I have no idea what I am going to write today but the sun just came out after a rainy gray morning so that must mean something. It means a lot around here, believe me.
Maybe I will look at my photo library and see what jumps out at me.
There we go! I was just Skyping with Gracie and she remembered this one and she had her pic taken next to it. It’s just so lively and the blue is so cheerful. Excellent. It is just a symbol of how we can keep each other motivated and positive as we walk. None of us can have that good day everyday, clearly. We need each other to take turns being the cheerleader. Or maybe the person to remind us that we are all unique children of God.
Just in case I haven’t noticed we are now global here at Caminoheads. I think that other people have noticed but it took me a while to figure it out. Here’s what it looks like at the moment:
Brisbane, Australia, Cherry’s headquarters, 28 C/ 82 F nighttime
Cairo, Egypt, Sherif, 27 C/ 81 F sun
Miami, USA, Anamaria and Alida, 27 C / 81 F sun
Barcelona, Spain, Laura, 20 C / 68 F sun
London, England, Gracie, 19C / 66 F sun (Lucia, Scotland, is in this time zone)
Seattle, USA, Phil, 6 C/ 43F cloudy (MM, Long Beach, CA, USA, is in this time zone)
I just put those in terms of temperature which is pretty interesting. London looks downright cheery compared to here. Hmmm. Love, Phil.
Come in, I have a big fire going. We will warm up, yes? Glad that you could make it.
How are your feet and legs? Could be better, yea right. It’s amazing what kind of situation that we can still walk on. Well, just kick your boots off while we have a bite to eat. Yea, change your socks, that’s always good.
You got some sunburn too I see. Right, the tops of your ears get it the worst. No hat? It blew off? Well, just hunt around in that big box over there and maybe you’ll get lucky. What’s that, not your favorite team, well it is now. Ha ha.
You want a big glass of agua? Then you have some soup and a glass of wine, how’s that. I made chicken stock and I had some garbanzo beans in the pantry that I threw in, you’ll like it. There is carrots and parsley. Everything tastes good to a hungry pilgrim. Well, yea, some of that ham is pretty bad. You mean that stuff that you can repair your sandals with? Haha. Yea.
OK, here’s your soup and some toast. We take care of you good. There’s plenty of salt in there, you taste it first. Good, good. You want red or white? Red, OK.
So, dessert? We have some flan, homemade. Yes, good, here. More water?
Feel better? Right, not too many pilgrims in October. We are about ready to close for the year. We had a record year and August, you should have seen August. That’s the worst or the best, depending on how you look at it. Yea, Saint James is happy.
So, you were crying before you came in? Tears of sorrow or tears of joy? Oh, it’s an anniversary of something. A death, I see. Well, I will pray for your loved one and pray for strength for you precious pilgrim. OK, lace them up well, you have some ups and downs ahead before you get to the albergue.
There you look better. A smile and a hug, what a lucky man am I. OK, see you next time.
It’s 0700 and I have a roaring fire in the wood stove to warm our hearts. It’s been a rough few days for us here. I had a health scare which fortunately has been figured to be the lesser of the evils. Good but exhausting. Then last night our son had news that one of his high school classmates had gone the suicide route. Someone we knew. We have had a rash of young people taking their live’s in the past few years. Hard to handle for me and for us.
You will remember that when I was in Spain I had three of those wrist bands on to remind me of things. One was for a wonderful young US Army Officer that was killed in the recent fight against terrorism. I knew him. Second was a wonderful young young man that went the suicide route here in the neighborhood and I knew him. And the third bracelet was from the hospital to remind me to talk to people about colon cancer.
Somewhere on my way back from Spain I cut these all off because they …. Well, they were too heavy for me, if that makes sense. I had bought the pilgrim bracelet and I had to go with that for a while.
Please say a prayer for our neighborhood. Ah, I look up and the fire has died down and we need some more wood. Let’s keep it all burning. Love, Phil.
