I just asked My Rebecca who is my spelling coach, “How do you spell genius?” And then we both immediately cracked up! Ah, cheap trills, are alive and well, thank God!

Well, what to chew on today here at the blog? I really enjoyed Indiana Janet showing up with that dream yesterday. Wasn’t that terrific? Personally, I really want to hear more stuff like that. Casting off the negativity is the new essential business for all of us and that was a righteous example!

We are having some terrific spring weather here. High pressure and not a rain cloud anywhere. We have been outside as much as possible working around the ranch. Wiley is off from his job so we have been working on projects. He is the tractor operator and I am the ground guy. He is so smooth with the equipment moves, making me feel like a piker.

OK, I ordered the corn and clover seed last night. Geez, I waited too long and varies were very picked over and not everything was available in the appropriate amounts. Don’t remember if it is like that every year at this time or is there a run on seed because folks are planting more home gardens? Good question.

Anyway my standard corn succession method of the varieties: Sugar Buns, Bodacious and Golden Jubilee has been replaced with Sugar Buns and “Big n Tender”. Just two varieties, early and later instead of three. Well, that is what I am putting my money on this season. There is talk of putting up the roadside stand this year which we haven’t had up the last two years. That will be fun if we can share the burden.

Hey, whac-a-mole the fear and avoid the distractions or the pigs will get you and stay present! And most importantly, G-E-N-I-U-S!!!

A Tuesday in Holy Week loves, Felipé.

Ha, there, off to a running start today. Have the morning walk in minutes but wanted to write something uplifting. You remember uplifting? We have been talking about dreams lately and there importance. And also about how we were sensing a rise in reported cases these days. I have been active on FaceBook recently, more than normal just because it is one of my connections to our collective energy and wisdom.

One of my FB friends is Janet from Indiana, the upper Heartland. She posted an amazing dream yesterday that I have been thinking about. It is so pure and precious while my dreams tend to be about heavy lifting my personal garbage around. But that is a necessary job also I guess.
But anyway let’s be more like Janet!

I am just going to attempt to copy and paste it here. It really doesn’t need any explanation except to say that this a direct steal from FB.

AMAZING DREAM

When I woke up yesterday morning, I had a little tune in my head that I was humming, and then I realized a few minutes later that it was from a dream I just had before awaking!

In the dream, a multitude of people and myself are lying on the floor in sleeping bags like sardines, one next to another in a large, stark space. It’s dingy and dim in there, with an atmosphere of some hopelessness, downtroddenness, and fear. The sounds of people’s murmuring is filling the space.

At one point, still lying there in my sleeping bag, I reach my arms up and I start to sing. (In real life I’m not a good singer but I love to sing anyway.) So I start off singing softly: “I will lift my eyes, hallelujah….I will lift my voice, hallelujah…” over and over, then I sing louder so it can be heard above the murmuring, and the guy next to me hears it and starts singing with me, and soon the whole place is singing with me, “I will lift my eyes, hallelujah, I will lift my voice, hallelujah….” It sounds so beautiful and I’m feeling inside like, wow, I got all those people singing with me and the whole atmosphere changed!

I think this is God’s strategy for us against fear. Just lift your voice and worship. It will change your atmosphere. Sing a new little song today!

So we happily carry on through thick and thin, that’s what pilgrims do right? I think that we will be hearing more from Janet in the future but for the present BE PRESENT!!

nothing more to say loves, bless you loves, Felipé.

It does come in handy during these times of lockdown, being easy to please that is. Not every darn thing is available for starters. There is shortage and rationing. But creativity kicks in and things start to happen. My Rebecca whipped out two meatloafs yesterday out of components we rounded up from the chest freezer. One for us and one for the crew next door.

Now that’s not steak or prime rib but we are extremely happy. And the best part is the leftovers. Say the phrase “meatloaf sandwiches” and everyone is this neighborhood smiles a big grin. And the comeback is, “Yea with ketchup!” That’s how it works.

So, times are harder but there seems to be a way to figure out solutions. And getting back to basics with our likes takes some of the stress off the system. Learning to be happy with a lot less. Wait didn’t we learn that on the Camino?

That reminds me of the miracle of the little piece of soap, a little itty bitty sort of miracle. I remember, don’t ask me where, going into the bathroom to wash up and realizing that I didn’t have any soap. Well maybe, just maybe there is some here somewhere. And on one of the sinks was a tiny piece of white soap on the white porcelain, almost hidden in plain sight. Normally, that would not even qualify to fit the definition of a piece, just the size of a finger nail. Well, there is MY soap I had to come to, so I washed up and I’ll be darned if there wasn’t still a “piece” when I got done. Normally, it would be swept into the waste can or go down the drain but I lovingly placed it back on the flat part of the sink where it would be safe for the next needy pilgrim. I had to shake my head at this loaves and fishes encounter but you see I’m easy to please.

So, I participated in the Virtual Camino yesterday. I was present for one of the two Q and A’s Annie O’Neil was holding in conjunction with the showing of Phil’s Camino. I am walking my trail here in a minute with friend and Mass partner Catherine which is our substitute church service.

