Mother and Child
I'm still uploading photos to Flckr from the trip, but I wanted to make special note of this one. One of the most powerful parts of this trip for both of us was that we were just plain doing it, that we were there. No one in our families had ever traveled to Russia before. And outside of the military service for our fathers, none of our parents had ever traveled abroad. Thinking like that made this trip feel extra powerful for us.

I was thinking of my mother a lot, of course. A week ago today in Saint Petersburg, we visited St. Isaac's Cathedral. In the back corner, there was a place to make offerings where you could buy candles of various sizes and place them in holders in front of various icons. I'm not religious enough or knowledgeable enough to know what the different icons meant or why candles should be placed in front of one or the other, but it made sense to buy a candle in memory of my mother and place it in front of the icon representing Madonna and Child.

While doing it, I could not help but think that every opportunity I have in my life is largely because of sacrifices she made throughout hers.
- posted by Nels @ 6:29 PM | | | Link |