims, do at the Cruz de Ferro; and went on giving him the example from the movie “The Way”: either “in bits”, like Daniel’s ashes that Tom (Martin Sheen) leaves along the way, or “all together” as Sarah, the Canadian pilgrim does with the abortion she underwent, when we “drop” it through a “physical action” as we would do with leaving a rock (or a piece of paper that has our feelings for this we carry or even the ashes of what it used to be) we are able to imprint in our minds, souls and bodies that we have consciously put this weight at rest. Still exists, it is embodied in the rock, the piece of paper, the ashes, etc. but what we have done with that conscious action is allowing the earth to hold it for us, instead of being us the ones who carry the weight (which at the end of the day, it is held by the poor earth anyway!)

To me “letting go” represents something like pressing “mute and lowering the sound to zero”; somehow, to me means that I carry them with me but I don’t give them the right to talk to me or come to bother me. Some people say that this action is like “surfing a wave”: it comes to you, but you let it pass without affecting you. I tried, but it doesn’t work too well for me.

I have had an idea rambling in my mind lately (while I battle emails at work as if they were weeds!) that maybe, we can allow ourselves to “drop these rocks we carry and their weight”, because at the end of the day, we will always carry the experience and at times too scars…

Cruz de Ferro loves,

Cris

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Oasis 2021 – 20th to 23rd August, 2021

RSVP to [email protected]

 

For the final almost 30 years of my working life I worked in the steel business.

One of those special things we have in common with everyone is eating, and for that reason I have found the bonding process happens more quickly and transparently ‘at the table.’ If you walked the Camino I hope that you are already reviewing in your head the friends you made at a meal, or café con leche or vino or caña stop.

Today Ann and I are in a nice hotel in El Acebo  that is also an albergue and we were encouraged by the staff to join in the 7 pm pilgrims menú dinner.  We  choose to sit at a table by ourselves but we could not miss the multi-lingual conversations and story sharing at the big pilgrim table that are also factors in the bonding process.

So my thoughts saunter over to this ‘table’ we all share with Phil, the great stories we have heard from him and others, the food, be it tapas at the ranch or more virtual nourishment via the movie or words.  And then on to my own physical Camino experience  a few years ago. I think of how special my Camino family members are to me and how many of you are at my virtual table.

So I invite you to do something I learned from an exceptional young man, Justin Graves, who at the time was a student at the university where I worked.

He calls it ‘invite a stranger to dinner’ and it involves asking someone you just met, or an existing friend, to have dinner with you at a restaurant (Dutch treat) and to invite a couple of people they know. He gets about 6 people to agree to do it and reserves a table for 20 (yes) at some local fun eating place. You could play with a smaller number and have some conditions like ‘vaccinated friends’ in these days, but the result is that at least half of the people don’t know one another. Get everyone to introduce themselves in one sentence and let the fun begin. Really, that’s how many Camino friendships begin, right?

These things like eating together need some practice as we regain the ability to do it safely. I recently celebrated my birthday with 6 beloved friends at the table and it felt great.

And don’t forget sharing the table at Oasis, August 20 – 24 at Phil’s place on Vashon Island. Ann and I plan to be there.  Will you be At The Table with me?

In invitational love,

Ronaldo

 

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Oasis 2021 – 20th to 23rd August, 2021

RSVP to [email protected]

Catherine here, cub reporter on first assignment for Caminoheads. Inspired by and grateful to our various Bureau Chiefs, I humbly submit this post. 

 

…Growing up in a devout Catholic family, I learned to pray before I learned to read. At bedtime my Mom and I would kneel beside my bed, hands folded and together we would say: Jesus, Jesus, come to me, make the sweetest child of me. Even as I grew older, praying seemed to be about asking God for things: help on a test, healing for my uncle, forgiveness for my sins. Somewhere along the line I started talking to God, long rambling monologues that were filled with the questions for which I had no answers. What am I supposed to do? What do you want from me? Why am I here? It never occurred to me that God might speak back if I would just shut up and listen. No one ever suggested that if I quieted my mind and listened with my heart, I might hear the whispered voice of God.  

 

For my 60th birthday, I decided to celebrate by walking the Camino de Santiago. I couldn’t explain why, the idea just entered my mind, lodged there like grain of sand, and over time grew into a dream. However, when people asked why I wanted to walk 500 miles across Spain, I was at a loss for words. I had no real explanation other than my impending birthday, which felt like a ridiculously shallow, and unsatisfying response. As I walked here at home, in preparation for the trip, their question became my own. Why, really, did I want to make this pilgrimage?  One morning, a week before leaving, a prayer came to me. It was not from me, but came to me, in its entirety.  

 

I am walking praising you oh God. 

I am walking for the healing of the earth, 

for an end to nuclear weapons and power, 

for all beings everywhere that they may be free of suffering. 

