Don't Wake Me From This Dream!

For some reason it hits me late at night. Each night when I turn out the lights and lie in bed waiting for sleep I realize that I am looking out the window of a ninth floor apartment in Buenos Aires, a major city in the southern hemisphere, in South America. Before I fall asleep it already feels like a dream! I walk around the streets of a city that in many respects is the most cosmopolitan city of Latin America, perhaps in the Western Hemisphere (I know I will get debate from my friends who love New York, Chicago, LA, even Miami.) But just living here is an amazing experience and I keep waiting to awaken from this dream.

Every afternoon I spend a few hours visiting a museum (yesterday I visited the Eva Peron Museum and today it was the Nacional Museum of Decorative Arts) or visiting a special park. As I walk the streets I see buildings from the 1800's and early 1900's in the French Renaissance style, the Belle Epoque style, right next to more modern high rise structures. I go out for lunch every day and go the large supermarket about twice a week. Then I visit the corner fruit and vegetable market about every 2-3 days. My lunches are casual, not rushed, my dinner's late and simple.

There is ample time for reflection, on my life, on the world, on my work life and my call to ministry. Some of that reflection comes in quiet moments spent writing in my journal. Some of that reflection comes when I am walking the streets, on my way somewhere. Some of it comes while enjoying lunch, or a late afternoon café espresso. My spiritual moments come in times of reflection, or in times of standing in wonder in the middle of a beautiful park or plaza, or while walking and reciting my Latin chant mantra: "Ubi caritas, et amor; ubi caritas, Deus ibi est." (Where there is charity and love; where there is charity, there is God.)

This has been a wonderful time of growth and reflection for me. I have grown through gaining the knowledge of how to speak Spanish and the skill to do that with some capability. I have grown through the experience of living in a different culture, a different nation, a different part of the world. I have grown through moving outside my comfort zone, pushing my boundaries, learning that I can adapt and am still fairly flexible. I have grown through the times of reflection that have allowed me to take stock of my life and my ministry. It has been and continues to be a marvelous and amazing sabbatical experience, more than I ever imagined it would be.

I have not been taking many pictures lately, and the museums here in Buenos Aires do not allow photos, even without flash, so here is a link to some photos I took in an art museum in Cordoba with a taste of Argentine artists. This link will take you to a Kodak Gallery Album: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6d2p4u6.a4avvx16&x=0&y=-ybuggz&localeid=en_US