Post 4 – June 4, 2016, Travels with Charley

 It’s Saturday morning. 8:00 a.m.ish. We’ve assembled at the 18th Street Coffee House in Santa Monica. Yep, we’re all here:
 The Actor, Nick Tate.
 The Professional Man, Harold Rosenberg.
 The Everyday Woman, Tempie Teagarden, (that’s me, of course).
 The Young Man, Norm Adams, also known as the Problem Solver, or “TPS” for short.
 Baby Doe 1, the photographer.
 And, Tom Gehring.

 I’m Tempie Teagarden, and Tom asked me to make this entry on his blog.
 I was known as “the everyday woman” because I had suffered everyday with depression. Literally everyday, for years and years. How I got over that is discussed in The Problem Solver. Currently, I still feel like I’m in the middle of that Special Thing in life that God intends for each of us. We just need to ask Him to show us, or, in my case, tell us—what it is.
 Depression doesn’t just go away magically, it’s a process, and the Godly process is the most effective, for me anyway.
 But, what’s important today is that we’ve assembled at the 18th Street Coffee House in Santa Monica, because it’s in Tom’s hood, and we are planning to walk to REI and buy all the equipment and stuff we need to take the trek along The Camino de Santiago in Spain. We’re excited. You see, I’m the founder of Café Heaven in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, and it’s really booming. But, when Tom asked us all if we would do the Camino de Santiago with him, I was one of the ones that said “yes,” immediately. Mainly because even though I feel I’ve conquered depression, I know that I must stay active, engaged, moving, doing, and staying close to God.
 Look, I know that Tom’s blog is not to be all God stuff, but I have to mention Him on occasion.

 So, where was I?
 Oh, we’re at the 18th Street Coffee House.
 And we’re going over Tom’s list of things we will need for the Camino.
 And I’m typing this and at the same time telling them that later in the afternoon on Wednesday, after I said “yes” in the morning, and committed to doing the Camino de Santiago, I was cleaning up by some of the tables in the back where—we have lots of books on the walls. Lots of walls, lots of book shelves, lots of stuff—some leftover from the history of this old converted warehouse that became Café Heaven. Anyway, a book literally fell off the bookshelf. Gwen, one of our employees (read about her in The Problem Solver), had been dusting—we both figured it got loosened up and just fell off the bookshelf:  Travels with Charley, In Search of America, by John Steinbeck.
 So, I pick it up . . . and I think, it’s a sign. Yes. I’m supposed to do this Camino. That’s what I tell my friends. And, I’m ready. And, I’m excited. And my campanion book for the journey will be Travels with Charley.
 I’m a Chinese girl, born in China, raised in New York, got shipwrecked in Lost (I meant to say that) Angeles, found myself, reading a book about being in search of America by a great American author, and going to Spain to do the Camino de Santiago.
 Wow. God is good.
 Amen.
 . . .