The Seven Churches of The Revelation

Stories in the Stones
By Karen Strawn

Among ruins of Roman glass in Ephesus, Selcuk pottery in Thyatira and clay aqueduct piping in the Biblical city of Laodocia, Turkey, I found balance between ancient and modern within me.

This conflict has been clashing in my heart since I was a little girl and my grandmother would open her trunk at the foot of her bed and tell me stories about the special, private things inside. Simple and ancient, these stories made me who I am.

But as I grew up, my stories were slowly buried under layers of life turned modern. I had lost myself in a world where nature is pushed outside the home by closed windows and air conditioning. And the day's greatest event of drive-through fast food, balancing credit card debt and watching TV replaced the open windows of my childhood where cool breezes carried the smell of boiled potatoes, corn on the cob and melted butter throughout the house.

The broken pieces of my life lay undiscovered inside me like the ancient ruins of the Biblical cities we were about to visit. I needed some way to dig these hidden pieces up, bring them out into the open and see them for what they are. I needed to be reminded about the stories of who I am. Maybe discovering other people's stories will help me remember mine.
[to be continued...]