Under His Wings: November 2018

Since yesterday, I'm with family in Germany. I'm enjoying this short break over Reformation Day, All Saints and All Souls Day. Wow, so many holidays in short order, but at least the latter two are also official holidays in my organization. I'm actually combining this trip with a mission from work, because on Monday, I'll go "Back to School". Yes, after almost five years I will go back to one of my former schools again to share with the pupils about my work and about the EU in general. They started this initiative over a decade ago with a lot of success. I'm very much in favour of such actions, as it is not only a very rewarding experience for me, but it's also great promotion for the European Institutions. And since the work of my current Directorate-General is very close to the life of EU citizens, they even encourage us to go on these trips.

Right now, I'm still recuperating from the stresses of the last couple months. It's been mainly positive stress, but of course every human body has its limits. It all started with this really bad cold I contracted while at camp meeting in August. Then I had a lot of visitors - which was great, but in a way also exhausting. Then my workload at the office steadily increased - and the fact that I still don't have a new colleague in the secretariat didn't help with that of course.

The fall is coming in with great force now; the temperatures having dropped notably in these past days. But it's already been back to 15 degrees (60 F) and we are enjoying some nice sunshine. We actually had a lot of that in the past couple months, with warmer temperatures than usual at this time of year. That's how I especially like Brussels, because during winter time, sunshine is a rare commodity, and thus I'm determined to enjoy it while it lasts! I also look forward to my upcoming mission trip to Puerto Rico at the end of December. I'm invited by a former lifestyle guest from Uchee Pines, who lives there with her husband. I'm going to combine this short vacation with a couple of weekend health seminars which I'm going to conduct together with a former colleague from Uchee Pines. I'm sure we will have a blast!

So today, I went to the cemetery together with my grandmother and her care taker. Since it's All Saints day, there were a lot of people visiting the graves of family members. I even saw some moslems there, bowing down and even kissing the tombs of their passed loved ones. And I witnessed a Catholic procession that went through the graveyard. I captured the group when they had a little service next to the graves of people who died during the bomb attacks when World War II was raging here (see picture below).

I don't believe in the immortality of the soul, but from time to time I enjoy visiting the tombs of dear people who are resting there, notably my grandfather and my great-grandmother. But how much more am I going to enjoy resurrection day, when I will finally see them again! Interestingly, one of the priests holding the little ceremony in front of the graves was reading from the book of Revelation:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! Gods dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" ~ Revelation 21:3-5

Oh what a joyous day that will be!