28 mayo 2014
Those who plan peace have joy. Proverbs 12:20
Jesucristo, gran Maestro, dota a tus mensajeros con nuevas fuerzas, permite que tu discipulado marche con alegria por los caminos, confiando en Ti ante toda dificultad, sintiendo tu compania dia y noche. Nikolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf
Everette would love Istanbul. It is full of cats. Happy cats fed in the sunshine on neatly folded up sheets of newspaper. I am sitting in a small cafe. Of course, with a double expresso. Across the tiny steep cobbled street streaming with taxi cabs and motor scooters and street carts rests an aged green mosque and a garden street corner. Mostly seagulls swirl in lazy blue circles. And sparrows. Gentle techno music pulses amidst the tinkling glassware and murmured conversations. Unexpectedly, Istanbul is a gentle city. A tangled twisted flowering vine of hipster tacones, fine business suits, neatly pinned berkas, and huddled women with an outreached hand.
I read part of Annie Dillard's book describing archeological digs as I crossed over the ocean. Istanbul is a dig, layers upon layers.
Layers upon layers.
Simply on the surface, looking down to avoid tripping on the uneven surfaces, straight into the slightly squinting with a smile brown eyes, around to flapping clothes lines and dangling bling and brightly colored mats, up up to bright red and pink gardenias hanging off of rooftop gardens and rounded domes connecting space.
Or complex longing to be noticed. Each who walks by, an image-bearer. So many cups of tea and Marlboro cigarettes. A sad-eyed lady with an accordion and her twirling little girl dressed in pink holding a paper cup. A father jostling a tired infant. Three young Turks leaning up against a doorstep flirting with a shy shopkeeper. And yet another calico cat. Just now the five times a day call for prayer has begun, called down from every minaret reaching for the sky.
Dear Master, may Your disciple march the ways with joy and confidence in You.
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