We were not expecting to see snow when we looked out at sunrise at the Eglise Sainte Marie-Madeleine (Armenian Apostolic Church of Mary Magdalene) from our window of the Hilton Grand Place in Brussels. But precipitation is an essential part of the water cycle, and one that I have tried to embrace while living in the Netherlands, which has weather often compared to Seattle, with rainfall and clouds for the majority of the time during winter. I've often made that blanket statement (while keeping warm and dry under a blanket), and today decided to look up the actual numbers and compare all of the places I've lived: Baltimore, Maryland (the website I used didn't have Balto., so I used Washington, D.C.); Athens, Greece; Orlando, Florida; and Utrecht, The Netherlands; as well as Seattle, Washington. The graphs for the individual cities can be found by clicking on the blue above, but I created a visual that confirms my statement, with a few surprises. First, I'll let you take a look...
In the U.S. today, it's the premier event for football. I've never been much of an American football fan (I actually prefer soccer), but I do remember my grandmother yelling at the TV when the Baltimore Colts lost to the New York Jets during Super Bowl III in 1969. I also remember how stunned fans were over the Colts' middle-of-the-night move to Indianapolis in 1984. Fast forward; I watched a few high school games when my daughter was on the Athletic Training team in 2005, and, from my comfortable family room couch seat, cheered the Baltimore Ravens to victory during Super Bowls XXXV and XLVII--2000 and 2012 Champions. There you have it, my football history in a nutshell. I'm cheering for the Seattle Seahawks today--the weather in Seattle is similar to Utrecht, AND, ... ...more importantly, the New England Patriots beat the Ravens in the Divisional Playoffs, so obviously, I'm not supporting them! Interestingly enough, the Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts during the AFC Championship game (clearly, I wouldn't have cheered for the Colts either)! The scandal that has ensued over the balls used in the Patriots vs. Colts game has been named Deflategate, and has led to increased security for the 108 official Super Bowl game balls! Now, for a person who does not follow football, I find the Internet quite helpful, hence the source for most of my information here.
My sunset image for today's Spiritual Sunday includes a statue located on Poseidonos Avenue in Palaio Faliro in Athens. The torch and five rings--arranged in their original configuration--commemorate the Olympics, which I had the honor of attending in Athens in 2004. Organized sports have certainly evolved since the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C. The Olympic creed was developed thousands of years later, and can certainly apply to all athletic events, including today's big game: The most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. (New American Bible, 2 Timothy 2:5) There will only be one winner today. May the game be a fair one, and may all fans show good sportsmanship as well.. I recently finished reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. The majority of this easy-to-read novel takes place in 1944 in Saint-Malo, France, with several references to Fort National (image above), built in the 17th century to protect Saint-Malo's port. One of the main characters of the book, Marie-Laure, is blind, but that doesn't stop her from being an astute observer. Throughout the novel, the other main character, Werner, recalls a line from a radio program, "Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever" (p. 58). Since I had visited Saint-Malo in 2010... In July 2012, my husband and I enjoyed a beautiful sunset on our way back to Rafina from the island of Andros in Greece. It was so peaceful on the outside deck of the car ferry. We had both taken ferries numerous times in the past, and when possible, prefer the ferry over a plane. This was two years before the April 2014 ferry tragedy in South Korea, where more than 300 passengers perished. At the end of 2014, just three days after Christmas, another ferry encountered problems in rough weather, off the coasts of Italy and Greece. No form of transport is without accidents. We can all take...
Spiritual Sundays are about helping you find time to be at peace with yourself, and all that is going on in your life, both personally and globally. Each Spiritual Sunday will include an image of a bench with a peaceful view, or a sunset from a place I've visited (or, if you're lucky, a sunrise--I'm not a morning person!) The images are meant to help put you in a peaceful place, to jump start you to a sense of awe. In his video, The Science of Awe and Beauty, Dacher Keltner of The Greater Good Science Center, defines awe as: "The feeling of being in the presence of something vast and greater than the self, that exceeds current knowledge structures" (slide 1). |
AuthorMrs. T.--lifelong learner, traveler, teacher, voracious reader, and food, wine and chocolate lover! Archives
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