Whole

Now a ”Lutheran chick” in the Swedish church I did spend almost 20 years in an orthodox country. The orthodox religion I never really looked at then and the church I took steps to not get involved in for many reasons, none of them faith related. But, with all its glorious traditions the church was present in my life anyway, although I didn’t pay attention.

Then that era came to an end. It culminated in a year of nerve-racking psychological warfare in a divorce that changed four people’s lives to something totally different.

I moved back to “my” country and “my church” and even started working in the congregation where I now live. And I drew a line between there and here, in many ways…

Part of painting at the Academy

And then, a few years ago, I had the opportunity to go to Crete as part of an education. And there, in the Orthodox Academy of Crete, in a little chapel on the ground floor, with iconostasis and candles, bottles of oil and incense … I came to see that they didn’t represent different parts of my life these two churches of “mine” … I cannot keep what they are to me, what the essence of them tell me, apart.
So there, in the chapel, alone after a devotional I couldn’t help but cry. I felt at home and I realized that there is ONE God, one me and one wish to look deeper and to get closer.

In that chapel I became, not in every sense, but in an important part of me, whole.