Palm Sunday loves, Felipé.

The Virtual Camino project started this morning. It is a, well it’s hard to explain really. It is a virtual walk from beginning to end of the Camino Frances in Northern Spain. This is the main line or truck of the Camino de Santiago, the 500 mile pilgrimage. So, now that we are all housebound and the the Way is shut down this is what’s happening.

It operates as a FaceBook group under that title Virtual Camino. This is the brainchild of Laurie Duperier a pilgrim that runs tours of the Camino in Spain in normal times. Annie O’Neil is with her riding shotgun on this virtual one. As I understand it is a journey of the mind and spirit with numerous facets, maybe programs on art, foods and history of the various regions that you go through.

Today they are showing Phil’s Camino, the 27 minute documentary film as a opener to have folks get the idea of the everyday camino or a backyard camino idea. In other words how do you get some of the benefits of walking the Camino when you are not in reality there? Seems we are experts on doing this. Annie just had a Q and A on Zoom at 9 AM PT and I was lucky enough to catch it and participate. There is supposed to be another at 3 PM PT. So the film is showing all day and you can access it through the Virtual Camino FB group.

So, that is the big happening today in my world. We are all finding ways to cope and keep life moving along. We will get through this pandemic and most assuredly it won’t be pretty but it is doable. It will have some very rough spots as we are already starting to glimpse.
But getting out the other side in a month or two or three or a year maybe in some places we will have a new appreciation for life and be searching for ways to rebuild our bodies, minds and spirits individually and as neighborhoods, countries and beyond. I am afraid we have embarked on a big journey, a Camino as it were, that will both scar us and educate us.

It is my belief that our pilgrim sensibilities will be part of the reconstruction. Really! That is what I am sensing. What we have learned in our journeys will be vital to society as a whole. I don’t know how this is going to work but I think that we have already glimpsed the future.

Off I go loves, Felipé.

I have never played Whac-A-Mole,the game, but the idea of it intrigues me. Sure that it was hours of fun for over-sugared kids. But the idea of it is what I want to get to. The game has a surface and has 16 or 25 holes each housing a mole that will randomly pop up to get in your face. The player has to wack them as quickly as possible to be ready for the next one coming from who knows where. Somehow maybe there is a score involved.

This activity is me fighting my fears. It is a constant battle to keep the the little twits in line, to beat them back to their holes. Of, course the amount of activity varies, comes and goes but it never really stops. It can flare with a doubt, with a memory, with negativity, you know a trigger.

I strive for peace which is a place of no fear ideally. I’ve identified prayer as a place for me to find peace and thus to avoid fear and it’s buddy anxiety. That’s a good one but let’s see what else. Knowledge is good. The more I know about fear the more I am aware of ways to lessen it or tamp it down beating back into it’s hole where it won’t show it’s ugly head for a while.

The more I learn about myself the more I am aware of gaps in my defenses. Having more time to contemplate these days is an opportunity to work on this. How can I understand myself better? How can I understand my place in the web of things? And how can I understand my place in the “new” world in which I find myself/we find ourselves?

let our love pop up iunexpected ways and places, Felipé.

Yes, so glad that you made it to the blog today, don’t be a stranger. Just listened to So Glad You Made It a great Blues Brothers tune. Actually this version is by a cover band that Peter (callsign Elwood) a friend of ours was in for a while. Peter came down with the virus but it has been a while so maybe he is almost getting through it. Hang tough Peter!

But again, so glad that YOU made it right here and right now. So, the news is that I successfully got through my doctor’s appointment and testing with Nugget yesterday and was cleared for another three weeks of life as a test pilot on the clinical trial. Help me celebrate that! My trip was hampered by the ferries being on their emergency two boat schedule which means fewer runs and by having the West Seattle Bridge closed, a major link in my standard route. But that was balanced by traffic being amazingly light to almost bring on giddiness. And the hospital was amazing empty as they have eliminated all non essential activities to concentrate on the vitals. So I was in and out of there in a heart beat.

So that’s all good for sure. Right in the middle of all that an old hunting buddy Curt calls me on the cell. He lives over on the mainland but I see him fairly often. Seems he has a pilot friend a Marine that is setting up a way to supply all his Marine buddies on Vashon with any needed supplies that they might be lacking. The plan is to fly in loads of goods to the small grass airstrip located just a mile north of us at the old Wax Orchards property where we could pick them up, just place an order. This all sounded kind of overengineered and far flung when Curt first explained it for here I was at the moment on a trip to Seattle and obviously not homebound. So I thanked him and said that I think that we were doing OK for the present but hey who knows what next week might bring. So I kind of put him off but tried to be gracious about it.

Anyway, this morning on thinking about Curt’s gesture I was so moved to be included in this plan, this thought, this care. It brought a tear to think how creative friends can get. I must email Curt back with profuse thanks and two or three atta boys.

And neighbors are showing up with homemade meals for little old us. Last night we had yummy elk stew from Brad and Amy. People are coming out of the woodwork to help out.