It took me one year to plan for my Camino, starting by watching the famous movie , The Way by Martin Sheen, then reading through books about the pilgrimage..etc I felt I was planning it too much, aiming to go there to spend time to explore my inside and escape the political and social bubble I’ve been surviving during the past years. I was quite worried that am too lost with my thoughts that I might go there and will not know how to prioritize my thinkings, beside of the physical preparation. So I decided to practice at the gym, walking daily on my treadmill. Then I had some appointments with a life coach to help me do it right. I had some papers with list of points written to think about, and now am ready to fly.
The day I started walking up the mountain from St Jean Pied De Port to Roncessvales , I felt all the physical practicing was useless! I felt my beats are getting higher and I started to panic, feeling I will not be able to finish this trip… Looking around me, I saw the same look on most of the pilgrims around me, whether walking or biking…everyone is breathing hard and suffering to walk up this mountain, so it wasn’t me only! Suddenly I felt the camino is giving me a clear message: if you wanna have a new start, you gotta die a bit first and live again! My heart beats started to slow down gradually even though I was still doing the same effort walking up. Again everyone around is feeling the same, and people stopped at Orisson to start talking to eachother. First camino friends are made here and people are sharing their experience of those first 7 km , congratulations you are on the way…no way back… don’t stop walking and…. BUEN CAMINO
Everytime I aim to start thinking of one of the points I came with, I find myself distracted with the beautiful scenery or by knowing new friends, who I can swear each one of them I met for a reason! I ended up not even looking at the papers I got and I nearly forgot everything my life coach told me. One day I decided to throw all these papers as I realized that I should give up and enjoy the natural life coaching flow of the Camino…
Conclusion… Aside from buying the right walking shoe and using it few miles ahead, nothing else should be planned to be on the camino…just plan your long vacations and go !
Sherif, Cairo.
(This is awesome; plain direct Sherif. Thanks man!)
Maryka with an artifact from an earlier time that we found next to an airport runway.
I had the great pleasure to be with my Vashon buddy Rick (Quick) and his lovely daughter Maryka for the last part of my Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. Having her there was a totally suprise to me although apparently everyone was in on it. Anyway I got to spend a lot of time with her just doing what we seem to do best, walking and talking. And it was just a continuation of our walking and talking that we did in the rain and the snow during the winter here on Vashon.
Have to interject something here from our good friend and serious Angel, Laura from Barcelona. She emailed yesterday and reminded me/us to have Patience. And she called for capitalizaton on that since she thought that it was so important. I trust Laura on this so I am going with it. And since I was having one of those mornings when I had no idea what I was going to blog about, she also provided me with that. Thanks Laura.
Patiece, yes. And this is my remembrance: We were up early, from I think the monastery at Samos, and it was dark and foggy. We were walking mostly along the shoulder of a paved road with some occasional traffic. It was a little hairy since the footing was questionable and with the real possibility that we would miss a sign and be headed off in the wrong direction. Rick was ahead or behind on some scouting mission. Anyway, Maryka and I got on the topic of Patience. Don’t remember how it started but we were throwing our best most inspired thoughts into the mix of our conversation as we felt our way along in the fog.
I remember talking about us Americans being so impatient, being a spray can society. If we can’t do it quickly and easily and just by pushing a button we are not interested. The conversation went on and I was talking about how we would put our money in the Coke machine and if things were too slow or non functional we would start kicking it, like that was going to do some good. And no sooner did that come out of my mouth than in the distance we spied this weird red glow. And as we got closer it grew in size until we recognized it as a, guess what, a Coke machine. No joke just there with nothing else around it and with an extension cord running off into the fog. It was the first one that I saw that had the Cathedral at Santigo image on the front. We just stood and stared at it. Message, you think?!?
OK, so a quid is the same as a pound sterling. Like in the States when we call a dollar a buck. That came from the early days of America when a tanned deer skin was a medium of exchange. So a quantity of tobacco might cost one buck.
