.First of all, my internet is down this Friday morning, so I don’t know when my post will actually go up. If I were ahead of the game (coughs and stares at floor…) I would have finished this post yesterday and it would be already out in the blogoverse waiting to be published from The Cloud, also known as, someone else’s computer. And in this case that would be nicer than being late. I will say in my own defense that yesterday, we had no power for a while.

Monday I was out having adventures in the real world. I went to visit a town down by the Potomac River. This place is a ‘town’ separated from other ‘towns,’ by history, I should think, not by actually physical distance, these days. However, it does also have an interesting civic identity that resulted in people building a beautiful boardwalk out over a marsh in the area. A small creek meandering down to the Potomac has been silting in for many different reasons, but the resulting marsh was kind of annoying. The Powers That Be decided to build a trail and board walk, which preserves the wildlife, and the walk is quite special.

Monday was clear and getting hot quickly, but there was a breeze over the marsh. The wooden boardwalk has railings where red-winged blackbirds sit and hope for crumbs as walkers pass them. They are ridiculously unafraid. They are also gorgeous when they swoop over the green and brown marsh, with a wide blue sky and a few white clouds overhead. The black body of the bird causes the red/orange patch on the wings to stand out, like a spark on a piece of charcoal. Very bewitching in the sunlight. 

https://www.pwcva.gov/department/neabsco-regional-park

The boardwalk passes over a pool where the water bubbled constantly, and a nearby marker suggested that dragonflies hatch there. A fisherman hoping for bass passed us. His hip waders looked useful but possibly oppressively warm, when walking as opposed to wading. A trestle bridge about a mile away crossed the creek mouth. A tiny-looking train rolled along, far enough away so that there was no sound, just the silhouette of different cars, coming out of the trees on one side of the water, and passing back into them on the other side. 

The board walk was built with quite a few curves so that the true straight distance from beginning to end, about a quarter mile, could be stretched out to a half mile walk, between lily pads with a few yellow buds, unknown flowers with tall purple spikes, and unidentified green plants. Pink mimosa grows along the banks of the creek.

The care taken with this boardwalk to provide beautiful views was a sharp contrast to the church I was visiting. That building is a relic of a different way of thinking. 

The people at the church were amazingly welcoming, and hard-working. Vacation Bible School was letting out as we visited. The outside grounds of the church had tall trees shading the edges of the parking lot, and there were flowers everywhere, especially in front of a statue of Mary.

Inside…

The outer doors open to a central space, an ante-room. To the left, glass doors lead to offices. A hallway stretches in front of you, but not straight in front. It is off-center to the left. There’s a wall facing the entrance door. On the right is the door to the church. Open it and step through and you are facing another wall.  A statue and candles do suggest that this space is meant to be cherished. A door to the right is closed off, so the eye follows the wall leftward, and ends up looking at another wall some fifty feet away through open space. Only when you walk to the left, to the end of this wall you’ve been confronted with, and turn your head to the right, do you finally see the altar and the tabernacle. I just cannot imagine how this is supposed to be a good way to bring people into a church. 

I can truly say that lots of people pray at this church, and make the best of the weird space. But it really is weird.