burning

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
~Douglas Adams

Over and over again during my travels I found myself drawn into churches (this behavior undoubtedly abetted by the fact that France and Belgium are chock-full of churches).  I love the cool quiet spaces of sanctuaries–for meditation and for observation.

While at one famous church in Paris, I lit a candle for a friend and said a prayer for her.  Paying 2 euros for the candle before lighting and setting it on the stand felt a bit…cheap to me.  I didn’t want to think about money, only about my friend.  I suppose that’s why I tend to feel so conflicted about religion–somehow the practicalities of the organizations (money, structure, authority) tend to bog down what’s most beautiful about the devotion of the adherents.  Yet, as frustrated as I am with religion, I give homage to the beautiful spaces that are the remnants of such faith–the church structures that delight and lift my thoughts a bit higher.