Kevin

Our Holy Year Camino on an Almost Unprecedented Extended Holy Year!

With all the ups and downs of the pandemic over the past 2 years, we rearranged many of our travel plans. They’ve been canceled, shifted, changed, shifted again in a dizzying array of uncertainty, confusion, and frustration. I know our travel plans, in the grand scheme of the horrors that are happening during said pandemic, are small and insignificant. But I really feel like I was just getting into the travelling groove as the pandemic hit.

The Holy Door in the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Although I was able to snap a photo of the Holy Door in 2019, it was not open. It only opens on Holy Years. (Off to the bottom right, you can see signs of the internal restoration of the cathedral that was taking place while we were there.)

Although I’m an atheist, I was really looking forward to the possibility of walking the Camino de Santiago on a designated Holy Year. With the pandemic rearrangement of all of our plans, it was looking like this was not going to be the case. Then the Pope (of all people) made my day! Under a very special dispensation, the Pope has extended the Holy Year to include 2021-2022. This is only the second extension of Holy Year in 900 years of Jacobean Holy Years. The first being in 1937-38 because of the Spanish Civil War.

First, let’s back up a bit. I need to explain what the Holy Year is. It happens when St. James Day (July 25th) falls on a Sunday. That’s it in a nutshell (though for the devout Catholics there is more to it than that). There are more celebrations on the Camino during Holy Years. There are festivals, parties, concerts, art exhibitions and numerous other events that take place for the celebration of the Holy Year. There are only 14 Holy Years in every century. The reason for this 2nd ever Holy Year extension is, essentially, down to the pandemic. There are just so many pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago these days, that they thought it best to spread the Holy Year out because it fell during the pandemic. After spending 20 Million Euros on an impossibly massive restoration of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in preparation for the Holy Year, it makes sense that they would want to extend it to accommodate all the pilgrims who want to take advantage of seeing the Cathedral in all its renewed shining glory.

Me, hugging the apostle. Close to the Holy Door, you will find the little alcove you enter to step up behind the bust of St. James behind the altar of the cathedral. Pilgrims wait in line to walk into this little alcove and HUG THE APOSTLE. They wrap their arms around the bust, hugging the apostle from behind. Those out in the pews can see arms continually wrapping around the beleaguered saint all the live long day!

When I walked the Camino in spring of 2014, the entire front of the cathedral was covered in scaffolding. They even took the quasi-cartoonish step of having the cathedral spires drawn onto the sheets draping the scaffolding for some strange reason. Anyway, that gives you an idea of how much of a restoration it truly was. The entire outside of the building was worked on. Also, when we went back in 2019 for a fall pilgrimage, most of the inside of the cathedral was off limits as they had moved the restoration process to the inside of the building. So when we return next year it will be the first time I see the cathedral without shrouds of sheets and scaffolding and construction. This atheist is excited to see the world famous cathedral in all its shining new glory.

Our new intention–and I will frame it like that as almost anything can happen between now and then–is to walk the Caminho Português (Portuguese Way) from Porto, Portugal, to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in September of 2022. We will walk the Coastal Route along the Atlantic Ocean. I don’t know how wise it is to walk along the Atlantic Ocean in September, but I suppose we shall find out.

I guess I should add here the benefits of the Holy Year for Catholic pilgrims. But first a little on the magic little opening ceremony of the door, which involves the Archbishop of Compostela and a hammer.

The Holy Door is an important symbol of the Holy Year. All pilgrims look forward to arriving at the cathedral at the end of the 800 mile journey of the French Way (or any of the other camino ways or partial ways). For us non-religious types, it’s akin to Dorothy arriving at the palace in Emerald City to see the Wizard after her arduous journey on the Yellow Brick Road. (In fact, the pilgrims follow yellow arrows and there are many similarities to be found between this secular fictitious journey and this holy journey. Although, don’t expect talking lions…it won’t happen.) This moment of arrival and entry into the cathedral is made extra special with the opening of the Holy Door on Holy Year. It’s a back door that goes almost directly to the huggable apostle and the (SUPPOSED) tomb of the apostle St. James. (The possibility of the bones in that tomb being those of St. James is so far-fetched it’s almost laughable, but that’s another story. BLIND Faith is needed and I suppose a lot of Catholics may have that in abundance.)

The Holy Door is the Catholic version of the GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card in Monopoly. It basically grants those who walk through it plenary indulgence, or…the absolution of all of their sins. It’s a threshold to cleanse sinners of all of their sins. BAM! Sinbegone.

