I met an interesting woman today
who knows about poetry.
Oh yes Felipe, but your wife knows about poetry.
And yes Felipe, your oldest friend knows about poetry.
Felipe, you know someone that actually has a doctorate in guess whato?
You, on the other hand my dear romantic you know dog biscuits about it.
Perhaps, but I know about little blue flowers.
I know what it feels like to fall into a school of barracuda.
I have talked with cancer.
I have taught people how to kill people at 500 yards.
Yes, and I have washed people’s feet.
And so far I have learned that cooking, sex and love
are all about giving, not taking.
My list must count for something surely
it can’t be rocket surgery can it this poetry
Hmm
perhaps it might be
my batteries are below 3%
Here is the latest:
Jess and Todd came up and joined me for color correcting the film this past weekend. That is a necessary part of filmmaking these days, where we are able to watch the film scene by scene, even frame by frame really, making sure that everything looks the way it should. The colorist’s name was Luke Cahill, and it felt very much like we met a long lost member of our team. He fit right in, with an excellent talent for what he did, a great work ethic, and was just an all around nice guy. Last week there was preliminary sound happening in advance of this week’s sound mix. Everyone says that sound is even more important than color, meaning that we as humans can forgive something if the color is a little off, but if the sound is off, the film will look less professional, and will not grab people as much. So this week on Thursday I will be going to the sound mix studio and making sure it is as good as it can be. Friday I will do the same with color. Hopefully, Doug will join me on both these trips, bringing his experience with over 70 documentary films with him. It is nice to have his wealth of knowledge to lean back on! From there it is just a matter of duplicating the film onto the necessary formats required by film festivals and DVDs for the rest of us! Wish us Buen Camino!
Well, just follow the trail Felipe. OK, OK, I knew that! Will include a paragraph from Annie, the Producer/Director of Phil’s Camino with the latest news on the progress of the documentary. We both agreed that her updates would be good for us to have to keep up to date here at Caminoheads. So, we will have a double post today, Annie’s following this one.
Where is the trail this morning? Well, I really had no idea till I just read the aforementioned news from Annie. She said something that tweaked my sensibilities. She was talking about the possibility of having Doug Blush along on these final fine tuning sessions for color and sound. Doug is a very talented and accomplished editor and here he is hangin with our crew of pilgrim artists lending his expertise to the effort. We are so lucky to have him on our team. Thank you Doug, thank you St James.
Let’s see, what did Annie say about Doug’s presence? “Hopefully, Doug will join me on both these trips, bringing his experience with over 70 documentary films with him. It is nice to have his wealth of knowledge to lean back on!”
I love the way Annie put that, “to lean back on!”. Thank you Annie for showing me the trail this AM, for this blog, for me.
I find myself more able “to lean back on” God more everyday as my days pass by. There is a way, a vision, a path that opens to reveal a God that is welcoming, that has a feminine side. I am discovering this and discovering how to approach it. After years of fire and brimstone, which is still there, I am lucky enough to start to experience the milk and honey side of God. This deserves many more well chosen words but I am out of time for now.
Off to the big city to see Danger Zone, my beloved rehab doc. Have a great one, love, Felipe. Remember to swerve for those newts.
Between Terry and Richard I just got overloaded with God stuff. See right there, I was trying to write “good stuff”. I was overloaded with God stuff, exactly right. I guess I need to write my blog before I open and read these guys, too much for me. Wonderful stuff but heavy duty.
So, Catherine y Dana and Cynthia y Roan showed up this AM to walk and we did make it around two laps when I suggested that we go inside and have a coffee and read these blogs. I needed some help with this stuff. We read all three blogs outloud and had a great discussion. Just perfect for a rainy morning. This is all great stuff for Lent and we are doing exactly what we should be doing. Thanks Terry and Richard.
Alright, we haven’t solved the case of the lucky octopus but he can wait. We have covered enough for one day. And remember to slow down for the darn newts. Don’t be a stranger, love, Felipe.
Yea, I have no idea what that means but it is intriguing. It was a news story on the TV news just a moment ago and the sound was off so I don’t have the details. Perhaps a Valentine Day story. I was all prepared with a headline for this post of “We Swerve For Newts” which I came up with this morning after an early morning trip to town. It is wet and warm out and the little 3 inch newts (amphibians) are crossing the roads. It’s kind of a Springtime thing.
And then I had a chance at writing a blog post and I read Terry’s weekly Sabbath Moment post and was filled with that. It is a real beauty. And then to finish me off another Richard Rohr message came in. I’m pretty much toast. My only chance is if Catherine y Dana get over here to walk shortly and we can talk our way though this.
A recent evening view.Cosmos Instead of Churchiness
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Once you are in an authority position in any institution, your job is to preserve that institution, and your freedom to live and speak the full truth becomes limited. Francis taught us to live on the edge of the church, rather than managing the institution. We were not intended to be parish priests. Francis himself refused priesthood, and most of the original friars were laymen rather than clerics. This position offered the Franciscans structural freedom. We were to always occupy the position of “minority” in this world. (The M in OFM stands for minorum, Ordo Fratrum Minorum.) Francis wanted us to live a life on the edge of the inside–not at the center or at the top, but not outside throwing rocks, either. This unique position offers structural freedom and hopefully spiritual freedom too.
