Last evening Rebecca had a Caminoheads Theatre Night. It wasn’t quite a Belly Laugh Theatre Night but good none the less. She showed “A Man Named Pearl”. She and I have seen this three times a least. It is about this black guy that lives in a small city in South Carolina. He is a hard worker, church going family guy but he has this passion for making topiary sculpture. That’s bushes that are shaped in imaginative ways. Well, that sounds slightly interesting but you will have to see where this leads him, his family and the small city of Bishopville.

On the same movie vein I was talking to the nurses about how my near sixty chemo treatments were getting to feel like the movie Ground Hog Day. I was amazed how few of them had seen it. So, if you haven’t, this is a good one to watch.

And then to review, as Kelly would say, The Way is still one to catch if you haven’t already. I saw it after Spain and it was all the more better. And there is Walking the Camino – Six Ways to Santiago with Our Annie in it. This is also known as the Camino Documentary informally and we sometimes call it that here on the blog.

That’s about all the great news that I can bring you for the moment. Off to do stuff, the best to you, Felipe.

All good now. Just want to let you know that Our Jennifer is home and I am home after day with complications at the hospital. Can’t be specific but because of excellent care, steely determination and a rosary we pulled out a victory.

Victoriously we love, Felipe.

We are hunkered down at the treatment center with windows. Sometimes we get some windows and sometimes we are looking at some interior hospital ambiance. And the sun is out so it is more fun to see the neighborhood out there. Yea, but a little bored so I was considering filling out a Pajamagram customer survey. Then I got a grip on myself.

Jennifer just started doing a sock puppet show so things are looking up. Marilyn, Jennifer’s cousin was here and Steve-O my hunting buddy showed up. This was all good because at a certain point things changed and we had a harder time than usual and there support was important. We’ll get through it but the trail has gotten rough here for now and it requires more care and the need to slow down.

Thank you for your many prayers. Thank you for your many thoughts. Some days are harder than others but we know that. Will be back to you tomorrow but for now I need to pay attention. Love you, Felipe.

Had a great coffee meeting yesterday. Finally after a few years of bumping into each other we got a chance to spend a few moments together. Carla is the rector at the local Episcopal church. I have gone to various services there over the years and I gave a Camino talk there. But it was good to sit down and work out the fine points of history and talk about where do we go from here.

I worked her over with Camino talk, a fresh ear. Don’t we love that? We also talked about luminaries that we both knew in common. I gave her the rundown on my Cancer Camino. She talked about her upcoming retirement which will be a big change. With all her upcoming free time she will be at Phil’s Camino for walk and talk. Yea, we will look forward to that. We can walk and search for signs of spring.

So, what I got out of the talk is important. This to me is the value of spendng time with spiritual advisors. They clarify my local personal environs. I am able to get past the mist and the mud that I usually operate in. OK, so what did this clarity reveal? First she characterized me as a “hungry heart”. Yea. I like that, I can live with that and more I can build on that.

And then secondly that “hungry heart” has a practical application. Somehow this Felipe coming out of the mud and the mist of grassroots life has been able to run into or bump into or stumble into some amazing situations, territory and relationships. How did that happen? How does that work? We could try to answer those questions but the real point is that Felipe is just an average guy, without degrees or money. And he stands for the idea that anyone could do this too, this isn’t rocket surgery as they say. This is the real value of the Felipe story, that it is attainable. Thank you Carla.

Well, just reporting on life in the neighborhood. Remember Pilgrim Farmer John as he goes in for his new gleaming hip joint. Remember Our Jennifer and me as we go in for treatment tomorrow. Pray for us and pray for the thousands of stones on the pile a few feet from here, each has a story.

Always attainable love, Felipe.

My dear walking partner, Kelly, who I talked into going to Spain with me, is a retired elementary school teacher. He has lots of experience keeping semi formed individuals on track and moving forward. This served him very well getting old Felipe from town to town dispite the numerous distractions of August in Spain.

One of his favorite lines that he would whip out at dull times was, “Let’s review.” And we would go through a list of important items that would keep things orderly for us. Man, I have to love the guy. I think our banter was hilarious for people within earshot all the way accross. Love you Kelly!