To be honest, walking through the door isn’t all the sinners are on the hook for. They also have to partake of confession, receive Holy Communion, pray for the Pope, recite the Creed and pray for their intentions. And spinning three times in a circle while whistling Ave Maria probably wouldn’t hurt either (I added that last part myself).

Performing the above mentioned ablutions spares the repentant sinner from spending any time in purgatory. Herein lies the comparison to the GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card.

The Archbishop of Compostela performs a ritual at the door at the beginning of Holy Year. This ritual includes banging on a bunch of slabs placed before the door with a hammer. (Picture the Don’t Break the Ice game with an Archbishop in a big hat being the only one with the little hammer.)

I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist. I do love the Camino, I do. Whenever it delves into the religiosity of it, however, the sarcasm comes out in me. Blame it on my strict Catholic upbringing. Ex-Catholics are the worst.

Anyway...the Archbishop strikes at the wall of rock slabs 3 times with a silver hammer, then cleans the debris around the door with holy water and olive branches. He is the first to walk through the threshold. The Archbishop performs this absurd little play on the last day of the year prior to the holy year. In this case, December 31st, 2020.

The facade of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. The palace in Emerald City at the end of the yellow brick road.

NOW…the door is open. Anyone walking the Camino between January 1st, 2021 and December 31st, 2022 (don’t quote me on the end date, but I believe it goes right to the end of the year) can enter the cathedral through this special doorway.

Enjoying a break at the end of the journey.

We are looking forward to the extra pomp that will be on display during our 2022 extended Holy Year. Religion aside, it’s a great time to be on the Camino. The excitement is higher, the celebration is greater. It’s all good…for Christians, all the other religions, atheists, and agnostics alike. It’s a celebration not to be missed, I have heard.

The botafumeiro (Galician for Smoke Expeller). This massive incense burner swings the width of the cathedral, spewing incense smoke as it sways back and forth. Apparently, it swings more frequently during Holy Years. It’s not always guaranteed that pilgrims will see this captivating performance. It’s worth being present to see it occur…pure magic.

Let’s go, 2022! Be the year we escape the pandemic clutches that has the world on standstill. I wanna walk again…

Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart – Shakespeare & Company, Paris

I have now been home from Paris about one and a half weeks. Paris never lasts long enough, does it?!

I thought that by bringing a great nugget of Paris home with me, I would somehow prolong my visit…if only in my head and in my heart. But like being given your favourite treats and attempting to make them last, I have now devoured the last of that great nugget I carried back across the pond with me.

The nugget of which I speak? A book. A tome I thought would last a little longer. A tome I devoured all too quickly!

Shakespeare & Company Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart.

This is going down as THE most magical book I ever read. Read isn’t even right…it doesn’t cover what I did. I fell into this book. I immersed myself in this book. So divine, it was!

To think, Michael practically had to twist my arm to get me to buy it during our first visit this time around to the iconic and beautiful madhouse of books. There’s no place quite like Shakespeare & Company Bookstore at 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, Paris. I hemmed and I hawed. The price would put it somewhere in the vicinity of extravagant as a self-purchase and I really wrung my hands over it. Should I? Shouldn’t I? In the end, Michael prevailed. He talked me into purchasing the thing I MOST wanted to purchase in all the store.

I HAVE NO REGRETS. Such a beautiful rambling read through the history of my favourite international bookstore, which also, itself, has a tendency to ramble through space and time.

George Whitman was a formidable presence in the universe. I believed that before opening the book, and I know it now. He was a magician with a gravitational pull that rivaled the universe itself. He was the moon, orchestrating the tides of ‘Tumbleweeds’ in and out of his magical bookstore for decades.

I’ve loved Shakespeare & Company since I first learned about its first incarnation, created by Sylvia Beach and found originally at 8 Rue Dupuytren and then the bigger location at 12 rue de l’Odéon. George Whitman was the perfect successor of the name (Whitman changed the name of the current day Shakespeare & Company from Le Mistral in 1964, presumably with Ms. Beach’s blessing). He carried with him the same kind of generosity of heart and spirit as his predecessor.

If you want to read an extraordinarily moving history of one of the world’s most astonishing bookstores, you need to have this book in your life. It would also make a fantastic present for the literary lover in your life. I know I’m going to cherish my copy forever. Now that I’ve read it, I know with certainty that it’s a book that will give me much joy in future re-readings. I could not put it down. Wandering through its pages felt much the same as wandering through the crooked little rooms and alcoves and mystery spaces splattered with books and things inside Shakespeare & Company itself.

