That’s Catherine, an essential worker here in Seattle sporting her Veranda bandana mask. We are doing our part. (photo H Klauser)
I’ve heard of the Trade Winds and trading baseball cards but now we are in the zone of trading soup. Yea, soup as in soup, no more and no less. This last weekend Catherine and Dana made borscht with their new garden beets. Nice and they thought to share it with us, a good thought it was. And it showed up at our door along with some wine and other goodies, so sweet. And we here in this house had just made split pea soup with ham hock and guess what we had plenty for them. They so liked it.
That’s a little snapshot of our neighborhood in these times. It was a simple gesture concerning folks close at hand. But you all know that this blog is a neighborhood of a little different sort but equally important. We can’t really trade soup but we can do other things just as nourishing. Cris put her finger on it when she said that there is “togethernessing” available here. What did Jesus say,“ Man does not live by bread alone.” Not by soup alone either but that’s certainly a good start! So when I think neighborhood I am including my FaceBook friends and fellow Caminoheads.
I have a friend on FB, Sylvie in Canada, Ottawa maybe. She walked the Camino at some point but I don’t remember the details on that. She was writing about her concern for her family, her community and the world and that grabbed my attention. I have been praying the rosary on my walks around the backyard Camino here since I don’t have visitors to gab with. It seemed like the thing for me to do. So, in an hour I walk the usual 3 laps around and pray three times around the rosary. The first for our family, the second for our neighborhood and the third for the world. Notice neither of us had country in there. No Canada and no US. We both went from neighborhood/community to World. Do you think that has anything to do with the walking the Camino or of fighting this Virus or both?
Off to lunch and phone talk with Henriette.
our neighborhood has grown loves, Felipé.
Dear boss,
So sorry I have not come as often as I would have liked to comment here… I have been reading and bitting my nails to comment but time has been too short. Work has been busy, and in this context, every day offers a new challenge, many with a very beautiful purpose these days… Clinical Research professionals are not only working hard to get to a vaccine and antivirals and treatments for the inflammatory response, but are also maintaining the provision of treatment to a huge lots of people participating in clinical trials… these challenging times have been indeed a source of “renewed” inspiration for many of us…
And I read your post yesterday about “trading soup” and I realize how big this “trading soup” business is… In the field I work, I see it daily: experimental treatments for patients who may have no other option who through participation give us lots of knowledge about the treatments and the disease and because of my role, I see this happens at a worldwide level… but also I have experienced it many times with this pandemic here in my small neighborhood that is the apartments building where I live… just now a phone call to cheer up a neighbor upstairs who is dealing with loneliness not as well as he would like to from which in return I got a fantastic recipe for lentils that smells so good that I may get my door break down by my same floor neighbors…
There is all this energy flowing from us and to us… and these times are showing me how real that is… this made me think on these words of Fr. Richard Rohr:
“If it’s not flowing out of you, it’s probably because you’re not allowing it to flow toward you. Love can flow toward you in every moment: through a flower, in a grain of sand, in a wisp of cloud, in any one person whom you allow to delight you.” (I will email Fr. Richard to tell him he missed to add through “trading soup”!)
Hot soup loves,
Cris
Cris ~ yes, there seems a lot of bartering going on or just folks looking after each other and offering what they have. Maybe this is how things were in history but is disrupted by modern factors. This all reminds me of being on the Meseta where pilgrims looked after each other because danger was apparent and lurking. I think we have been busy with this realigning.
And I am glad you liked the trail video. Everything seemed so pretty after the long winter and I wanted to capture it. Rebecca loved it and she lives here. I can see you on your treadmill walking around Phil’s Camino!
learning everyday loves, Felipé.x