Well, the Thursday walk is coming up in a minute. This is my favorite day of the week to say the rosary on as I meditate on the Luminous Mysteries. We need to talk about those soon.

luminous mysterious loves, Felipé.

In the walking news, there is the good news and bad news. First the bad. It seems as though the thing for me to do is to have Phil’s Camino closed for another month.

PHIL’s CAMINO CLOSED THROUGH APRIL

But the good news is that we will open again at some point as yet to be determined. And that of course will be a huge party. In preparation our friend Diego from Lake Arrowhead, CA has produced 250 of the awesome Phil’s Camino Passports. We ran out of the original batch ages ago and here we are with enough for a long while. Way to go Diego!

In the laughing news, well not that that is totally separate from walking news. We walk while we laugh a lot actually. But My Rebecca and I watched an old episode or Saturday Night Live last night that was a treasure of laughs. It was in season three which is the late 70’s.
This one show included two Songs by the Blues Brothers (Belushi and Aykoyd), a dance routine with Steve Martin and Gilda Radner and ended with Martin singing his fabulous song King Tut (“He gave his life for tourism”). Wow, just wall to wall talent and big laughs!

Well, we trundle on. Some of us are muddling on but either way we will eventually get to the end of this. We have more to learn and practice before we get released to the Promised Land.

walk on, laugh on loves, Felipé.

Oh, getting such a slow start this morning and morning is almost over. Had a great conversation with Marc and Ivette, dear friends from LA. At one point Ivette said, “You have to be where your feet are.” And I asked her to explain her comment as I had never heard that before. She explained by saying you can’t let your head run away with you. It means that you have to be calm and be present. Yes, yes! Just what we have been talking about lately. I hear you loud and clear!

Yesterday I put up a post on FaceBook with a pic of a little boy with a pilots helmet on and saying Mommy when I grow up I want to be a pilot. And Mom answers Oh Sweetie, you can’t do both. I was trying to get the attention of Ken a new friend of mine and an old friend of our beloved Pilgrim Farmer John. Ken is a long time Naval aviator and longtime practitioner of military banter as is PFJ. I am an rank amateur and you have to be careful playing with these guys. Ken fires back, “Life is too short to grow up!”. Ball’s in my court.

Yesterday My Rebecca took some bananas to a friend that was home bound and craving them. Then our old neighborhood buddies brought us a quart of homemade turkey vegetable soup for our supper. All kinds of connections are being made despite the present crazy conditions. Keep it up!

Saint James Is Afoot loves, Felipé.

Here we are sandwiched between the Comfort on the East Coast and the Mercy on the West. The US Navy has arrived with assets. I am so proud of them it just about makes me want to reup! They must need a few Marines on board to put down mutinies and guard the narcotics.

Well, I think that we are transitioning from the beginning of this epidemic to the middle phase. We have gone through the denials, the cavalier and the small scale moves. We now stare in full scale realization of the immensity of this problem. It is as formidable as things come, as in Biblical, as in the extremes of nightmares.

The bad news is we were caught so flat footed. We may come up with excuses but it is all moot now. We now stare at mind numbing calculations, statistics and models of the probabilities. Those of us that are lucky enough to be healthy enough to do that, that is. We now see this thing in it’s full blown maturity. This is the beginning of the middle.

The good news is there is always OPPORTUNITY (thank you Cris) for every one of us. We must get to the point of seeing that, all of us. This is a NOW situation. We must accept the RESPONSIBILITY for doing our individual parts whatever that looks like. We individually need to GET IN GEAR. This is the PROGRAM. This is what the middle looks like, the time when we do the HEAVY LIFTING that needs doing. We as individuals have the POWER to INFLUENCE the outcome. WELCOME to the Middle.

we need to find our superpower loves, Felipé.

I hope that hundred of thousands of years from now archeologists come upon one of our US Navy’s hospital ships lovingly preserved in the mud. It would make headlines or their equivalent! The population will marvel at the size and the complexity of the vessel. It will speak of a long lost people that cared and provided in times of need.

How old are those ships? I wonder if my own father was aboard one getting patched up during the battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945.
Possible maybe. We can only imagine the lift that would give the injured first glimpsing such beauty after too long in hell on earth. Not trying to be melodramatic but I have no other words handy.

It is a great focus for me thinking about these ships right now. I am so grateful that they sailed into my life during this present bad boy of an ordeal. And that is precisely a good start to have a focus, a place to build on in this time of uncertainty. This time when fact and rumor mix in our heads making a dangerous cocktail.

Keep focused people on what ever does it for you. Be calm and strong. That is the zone, stay there as much as possible. Pass it on to others. Maybe it is contagious!

And thank you for responding so well to my post yesterday. I am so grateful for comments and atta boys. Jessika’s, callsign Secret Agent, said it well: “Thanks for talking about the elephant and ten hyenas in the room.” You are welcome.

Time to gear up for rosary walk with Catherine. Will be praying for you and yours for good healthy and wellbeing.

Onward loves, Felipé.