Just got done with Skype call with Gracie in London. What a breath of fresh air she is. So she filled me in on the quid thing being the same as a pound which also is the word for one chew of tobacco, according to the dictionary. Hmm. Also in Austraila they have the Austrailian dollar which has a pic of a kangaroo on it. Do they call it a Roo? Anyway, she is getting set up there getting her infastructure together to start her art history studies.
I am really excited about this Friday’s TGIF. Sherif has sent in a fantastic post. He has great insights and a great story. So we have that to look forward to.
OK! Had small birthday party for our son Wiley last night. it was the “Perfect Storm” with his gal Ginger and friends Josh, Jake, John Lars and Dominic. What a crew! He has turned twenty six and will be much smarter and wiser now. Love you man.
I was just reading up on some of the blog posts from September which are really awesome, if I do say so myself. So maybe if you haven’t been around for a while go back and start at the beginning of the September archive and read forward.
Well, have to get my day started. Let’s strive to keep the love alive! Yours, Felipe.
Fall is such a great season. I know that some folks are lamenting the end of the Summer. It is special for sure but I’ve always enjoyed Fall the best. Something about the clarity of the air and nature’s fireworks show of the hardwood leaves. Of course there is the adventure of hunting season.
I’m at the hospital now for my treatment. But on the way I have a Fall thing to report. The filbert nuts and it’s wild version the hazelnuts are ripe now and the crows are having a field day. They fly the nuts to the roads and put them down so that the cars and trucks crack them. Works slick. And they don’t just put them anywhere on the road but just in the track where the tires roll. Amazing example of animals using tools.
OK, so yesterday we reached our goal at the Indiegogo site. Way to go everyone! That felt good believe me. It is so gratifying to have all those folks out there supporting our effort.
I Skyped with Gracie this AM and will try to get back to her as soon as I am done here. I had to give up on frying bacon and Skyping this morning as too hard. I learned that it is going to be her first Halloween ever as the Aussies don’t celebrate it down under there. She was showing me her skeleton costume which only cost five quid. Maybe I will finally find out what a quid is.
OK, time to go for today. It’s been great being with you. Love, Phil.
Good day. I have to talk with you a minute about the Phil’s Camino Documentary fund raising. Let’s get that out of the way so we can play. This Friday is the last day for the Indiegogo fund raiser. Please put on your thinking cap and maybe come up with one more idea that would help. We are almost at the goal and it would be great to get there. Fortunately, we will get the funds even though we fall short but this endeavor is expensive and still there are more steps to go and more funds needed. We have to keep the pressure on; it’s a long road. Here is the link:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/phil-s-camino
Also, there is a bank account that will accept checks if they are brought in or mailed in. This at the local Vashon bank. Just make the check out to “Phil Volker Documentary”. Here is there mailing address:
US Bank, P. O. Box 428, Vashon, WA 98070 USA
(bank phone number 206 463 9161)
OK, this morning I am off to walk again in a few minutes. It’s lightly raining here. But yesterday was sunny and warm and Kelly and I were out there. So here are some pics of him here at the ranch and other stuff yesterday. Sorry, we ran short on play time today but we have forever, right? Love, Phil.
“Hola Cherry! Great to see you here guest-blogging and with a perfect Camino vignette.” This is exactly why we have Mary Margret on board. Vignette? Man, If I would have known that we were writing vignettes around here I would have asked for a raise a long time ago!
vignette – noun 1. A brief evocative description, account, or episode. 2. a small illustration or portrait photograph that …. (Yea, there is other interesting stuff in there about vines and Middle English. )
This is what happens when you start hanging around with MM, history, culture, art, architure, Middle English, vines. We spent lots of time talking about architecture in Spain. We were talking squinches. I know, you might have to look that up. Go ahead, we won’t leave you behind. And she started calling our foot injuries stigmata. Only she would come up with that. See it, she provides the depth, the historical perspective. Go girl!
Look, I have to to take a four minute shower and run to early Mass. Love you guys, Felipe.
