{"id":3357,"date":"2024-08-04T09:03:19","date_gmt":"2024-08-04T09:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=3357"},"modified":"2024-08-04T09:03:19","modified_gmt":"2024-08-04T09:03:19","slug":"silence-of-the-monks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=3357","title":{"rendered":"Silence of the Monks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/SaoPaolo.heic\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"3358\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/SaoPaolo.heic\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3358\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/SantMarti-1.heic\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/SantMarti-1.heic\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3361\" style=\"width:631px;height:auto\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Monasteries and hermitages, a faint silhouette in a shimmering light. As we arrive by car, then foot, or by tortuous road, the outline thickens against the ochre stone and cliffs. They loom as minor fortresses, angled like a prism, slim windows for spying enemies or contemplating empty skies. Such extremes, oh monks, for what? Why load your donkeys with marble and limestone, why live in spiny dry isolation far from your fellow humans? What lay on the other side of the extreme \u2013 what wretchedness, what bitterness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What closed door to a human garden?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then again, I\u2019m climbing these roads for what &#8212; To stay in a renovated monastery, to sit on your stone bench by the small window, to escape what chaos, to rest in what calm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even as I carry my backpack dotted with buttons: \u201call is chaos\u201d and \u201crestless recalcitrant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Hermitage.heic\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Hermitage.heic\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3362\" style=\"width:509px;height:auto\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monasteries and hermitages, a faint silhouette in a shimmering light. As we arrive by car, then foot, or by tortuous road, the outline thickens against the ochre stone and cliffs. They loom as minor fortresses, angled like a prism, slim &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=3357\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1482,1478,966,1483,433,1484,1479,1481,1480,277],"class_list":["post-3357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-camelas","tag-existential-questions","tag-isolation","tag-monasteries","tag-portugal","tag-refuge","tag-restless-recalcitrant","tag-sant-marti","tag-sao-paolo","tag-travel-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4D5qU-S9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3363,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357\/revisions\/3363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}