briefly

The last post from this side of the Atantic, as long as all goes according to plan! I'm typing on a horrible keyboard, so this will be short and possibly illegible. I have lots of thoughts onTaize that have accumulated over the past week here, but not the time to type them up. Here's a teaser:

Imagine a giant summer camp--crowded showers, horrible food, noise everywhere, bratty teenagers--only it's in the French countryside and holds Beautiful prayers three times a day. That's where I'm at right now. Oh, and did I mention it's the busiest week of the entire year for Taize? Little did I know... Oh! And the Archbishop or Canterbry is here for a visit! The first and only real sermon I've ever heard, and it's delivered by the head of the entire Anglican church, hah.

I am more thankful for my tent than I have ever been; I think if I were sleeping in "the barracks" I would truly go crazy--they are like albergue times ten. It poured all afternoon yesterday, but the tent remained delightfully dry inside, though by the morning the walls were soaked with the heavy heavy mist that is just now beginning to lift, mist that reminded me so much of la lluvisna every morning in Galicia that it made me long for Spain. But first I have to get home! Then I can start pining for Spain!

I also have a whole bunch of new poetry memorized after this week of doing nothing but leisurely strolls through French villages and laying on the grass in the warm Burgundian sun... some poems of my own, plus a whole bunch by Rilke, Seamus Heaney, etc. I have been a sponge for words lately...