The Challenge: You’re stranded in a foreign city for a day with no money and no friends. Where do you go; what do you do?
Wow. Here I am . . . the girl who craves intimacy of those she loves . . . here in a fabulous foreign city . . . but broke and with no friends. Sure, we have all been broke from time to time, or thought we were. Who among us has not, at some point, felt abandoned . . . but this time it’s the real thing, for a day anyway. What to do?
- Run to the library? Can’t read the language.
- Hang out at the mall? Alone in a crowd and no money – worse.
- Walk around and admire the city? The loneliness is like a chill in the air.
What to do? Where to go?
Hmmmm . . . the churches, cathedrals, shrines . . . amazing sacred spaces representing the presence of the divine to so many faithful over so many hundreds of years . . . I could never be alone there. Oh, the buildings might be empty to the eyes, those orbs of the body, but not to the soul . . . not this soul anyway. Armed with my backpack, plenty of pens and a fresh notebook, and the remains of peanuts from the plane trip here and my last bottle of water, I set off. How can I describe my day? The day I dreaded wasn’t long enough for all the blessings before me . . . and I can’t wait to go back again!
