La Sagrada Familia, the truly amazing Cathedral and the Sacred Family feeling all came together this week, and we had to bow our heads in appreciation for all the unconditional love on alle the levels of both life and existence. Halleluja is a humble word!
Af Cecilie Felumb Conrad | January 31, 2019
So, the main thing this week is the visit of our eldest daughter and her partner. Reflections on love, traveling, fulfilling, obligations and of Gods Plans swirl around, as the strong winds bow through the landscape south of Barcelona, we now know so well.
Walk with me through La Sagrada Familia, the emotions of being parent of an adult, the magic of daring to listen, the strong, strong power of God within and around it all.
It does not have to be long and complicated, actually no long explanations are needed: We all live in this amazing universe, and what Gaudí saw: The structures, the underlying mathematics, the beauty, the balancing act, the symmetry of nature – that is all around all of us.
Our life in the bus has brought us out of the big cities and into nature, giving us the opportunity to humbly learn more and more, on the deep level of feeling just as much as knowing, how truly holy this whole world is:
… all opens a window to eternity, to the deep structures of what we will never understand, but somehow know anyway.
Daring to listen and to feel, rather than to know and to think has been a personal challenge to me all through my life. I was a wonderkid, amazingly intelligent, when I was a small child and growing up in 2 families, both focused on education, knowledge, reflections. Daring to “just know” is overwhelming to me, and I feel ridiculed and walking on sand. Yet, I have this deep knowing, this guide inside, who “just know”. Very often. And at the most important areas of life.
La Sagrada Familia, I think, changed exactly this. I will no longer be ashamed to “just know”. I will no longer fall for the academic, scientific raised eyebrows, as I actually very often “just know” exactly where to go, what to do, what is true.
Well, I think Gaudí and everyone else working on the building did a very good job as to copy the masterpiece, God created, so that we can walk into a manmade structure and experience two things.
One is the gratitude of astronomical magnitude, the humble thankfulness we truly feel for every heartbeat and for the amazing world we get to live in.
The other is … more like a display. Of nature first and foremost, but also of how to understand it in the context of the bible. And that is not understanding in a logic and academic way, but in an intuitive, feeling way.
My grandfather told me something important about religion: He said: “I am a Christian, because my father was a Christian”, meaning: I come from and live in a Christian culture, and all I will ever experience will happen in this structure. The best way, I can get close to god, can live my life as balanced as possible, can feel and understand as good as possible, raise my children to be both good and happy, is if I place my religion in the same story as my father, my cultural context, my history.
True that. And I say this to express religions tolerance and freedom. Whatever set of code will bring you closer to God, and into a deeper understanding of this life and put you in a state of gratitude and harmony, I truly believe it is true and good. I also believe, we can all learn from each others religions, as I am sure, God has no agenda as to HOW we reach out to the divine level of life, as long as we try.
Anyway. We are Christians, not in any particular church, but because our fathers were Christians. We understand the world, and especially the spiritual world from this perspective, and that puts us in a position to really appreciate La Sagrada Familia.
It was, to me, a spiritual journey to walk through the cathedral, and I am forever grateful for those few hours of my life, for the awe I could feel, and for every time forward, I will feel the same, being in nature or in conversation or in meditation.
We got to spend this time with our eldest daughter, who no longer lives with us, and with her boyfriend. Talk about the dream of mother in law! He is truly wonderful, and we love him! They arrived on Sunday, and stays for 4 nights. New friends of ours host them, as it gets a bit crowded in the bus with sleepover.
This is the second time, she visits, and this time I had peace with it. We feel, we are family, and that it is possible to have a solid and loving relation, though we do not live in the same country. We do miss her a lot, when we are not together, but we also recognize, she is now an adult and that we would not spend every day together if we did live in the same city.
It makes us think about the other family members, our parents firstly. How is it to be so far away from them, for such a long time? Well. That one is more complicated. Our parents all gave us their blessing and love, saying: Go live your lives, we will miss you, but we do not want to stop you. So we did. We call them and send pictures, and look forward to seeing them again.
Because: What is the sacred family, and what parts of it is sacred, and how do we obey the laws of this sacredness? With love and with joy, with presence and focus. Learning how to do this while traveling is one part of the big story of personal change, this lifestyle is producing.
We feel close to our parents, when we call and share moments in that way, and as for so far (6 months away), we feel okay, actually – it is interesting conversations and more frequent than before we left.
How it evolves and changes I shall not foresee, but as for now, it actually feels right. How are other travellers coping with this situation, of the family, the loved ones, and the feeling of obligation left behind?
Please share in the comments.
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Week 2 – Birthday Reflections