Portugués Camino Day14: The Art of Doing Nothing – A Camino Zero Day

DAY 14: ZERO IN ARMENTEIRA 0.0 Miles 5,793 Steps

Taking a zero-day was so good. We had a planned Sleep Sabbath, which means we stay in bed as long as our bodies will let us, but the call of the breakfast buffet won out. Five trips through it, and we were stuffed. Maybe one can overcome hiker hunger. The forecast of a rainy day proved to be correct, so we stayed inside—I blogged, Suzanne listened to her book or The Bible, and we watched wet pilgrims stream by in the drizzling rain.

Monastery of St. María de Armenteira Seized by the State

I stumbled upon an unrelated article about the Disamortization of Mendizábal of 1836.  I am shocked to learn that our little monastery, along with many other religious institutions in Spain, was closed and confiscated by the state. Some were sold off.  In 1834, the same happened in Portugal, but much more efficiently.

The monastery we see today has undergone a remarkable transformation. In 1989, while the rest of the world watched the fall of the Berlin Wall or the Tiananmen Square protests, Cistercian nuns quietly returned to the monastery to restore and breathe new life into this ancient site.

Until the Landslide Brings You Down

At lunch, Suzanne begins sharing how Santiago has been working in her. She recalled our first night in Spain when Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide played as we talked around the table at Casa Alternativo.  

     I took my love, I took it down
     Climbed a mountain and I turned around
     And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills 
     ‘Til the landslide brought me down

While I was pondering, not feeling like a pastor that night, Landslide was stirring in her. “Life has been amazing,” she says, “so many blessings, such grace poured on us. But one day, as the song says, a landslide will bring us down. It might be you, it might be me. But one of us will go down, and then…” A melancholy air sets in, but not for long.

     Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
     Can the child within my heart rise above?
     Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides?
     Can I handle the seasons of my life?

You may not know this about her, but Suzanne is a hummer. I think it is cute how she hums, and the game I play is to identify what she’s humming. This trip it has mostly been chants from the Taizé Community, but not today, it’s Landslide. “It’s what happened to Mom, everything was good, until the cancer took her down.” 

      Well, I’ve been ‘fraid of changin’ 
     ‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
     But time makes you bolder
     Even children get older
     And I’m gettin’ older, too

I look up the lyrics on my phone. The familiar melody plays in my mind as I read them and think back to my clubbing days 40 years ago when we played this song. Now it evokes a deeper meaning about a moment of change and uncertainty, especially as we are now both in our 60s. We were living in Africa when they discovered Suzanne’s mother had Pancreatic Cancer, stage 4. We travelled back and forth for the final months until she was gone, a landslide brought down. Her father died even more suddenly of an allergic reaction to a bee sting, there one morning, gone that afternoon, in her 14^th year.

     Ah, take my love, take it down
     Oh, climb a mountain and turn around
     And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
     Well, the landslide will bring it down

Typically, at some point during the day, we will talk about what is next for us, exploring different scenarios.  I feel my biological clock ticking stronger than Suzanne’s. I have only so much time and good health left to do things like walking a Camino, and when I am no longer able, am I really going to wish I had worked harder? Or worked longer? Or will I lament that I was unable to enjoy the gifts of God’s creation in these final years when the call to explore is so strong? We’ve been given these incredible gifts, are we honor bound to continue to use them, or are they actual gifts, that we get to decide or decide not to use?  Is it really our choice?

From my 2017 Camino, I knew that razor clams were a Galician specialty and an absolute must-try (again) for seafood lovers.  I was happy to introduce them to Suzanne

Galician octopus or pulpo a la gallega, is a culinary icon of Spain. This simple yet flavorful dish is incredibly tender and melts in one’s mouth as half did before I could snap this picture. 

A Day of Weddings

All day, we see people streaming to the monastery, their cars filling and emptying the courtyard.  From our vantage point in the village’s other café at lunch, we watch a parade of Spanish fashion elegance walk by in their amazing formal attire and smelling nice in the sometimes-drizzling rain. Near 7pm, when we think the Pilgrims’ Mass will start, a third wedding is still in process and has been going on for hours. The Mass concludes, and as we’re about to walk out, so does the bride. I snapped these pictures, which I am rather proud of.

Then it was dinner and off to bed.  A delightfully long, hard, and blessed day of doing nothing.