OK, maybe I’ll change my nomenclature and start calling them mountain lions. That sounds a little scarier than it is. But it might alleviate the giggles when I use the innocent word cougar. See?
I am seriously looking at the 2017 seed catalog. When I first get it I throw it in the corner, phase one, then at some point I start peeking in, phase two, but now phase three is here. What a great activity! Planning ahead for when the soil temp finally will get above 70 degrees and we will be able to stretch out our hunkered down bodies, minds and spirits. OK, no whining.
Annie and Carol are coming this weekend to play with us. We have a one day trip to Victoria, British Columbia on Saturday to show the film to Canadian Pilgrims on the Camino. Then Sunday we will be doing some more filming. The work for the one hour version of Phil’s Camino has started!
I’ll have to tell you one of my favorite stories of Annie. On March 2nd, 2014 Annie first came to Phil’s Camino the trail. For several days previous to that memoriable date I scurried around cleaning things up. One of the items on my list was to put down five flat rocks to bridge the water flowing through Raven Creek. When Annie first saw them she said, “Oh, how Camino!”. Then I said, Oh be careful, they are a little shakey. And she quickly said, “Oh, how Camino!”. It was at that point that I knew I was on the right track, a blessing from Annie.
So back to our look at the Pilgrim Beatitudes which were carefully handed down to us by the Knights Templar. I have to dig in the archives for September 2014 when I was in my glorious reentry period. Here we go, number four:
BLESSED ARE YOU PILGRIM, BECAUSE YOU HAVE DISCOVERED THAT THE AUTHENTIC “CAMINO” BEGINS WHEN IT IS COMPLETED.
That is so delicious! But what the heck does it mean? I have written a thousand blog posts on that topic and still it looms out ahead of me. I guess if I put it in a nutshell today Janurary 26th, 2017 I would say, “You have been trained now go do something with it.” Yes, that is a pretty good look at it from one particular angle. What do you think?
Off I go, walking this AM, fill the bird feeders, check for lion tracks, look at my corn patch, say a rosary. Yea, looks like my Camino to me, obvious Camino loves, Felipe.
Hola Felipe,
Wow! Hope my friends from Victoria are there! My fellow pilgrims from Victoria really taught me lots… maybe one day I tell you some of the stories!
I love this “Camino Beatitude”. It is interesting that when we arrive to Finisterre, the mark is Km 0… For me that was the confirmation that the Camino continued from there, and actually started there. I like your idea of “training environment” that the Camino is, because in the end, it looks a lot like that, but spiritually talking, for me was like a long retreat. For me, I understood at some point I was “unraveling” my life, “unfolding all I have with me” and now able to see more clearly all I counted with. And the Camino gave me the chance to live my life with that: with that that I discovered I counted, my own internal resources and the resources I found in the fellow pilgrims, -oh sooo generous-, but very clearly with almost nothing that I could buy or could give comfort or security other than my great walking shoes.
So, once I arrived to Santiago/Finisterre with the Km 0 mark “tangible, should it was not yet clear”, I felt I was given a brand-new notes book where I could start designing and writing my “new” own life. And for me, it meant that I was given one more chance, a chance to start walking my life outside the Camino route in Spain after with all the lessons that were then imprinted in my soul after having walked the Camino route in Spain, and this chance for me meant a life with an “enriched” meaning, with new eyes, and with new companions.
For me, it was instantaneously learned, seeing the Cathedral meant for me this “new beginning” I was looking for. However, clearly it took me years to find and understand what the “new beginning” means and clearly it is ongoing, but I am now a pilgrim and that is something I can say about myself everyday and practice everyday, which makes me feel really that the Camino started once I got to Santiago.
Thank you for the chance to remind this to myself today again.
Love and warm hugs (despite today it is not too warm!)
Cris M
Good job Cris with this great comment. I like the way you talked your way through all that. So I think we can say you had a profound experience. It’s amazing stuff this Camino stuff. Glad that we can help you keep it alive. Please write four times a day. Just a joke. Thanks so much, Felipe.x