You can purchase this wild ride through history directly through the Shakespeare & Co Online Bookstore!!

Paris in Autumn – Ooh, to Live Deeper in the City of Love and Light!

*Shakespeare & Company, my favourite international “local” bookstore. 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, Paris, France. Me, sitting on a bench in one of my sacred places.*

We just returned from Paris after a week in the city of light. I always feel changed after Paris, as though the light has somehow found a way to get inside. Paris is food for the soul.

The last time I visited Paris was with the Left Bank Writers Retreat. It was just as magical this time around. I wonder if one sees Paris for the first time every time one visits. I intend to find out! I hope to go back again one day…

A poem I wrote after my first trip to Paris, with the Left Bank Writers Retreat. Nina and I became fast friends and went out to explore Paris together in our free time! A moveable feast it was! This poem was included in the beautiful yearbook created by LBWR faculty member Travis Cebula.

I was recently asked by one of my fave YouTubers (LivDeeper10x–check out their channel here!) what was ONE thing I was going to do this month to LIVE DEEPER. My first response was VISIT PARIS. But visiting a place isn’t enough, is it? That doesn’t bring us deeper. Not in and of itself. It is not going to a place that brings one deeper. It is what we bring back of the place that causes us to live deeper, is it not? And I don’t mean the trinkets and bits and bobs.

I carry with me now such memories!

Michael and I decided early on that we would rely only on our feet to take us to all the places we wanted to see in Paris, to immerse ourselves into the Paris streets and see all the things along the way to those places.

After clocking close to 180km on foot, I think it’s safe to say we accomplished what we set out to do. We did not see it all, we did not do it all. But we found magic in the things we did see and do.

On our first evening there, we visited Sacré-Cœur Basilica…the sacred heart of Paris, up on the hill in Montmartre. After climbing it’s impossible spiral staircase to the top, we took in the city from its lofty heights. It spread before us like a treasure waiting to be explored!

I cannot decide my favourite neighborhood of Paris. They all clamor for attention and adoration. But I do know Montmartre holds a special place in my Bohemian writer/painter/artist heart!

We wandered slowly up to the city’s sacred heart, in order to take in some of the beauty along the way…

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Such a unique neighborhood! But then again, they are all unique.

Our first full day in Paris, we booked the Tower and the Louvre. We hadn’t seen the tower yet, so we made our way there by foot.

*This shot taken shortly after Michael’s first glimpse of the Tower on his first trip to Paris!*

*Trocadéro, in the shadow of the Tower, from the top of the Tower.*

*Atop the Tower together for the first time!*

It is not the going to a place that causes one to live deeper. It’s what you get out of the going. It’s the memories you create and cherish. I will probably be talking about Paris for a while here on the blog. We covered a lot of ground! We carried back a lot of memories with us. We went deep! From the Tower to the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe to the Catacombes to Père Lachaise Cemetery to Les Deux Magots to La Closerie des Lilas to Jules Verne Restaurant to Musée d’Orsay to Musée de l’Orangerie to Versailles to Giverny and Monet’s house and gardens to the Moulin Rouge to Sacré-Cœur to Notre Dame to Shakespeare & Company to Luxembourg Gardens and beyond! We walked the walk. We stood breathless in front of Monets and Picassos and Manets and Renoirs and Van Goghs. We held our breath in front of Rodins and lost our breath on spiral staircases going down below the city and up above it!

Paris will always be a city that inspires all to LIVE DEEPLY. You cannot take it in without being changed by the experience. My one thing that I did in October to live deeper? I carried an entire city across a vast ocean and continue to carry it close to me now.

We each contain multitudes of universes. They are there inside us, waiting always to be pondered and re-experienced. This is why we carry those universes with us. For those quiet moments we need amidst the hectic ones. If we stop the noise and the chaos of our everyday workaday lives for just a moment–just long enough to breathe a little deeper–to sigh alongside a memory of walking the banks of the Seine with the one you love…then you have an oasis inside of you from which to draw your strength. We live deeply in the moments so that we may always revisit them when we need to refill the well.

Going places is the easy part. Bringing places back with you? As long as you remember to do so, you’ll have them with you always. This is the living deeper part…stopping to capture those moments for future ponderance, epiphanies and joy.

Until our next adventures, we’ll always have Paris!