Kosovo | Can you Imagine?, Косово | Можете ли да замислите? from Владимир Чановић on Vimeo.

The summer before I headed off to seminary marked my paternal grandmother’s 80th birthday, and there was a large surprise birthday party in her honour.  She has always been healthy and clear-minded, but about two years ago she began experiencing pain.  She had a gall bladder operation 18 months ago, and that is when the doctor discovered the tumor.  It was cancer, and it was successfully removed.  We spent Christmas Eve of 2008 in hospital with Grandma, rejoicing that the operation had gone well and that the cancer had not spread.  From the hospital she moved into a retirement home to recuperate, and eventually made the decision to sell her house and remain at St. Jacob’s Place.

She had a good year, but for the past several months has been in some pain.  A new lump was detected, a biopsy was done.  She was given a prescription for pain meds, with the result that she can no longer drive herself around.  Today my parents took her to see her oncologist.  They were there for several hours, and just called a few minutes ago with an update.  There are four different cancers.  My grandmother is being admitted to the oncology ward of the hospital, and it looks like she will not be going back to the retirement home.

This past Sunday she did not feel up to attending the family Easter dinner, but we stopped by to see her afterwards.  We had called before heading over to the home.  Although she had already gone to bed, she got up again to see us.  That evening she gave me the New Testament which had belonged to her father.

Please remember Elmina, and her extended family.

Well, so the actual words attributed to Socrates in his Apologia were “not worth living.”  Nevertheless, I think it’s an apt saying.  I have busied myself with many doings since returning from Santiago, and have not engaged in much reflection. 

One of the greatest luxuries of the Camino was the utter simplicity of life.  There were no distractions.  Consciousness, prayer, morning ablutions, breakfast, walk.  (Or perhaps walk for an hour or two before finding breakfast.)  Some conversation with people encountered on the Way, or maybe complete isolation until arriving at the night’s lodging.

Stillness.  Simplicity.  And yes, serendipity.  The timely meetings on the Camino de
Santiago are blessings for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

But I’m back in Toronto now.  Back to school, working part time, paying off debts.  Life is good, but it is so very easy to distract myself from what is truly essential.  And so, I have not been blogging or writing in my journal, or even taking many photos.  My consciousness has been almost entirely submerged in the flow of twenty-first century life.  Even the “bright sadness” of Great Lent is easily relegated to a ritualistic abstention from foods and attending church services.

It was much easier to pray on the road, with no home or possessions or agenda or distractions.  (cf. Matt. 16:25)

Last Tuesday morning I walked into the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela to spend a bit of time with St. James before leaving Spain.  I blundered down the stairs to the crypt with my pack on my back, set it on the floor, and then realized that there was a Mass being served on the altar before the reliquary.  I planted my knees on the kneeling bench and followed along as best I could.  After the service was over, the priest carried the chalice and paten back upstairs while the communicants remained downstairs in the crypt.

Reluctantly, I left the cathedral and hightailed it to the nearest bus stop.  I’d decided to walk to the airport, but spending 0.90€ to save an hour seemed like a smart move to me.  (It would have been a real bummer to miss my flight for the sake of a stubborn desire to walk all the way.) After almost a week in Santiago, it was good to hit my stride again.  The short walks around town and my day trips to Iria Flavia and A Coruña were good, but having my pack on my back again felt just right and 8 km was long enough for me to feel as though I’d gone somewhere.

From Santiago, I flew to London Stansted and then took the train in to King’s Cross / St. Pancras station in London where I met an old friend who had graciously offered to host me for two days.  Wednesday morning, we hopped a train to Canterbury and it was then that I realized I was headed to yet another ancient site of Christian pilgrimage.  The relics of Thomas Beckett were destroyed at the command of Henry VIII in 1538 and shortly after that large scale pilgrimage to Canterbury came to an end.

Thursday morning I crept out the door and made my way to the train station where I had time for a coffee and a sandwich before catching the 6:44 to Victoria Station.  From there it was the Gatwick Express and on to my flight.  Fourteen hours after I laced my boots on in England, I was back in Canada.  The next morning I was at my first session of the TESL class that I’ll be taking over the next four months.

So, why haven’t I posted much lately?  A big part of it is that the time I spent walking in silence was what I needed for me to be able to write.  Once I arrived in Santiago, my experience changed.  The first few days I spent a LOT of time in the cathedral, but the quality of the silence I absorbed there was somehow different from the moving meditation that I experienced on the trail.  Now I’m home, and there are Lenten services at church, class Monday to Friday, and Olympic hockey.  There are a few more post topics rattling around in my brain, so I will likely be updating this again fairly soon.  And perhaps there will be another pilgrimage to record again one of these days…

I’m now staying at the “youth” hostel in Monte de Gozo, which is the first hill from which the spires of the cathedral in Santiago can be seen. (Hence the name “Mount of Joy.”) There’s quite a complex here, developed originally for the 1993 pilgrimage year. The best part is, the room is only 9€ per night for pilgrims, 12€ for the non-crazy types.

Anyway, my plan now is to stay here for the next four nights so I don’t have to lug my backpack around. It’s a nice 5 km walk into the city centre, or I can hop a bus which runs every 20 minutes and costs 0.90€ — but I think I’ll do the walking anyway.

I will probably make a day trip to Finisterra by bus. It’s 12€ each way, and the last bus leaves the end of the world at 7:00 pm. I’m also planning to do a one day trip to Padrón, where tradition says the boat carrying St. James’ body landed. It’s 20 km from Santiago, so I’ll take the bus there and walk back.

I’ve also located a good internet cafe in the city, which means that probably this evening I’ll be uploading lots of photos. Today I’ll be taking a guided tour of the roof of the cathedral, and it’s a bright sunny day, so there should be lots of photo opportunities.

Made it here in good health and good spirits. I’ll be looking for a cheap internet cafe tomorrow to upload photos and write more, but for now just this.