The early Franciscans said the first Bible was not the written Bible, but creation itself, the cosmos. “Ever since the creation of the world, God’s eternal power and divinity–however invisible–have become visible for the mind to see in all the things that God has made” (Romans 1:20). This is surely true; but you have to sit still in it for a while, observe it, and love it without trying to rearrange it by thinking you can fully understand it. This combination of observation along with love–not with resistance, judgment, analysis, or labeling–just observation with love and reverence, is probably the best definition of contemplation I can give. You simply participate in what one Carmelite described as a long loving look at the real.
For Francis, nature itself was a mirror for the soul, for self, and for God. Clare uses the word mirror more than any other metaphor for what is happening between God and soul. The job of church and theology is to help us look in the mirror that is already present. All this “mirroring” eventually effects a complete change in consciousness. Thomas of Celano, Francis’ first biographer, writes that Francis would “rejoice in all the works of the Lord and saw behind them things pleasant to behold–their life giving reason and cause. In beautiful things he saw Beauty Itself, and all things were to him good.” [1] This mirroring flows naturally back and forth from the natural world to the soul. All things find themselves in and through one another. Once that flow begins, it never stops. You’re home, you’re healed, you’re saved–already in this world.
That’s the kind of salvation that so many of us perhaps expected, but only in the next world–and only for a few it seems–if we follow our own criteria. Meanwhile, we live unhappily and with a sense of scarcity in this world, hoping for some victory later. I believe the victory is now, or it isn’t much of a victory; if you don’t have it now, you won’t know how to live it later, or to even desire it.
Either this world is the very “Body of God” or we have little evidence of God at all. “Transactional” theories of a later salvation–instead of transformation now–have come to mean less and less to most people. Yet those whose livelihood depends on this theory continue to keep many sincere seekers codependent on such a message and even their precise formulation of it. Such codependency only works among people who do not know how to pray and see for themselves. Salvation is not something you arbitrarily believe in. You only believe in it because you first of all see it. Francis, a living contemplative, walked the roads of Italy in the 13th century shouting, “The whole world is our cloister!” By narrowing the scope of salvation to words, theories, and select groups, we have led many people not to pay any attention to the miracles that are all around them all the time here and now.
This is for you if you are interested in coming to walk or if you want to just know what is going on at Phil’s Camino. We have been going strong here lately, come rain or come shine, largely because of my avid hiking companion Roan. But please come and be here with me and other pilgrims. This time of year wear rubber boots and maybe a rain jacket.
On our walk across Spain we are at the town of Castanares which is about 10k out of Burgos. I remember walking this stretch with Gracie. This was a hard area of trashy industry and poverty. But you can see the Catedral in the distance.
The official film poster that just came out. Nice job crew!
That’s the quote of the week in my neighborhood. One of my Bible Guys rolled in with that. I think that it means that there is no such thing as “I love you but…”.
And Valentines Day mañana. We kind of know what that means. But I’m wondering how this got started. Was there a St Valentine? Let me do a little quick research.
Here is a little bit from Wikipedia and there is more if you are interested:
“Several martyrdom stories associated with the various Valentines that were connected to February 14 were added to later martyrologies,[2] including a popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome which indicated he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire.[3] According to legend, during his imprisonment, Saint Valentine healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius,[4] and before his execution, he wrote her a letter signed “Your Valentine” as a farewell.[5]”
Sounds like a Shakespeare play to me. Hollywood could probably do something with that also. But there was a person or maybe more that morphed into one that is more or less a legend now. Somehow that is important to me, that there was a person involved.
OK, off to my Saturday. Raining a Feburary rain outside. I need to put some hours in on my paperwork. The best to you there, love, Felipe.
I need to correct myself on some the facts of yesterday. Jesus did prepare a meal of fish on an open fire for a handful of the Apostles who were out fishing on the Sea of Galilee. That is in John 1-14. I should have remembered that as I was on a committee that commissioned that scene to be painted. My memory is shot full of holes. Luckily, I have the painting nearby to remind me.
Here is part of a group of inspirational stories sent in to me by Ellen: “Today, I was traveling in Kenya and I met a refugee from Zimbabwe. He said he hadn’t eaten anything in over 3 days and looked extremely skinny and unhealthy. Then my friend offered him the rest of the sandwich he was eating.
The first thing the man said was, “We can share it.” Yea.
So, let’s see what else is new? Oh yes, a gorgeous poster came out for Phil’s Camino documentary. I will try and get that for tomorrow’s blogpost. Apparently, some of the film festivals have completions for film posters so we got one together. You are going to like it.
Well, I think that I will let you go for now. This will give you more time to make St Valentine Day’s preparations, right? Don’t blow this one. Love you, Felipe.
Moses dealing with the snow in Western New York sent in by Bob.
