We’re home. It’s been a long day and I’ve been up for nearly 30 hours. It was the kind of day with 30 hours in it–I woke up in Zurich at 3 a.m., and now it’s bedtime in the Pacific Northwest. After many months of wandering, we are back where we started. And yet, one…
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A few months ago I stopped into an art exhibit that was happening in Kaysersberg. The title of the exhibit was “Dans Nos Rêves” or “In Our Dreams.” I liked the artwork because it was colorful and whimsical. I got to talking to an older man who was working at the exhibit. I asked him…
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We left Kaysersberg today. Last night we had dinner and then walked through the village one last time to say goodbye. We said goodbye to the cuckoo clock shop, the 500 year-old bridge, Albert Schweitzer’s house, the gingerbread store, the castle, the bakery, the charming asymmetrical white house, the cookie store, the village cat who…
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France has also taught me about loneliness. And honestly, this is one of the lessons I am most grateful for. My life for the past 4+ decades has been many things, but it hasn’t really been lonely. In fact, more often than not, I was starved for alone time with far too many demands on…
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One thing that has impressed me about French cities and landscapes is that there is a deep respect for the history of the place. When someone wants to build something new, they don’t simply tear down what was there before, but rather, they work with what already exists. In the first photo above, this store…
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I have come to see God at work in my life, as I believe He is at work in all of our lives. For me, my journey to France has been part of that. One thing that God asks of us–and this seems to be consistent across faith traditions–is to do the hard work of…
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As we come to the end of our splendid adventure and I look back at all the places we’ve been–I am reminded that every place is special. Every country and city we’ve visited has its own unique gifts to offer the world. I’m so glad that Greece isn’t trying to be Switzerland, and that Venice…
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Nothing has happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now. Eckhart Tolle As someone who has spent most of her life either contemplating the future or analyzing the past, it has somewhat difficult for me to really fall in love with the…
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As we have traveled throughout Europe, we have felt and seen the impact of World War II more keenly than at any previous time in our lives. It is present here in a way that it is not at home. In the U.S., I think all of us have some vague sense that there was…
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