a Jubilee Year
As I write this last blog of the year, I want to share a photo that my dear friend Jose Antonio sent me this week. Below you will see the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela - fully restored; clean and sparkling without any of the scaffolding that has adorned its facade for the past six years. 2021 will be a Holy Year, after all, and the cathedral is ready. A Holy Year or a Jubilee Year is celebrated in Santiago de Compostela whenever July 25, which is the Feast of St James, falls on a Sunday. 2010 was the the last Holy Year so this Jubilee year would usually bring a huge surge of pilgrims walking the Camino.
This morning Tony and I got a chance to talk with the travel company Camino Ways for their video series ‘Camino Talks.’ It was so much fun to reminisce about our respective Caminos and all that has transpired in our lives after making the decision to go on an epic pilgrimage across Spain. Caitlin, our interviewer, always asks her guests if they want to walk the Camino again. We both whole-heartedly said yes but instead of talking in concrete terms of when that might be, our conversation centered around the word ‘hope.’
What will happen in 2021? Will things return to normal? Will we be able to travel again? Will pilgrims be able to return to the Camino and celebrate this Jubilee year?
No-one knows. Everything is still so uncertain. Even with the promise of receiving a vaccine on the horizon, the confidence with which we usually make our resolutions, goals and plans at end of the year has been radically shaken.
As the old year begins to fade, the world is centered around a collective hope for a better year ahead. As we wait, however, we are forced to turn our attention away from future adventures or plans and be present to what we have; to what is.
When I talk about the Camino, I always end up thinking about the ways it changed my art practice - from one of searching for the ‘spectacular’ to one of finding beauty in ordinary things. I learned to slow down and really see what was around me and, probably for the very first time, to be present in the moment - to what is. It transformed my art practice and it transformed my life.
Pilgrim Lost was created as a way to bring the transformative aspects of pilgrimage into the everyday. In the midst of a world that has turned upside down, Tony and I hope that our conversations this year have helped you be present to what is - to find moments of transformation within the daily rhythms of your life.
Holding hope while truly being in the present moment can be excruciatingly hard, but I do believe it is the essence of our journey at Pilgrim Lost. If you have been challenged and inspired by Pilgrim Lost we would love your support to continue this journey with you. We want to continue to do this in 2021 and beyond.
We are all ready for this incredibly hard year to come to an end. We look forward to 2021- to this new Jubilee Year. Maybe, like the cathedral, we will be fully restored; ready for all that is to come. Pilgrim Lost wishes that each of you finds hope for the future and joy in the present moment in the days ahead.
