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Did Noah build the first door?
The first door mentioned in the Bible is metaphorical. “Sin is crouching at your door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it,” said God to Cain, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. Sin revealed itself a dark and ominous evil when Cain murdered his brother Abel. Reference to the door of Cain’s heart, Cain had a choice. The rest of human history gets squeezed into three brief chapters in Genesis, a succinct commentary on the human race before the flood: God had had enough. [1] Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it…
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Turning Disadvantages to Your Advantage
Paul wrote to the Corinthians that believers behold truth as in a mirror dimly. At best, each of us holds only a piece of that mirror, broken in the Fall. When I traveled to Belarus after the breakup of the Soviet Union, part of our group visited a summer camp, Zoubryonok near Lake Narach. What stark contrast the camp provided to the barren, ill-equipped hospitals that we had visited in Minsk, and the concrete apartment buildings built during the early 1960’s, housing blocks known as the “Khrushchev slums.” This lake had been the site of a battle in the Napoleonic war in 1812. Big excursion boats that resemble steamboats on…
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When You Know It’s Time to Turn Around
The sign flashed “Road closed 6 miles ahead.” Traveling down an Interstate at 75mph, my first thought was, What’s that mean? In this case, the southbound Interstate 25 between Trinidad, Colorado and Raton, New Mexico had traffic backed to a standstill as far as my eyes could see. Instead of stopping in the line of vehicles miles long, a line that was not moving, we bailed. Took the last exit available or my husband and I would have been sitting there, wondering, stuck for 2 hours or more. Thank you, Google Maps. Wending our way on the Old Santa Fe Trail, we wound up ahead of the miles-long backup and…
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The Queen’s Speech for Easter 2020, “When we gather around the light, it unites us.”
Unprecedented For the first time in all of her 68-year reign, Her Majesty the Queen of England, Queen of the British Empire, Elizabeth, Britain’s Monarch, delivered a short message for Easter amid the coronavirus pandemic. Likely, the hospitalization of Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson shook the entire Empire, if not the rest of the world as well. Viruses are no respecter of persons. Throughout the history of British monarchs, their majesties’ words spoken during a crisis have had a soothing, stabilizing effect on subjects of the realm. “Easter isn’t canceled this year. Indeed, we need Easter as much as ever.” “As dark as death can be, particularly for those suffering…
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The Prodigal Suitcase Comes Home
If my suitcase could talk, what would it tell me? Would it tell me what happened that night 6 months ago when I let go of its hand(le)? Would it tell me where it has been all this time? Would it tell me whose fault it was that it got left behind? Would it tell me when I messed up? When I took my eyes off this seeming extension of my right arm? All speculation as to who, what, when, where and why fell to the ground yesterday when my long-lost suitcase made its way home. What happened?
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Beaucoup Tears for Paris
Too sorrowful for words.
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My Taste of Italy Adventure
“We came to Rome because we’d always regret it if we didn’t, because every timidity eventually turns into regret.” Anthony Doerr, Four Seasons in Rome All roads lead to Rome Travel is about experience and personal experience is hard to share. Experiences, I have found, are not transferable. Still, the traveler seeks to share his or hers anyway. My adventure started and ended in Rome, only it’s not fair to say I actually saw Rome the first time through simply because I had to go through Rome in order to arrive at my initial destination. But I wound up back in Rome before flying home.