I am walking with gratitude for family and friends, 

with gratitude for the ancestors, and those yet to be born; 

may theirs will be a more peaceful, just, and verdant world. 

I am walking in wonder of your great mystery. 

May each step I take be with humility, courage, and compassion. 

I am walking praising you oh God. 

I am walking. 

 

I was astonished by the clarity of the words and by the direction they offered. I now knew exactly why I was walking the Camino. When people asked, I answered: “I want to make a long prayer of thanksgiving for my life.” Now, six years later, I might answer: “I walked because God called me to do so, through a prayer.” 

 

There will always be questions for which I have no answers, and there are still plenty of times when I catch myself ambling along a forest trail, rambling on, once again to God about this, that, or the other. Just yesterday, I was clucking at God like a chicken, asking about the Oasis, asking about Felipe, asking about Rebecca, asking how best to be of service at this time? When I caught myself in the middle of yet another cluck, I had to laugh. Then I said: “OK. I’m gonna shut up now, God; it’s your turn.” 

 

Still learning to listen after all these years, loves. 

Catherine 

Dear Caminoheads,

Today, as The Boss says, will be a “shortie”, but this is because I don’t want to take your energies reading rambling thoughts from myself, and would love that you save some energies to read some brilliant poignant blogposts that have been sent by other Caminoheads and are coming soon. So, instead, I will leave you today with a writing about a dream (we are becoming big fans of dreams in this neighborhood!) This has been written by another Uruguayan writer, Eduardo Galeano. His books have a lot of short stories telling the dreams his wife Helena has. Here is one.

You may agree it is a lot like like life in this blog these days…

 

It was a huge camp out in the country.  

Singing heads of lettuce and luminous chilies sprouted from magicians’ top hats and there were people all over bartering dreams.  One wanted to trade a travel dream for a love dream and another offered to make you laugh for a dream to give you a good cry.

One man wandered around in search of the pieces of his dreams, shattered by someone who had got in his way.  He was picking up the pieces and sticking them together to make a multicolored flag.

The dream water boy brought water to those who got thirsty as they slept.  He carried the water on his back in a clay vessel and dispensed it in tall glasses.

There was a woman in a tower wearing a white tunic and combing her tresses, which reached down to her feet.  The comb shed dreams replete with all their characters: the dream flew from her hair into the air.

“The land of dreams” by Galeano, Eduardo. The Book of Embraces. Trans. Cedric Belfrage. New York: Norton, 1991. 46

 

Please return to read tomorrow’s blog! 

Late evening loves,

Cris

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Oasis 2021 – 20th to 23rd August, 2021

RSVP to [email protected]

 

Dear Caminoheads,

Today I woke up to a grey, cold and rainy Buenos Aires. And a very long to-do list. I am still to figure out what happens during the weekends or the evenings in the work computers, because it is not reasonable that every morning and particularly every Monday morning, the number of emails exceeds what I can take care of in half a day. Imagine the questions and answers: “What do you work on?”, “Me? I work replying emails!” (and the other half of my “working” day, I attend to teleconferences.) Unreal. Some Mondays, by 10 AM, I am ready for a cry and a chocolate bar (a big one! or a giant cookie, as the one Phil’s Rebecca posted using their sweet granddaughter as the “cookie model”!)

But then, I take a moment to breathe and I realize that I am passionate about my job; and in part it is because to me, my job is an endless well of hope. Yes, we do science which may sound like the opposite of hope, but that is why we do what we do: we apply science with the firm belief that we are bringing hope to others.

And what is hope? I realized I needed to go to the dictionary to find a good definition. I went to the Oxford press and New Oxford American dictionary and also to the Real Academia Española for the meaning of the word in Spanish and noted that the definitions are close but not the same. This time, I like the one the Spanish definition best, which says: “It is the state of the heart in which what we wish, presents to us as possible.”

 

Isn’t that wonderful?

 

“It is the state of the heart in which what we wish, presents to us as possible.”

 

It is a failed sentence to say on Monday mornings that “I hope my emails are done by 10 AM” because reality tells me invariably that this wish isn’t possible. Yet, some other things like finding a better treatment for the rare disease I am working on these days, could start with “I hope”, because it is a wish that presents to me as possible.

And this made me think of “The Elders”, this group created by Nelson Mandela when he was 89 years old. I have admired and followed The Elders for many many years now, so have came across Mandela’s vision for this group that was: “The Elders will support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict, and inspire hope where there is despair.”  Yet, today, I am reading it as if it would be the first time, because it is the first time I realize that at 89 years of age, Mandela wanted to inspire a state of the heart in which what we wish, presents to us as possible”.

And of course, I am now thinking what is that I hope for.

Hopeful loves,

Cris

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Oasis 2021 – 20th to 23rd August, 2021

RSVP to [email protected]