weekend in Wales

My friend Ben invited me to come visit his home in Pembrokeshire, Wales for the past few days.

We drove four hours through the Welsh countryside to get there from Chester, and I spent most of the time with my face plastered to the window, mouth open in awe and eyes wide in wonder at just how spectacular it was.

It was dark most of the ride down there, and the sky was clear and the moon full and shining big and bright. I felt so content. Riding along with a new friend, every minute just absolutely in awe of the beautiful countryside, setting out on a new adventure into more unknown. I could have ridden for hours more, just to be that happy.

Most of our time in Pembrokeshire, Ben took me around to see different things. Beautiful things.

A church built into the side of a cliff. Snow on the water's edge. Sheep. Rock formations that left me in wonder. A castle. A cathedral. An abandoned church graveyard. A sunset on the beach.

Constantly in awe, what struck me over and over again was the juxtaposition of wonders big and small.

The cliff was miraculous, but so were the millions of tiny shells that built it.

The beach took my breath away, but so did each little wave as it came crashing.

The castle thrilled me, and I loved thinking about the individual lives that lived there hundreds of years ago, too. What was it like? What were they like?

All this beauty and taking in of wonders both big and small got me thinking about the significance of my six months in England. One of which, by the way, is spent.

How none of this traveling would matter if I didn't have friends to do it with.

How what I learn in the classroom will never compare with what I'm going to learn just living.

How sometimes it's easier to appreciate the small things, because the big things are just too big to understand.

I'm spending six months in Europe.

That, I don't understand.

What I do understand is that tomorrow is Cuppa again. And I'm learning how to make a good cup of tea. And I just got a letter from my grandparents. And the past five days were so amazing. And my pictures are pretty. And tonight when I went to the Christian Union, I felt a twinge of belonging.

It's a beautiful world we live in. And when surrounded by all this, it gives me hope that maybe one day the beauty will outweigh the evil and the pain.

I don't feel like I deserve to see all this, experience all this, or know these people, but somehow I am here and all this is happening.

I am so thankful.