Anyway, I just want to “Let’s review.” with you the fact that Terry Hershey’s wonderful weekly blogpost comes out Monday morning. Just finished reading it with my bacon and eggs. Well, this is so highly recommended that I am just bursting at the seams. For instance the story about Saint Brigid of Ireland is worth the price of admission right there and check some of the others you get thrown in: Mr Rodgers, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonard Cohen, Walt Whitman, Rumi, C.K. Chesterton, John O’Donohue, Donovan, Joan Baez, the Anna’s Humingbird buddy and the family of Dark Eyed Junco. Yea, see! Love you Terry!

OK, just Google “Sabbath Moment” before you get caught up in the day’s, week’s, year’s details. So glad you all could make it, loooooove, Felipe.

I promised you a weekly report on our current location on Phil’s Camino second walk “across Spain”. It is not like we are moving quickly for our weekly distance, six miles plus, is about the same as the distance that we walked before lunch each day in Spain. But we have other things to attend to called life these days.

That said, we are a little over 2/9ths of the way across. We have a strange 1/9 fraction. Since there are 909 laps total, every 101 is another ninth. Today Catherine y Dana and I walked three laps in the falling snow to complete the 219th lap.

So that equals 192.72 kilometers from St Jean, the beginning. We are past the cities of Pamplona and Logrono with Burgos still a long way off. So after Logrono are the towns of Navarrete, Ventosa. We are through those and we have Najera less than a km ahead. Look, can you see it.

It’s not like there is a bad Mass really but some are just sweeter for some reason, like when you tasted ice wine for the first time. That’s the wine made from grapes after the frost resulting in naturally concentrated sweetness. Yea, you say, “That’s where I want to live.”

In the end it is alperfect, but we know that, love, Felipe.

Actually it is the Good Luck Southern Dinner that My Rebecca made yesterday as she always does on New Years Day. The centerpiece is a pork roast which is surrounded by side dishes of sauerkraut, black eyed peas and corn bread. We had four guests to share this with and there was a report of good luck coming in from one of those. So yes, I think that we are starting off on a good foot here at Raven Ranch.

What else do we have for you? I decided that it was time to wade into my office and start cleaning house. It is currently close to gridlock. It is amazing how far down the priority totem pole paperwork can get in my world. I am sure that this is not that uncommon. Please tell me that.

I also started a map on a whiteboard at the rock pile on Phil’s Camino to illustrate where we “are” in Spain on our second walk that we are on now. Then maybe in addition it would be good to have a regular report here on the blog about this, coming out say every Sunday. OK, let’s try that mañana.

Also, there has been a report of Our Annie having talked with Ken Burns about the Phil’s Camino documentary. Yes, this is THE Ken Burns together with THE Our Annie O’Neil. This was totally unplanned by them. Remarkable things continue to occur when St James is afoot. Let’s all of us keep alert to possibilities that seem to come out of nowhere.

Well, I could continue to write away here or go and start on my office clean up. Thinking that it would be good to have some heavy equipment to push the piles around or perhaps some pyrotechnics to loosen things up. It is sort of like an archeological dig and I need to take more care perhaps. Or perhaps I should quit talking about it and just start. Yup.

Here we go clearing the deck to take on 2016! See you tomorrow, love, Felipe.

We ended 2015 with a final post about après earth wear. Those jammies do not have feet in them by the way, that would be a bit much. Don’t want to look like an adult version of Ralphie in his bunny suit. We are ever fashion aware here at Caminoheads. And now at the beginning of 2016 let us keep the same light heart and walk on to perhaps our finest hour.

Go Notre Dame, beat Ohio State, love, Don Felipe of Viana.

Would it be OK to show up to heaven in my new elk jammies? Just a random thought I had this morning before too much coffee. You know when you are out on the edge thoughts tend to lose their worries about appropriateness. They don’t seem to care what anyone thinks about them any more.

This is related to a wish I had to die in the Elk Hotel. The Elk Hotel is a marvelously serious winter worthy tent that we have used for years on various and sundry trips to the Middle of Nowhere hunting the elusive __________ (fill in the blank). It’s original light green canvas is overlaid with the brown from woodsmoke. It has provision for the use of a wood stove, it has a porch and a fly for insulation in the really cold. Yea, all the comforts.

Well, it is New Years Eve. Another chunk of the future coming up for us to be challenged with and to romp around in. Well, let’s see what happens, elky loves, Don Felipe.