Dear friends,
I just returned from a splendid sojourn to Italy and Switzerland. I would like to baptise these two countries as the Land of Beauty and Bounty. I have posted a little on social media on some of the incredible sights we saw but nothing can truly encapsulate an experience like this. It is an extravagant gift, and I find that as I reminisce being back home on our time abroad, the richness of the adventure just deepens and widens with many sprinkles of wonder.
From the architecture to the Italian Alpes, the rich culture and fascinating history this is an explorer’s playground. Yet it is not in the typical tourist places that I made the most unexpected and surprising discoveries. It came to be in unassuming and very simple ways, not so much in the grandiose or the great. (And there is plenty of grandiose and great in these places to admire just look at all the posts on Pinterest)
I felt ambushed by dancing dandelions on a spontaneous river walk, and daisies peeking at through me through crisp green glass blades underneath the snow-white peaks in Pinzolo. I cherished the simplicity of the food, the freshness, the intentionality in its preparation and the passion in its creation. I even got to do my very own cooking lesson in an authentic Italian kitchen in Tuscany.
This was such a joyful celebration of cooking and creativity whilst being surrounded by exquisite beauty. There were no elaborate floral displays, just a few fresh flowers cut from the garden playfully placed in some wine glasses adding dimension and depth to this cosy little kitchen. I do think it is fitting to add the title “amateur chef” to my repertoire. I should also mention that this is a pastry playground for anyone with a palette for all things sweet.
I did bring back some extra kilograms and it was not in my luggage. Fun fact: You can never eat too many scoops of gelato. Never! I am a living epistle of this truth!
There are so many magnificent cathedrals in these places, and yet it was in a very small unnamed little church in Verona that I had the most sacred encounter with a compelling sculpture of the crucifixion. It literally drew me to my knees as I sat on the floor in this rustic little church away from the rustle of the city. I allowed myself to be confronted by it. The emotions it inflamed. The adoration and tender tears it evoked. I felt completely unravelled by it. My soul could celebrate my smallness against it.
I suppose that is one of the greatest lessons I learned traveling so many miles away from home, that beauty and purpose and meaning comes to us in the most unexpected even unadorned places.
We so often are like trampling tourists desperately trying to place ourselves in the most influential places to have an authentic and transcending experience. (And a matching picture to post off course) But if we simply choose to linger and slow down, it will come to us, rather than us frantically trying to apprehend it by ourselves.
This is such a fitting metaphor for our spiritual journeys, where we rely on the latest or cutting-edge methods or devotional disciplines to bring us into a place of union and communion, forgetting that our striving is never what draws the presence of God close. It is our humble longing to be encountered that stirs His mercy most.
So, friends, enjoy the opportunity to travel when you can, make room to get off the main path and explore the non-spectacular spaces and may they birth miracles of memories and deep meaning, cherished for many years to come.
And if we can choose our part of heaven one day, I am most certainly choosing a blend of Italy and Switzerland.