Cathedrals and holy places in Zagreb

I don't know if it's just me, but I see cathedrals, churches and holy places everywhere I go in Zagreb--some have been preserved from the stamps of youth culture and others not so much.... Regardless of whether these holy sites are covered in graffiti or not, they remain beautiful and, at the very least, meaningful.
Below, you will see pictures of Gornji Grad, Zagreb's upper town--the old town. The cobblestone road that leads up to the old town and the baroque structures, juxtaposed with cafe's, graffiti and galleries symbolize a meeting place of the new, the old, and everything in between.
The pictures of the ornate cathedral is the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The twin peaks of the Cathedral hover over Zagreb, and you can see them from miles away, behind the huge bright blue billboard in the middle of Trg Bana Jospia Jelacica--the main square. I hear that this Cathedral has been through hell and back: an earlier version of the Cathedral was destroyed in 1242 by an invasion and an earthquake caused some major damage in 1880. You get the feeling that this place has been carefully preserved...
You will also see pictures of Kamenita Vrata and the Chapel of God's Mother, which is revered as a holy ground for many visitors. Why? Rumor has it that the painting of the Virgin Mary that you'll see in the pictures survived a fire.
Needless to say, being from a protestant/evangelical background and playing with anglicanism and eastern orthodoxy, I had many thoughts and, thankfully, lots of time for reflection today... about history, church bureaucracy, spirituality, encounters with the divine, diversity of perspective and where people find their hope.
You will also see pictures of St. Mark's church here. Enjoy!

Oh, and the first picture is on Franko Panska--funny to find a Mexican restaurant--with the most stereotypical name-- in Zagreb.

Sight Seeing Part III

Sight Seeing Part II

Sight Seeing in Zagreb

Here's to my friend, Job, Part II

Suitcases rush past,
And fingers type quickly
job searches are gifted
with business casual uniforms so swiftly

And your slow walk
interrupts the rushed day
And your tears make everyone uncomfortable today
and the fact that we lay
in ashes that we pray
in the middle of the business day--no production
Interrupts

Your pain
interrupts
their day

Your quivering hands and lips
interrupts their
constructs
of how sane
they think they are
so that you become "other"
and they became scared
by their illusion
and surprised by
crisis,
unaware

And you,
calm
when crisis strikes
because crisis is the norm
and you learn to pace your fears through the ever-present storm
while former experts at life panic
you remain calm in the crisis,
--expert
while everyone is manic

Here's to Job

Your needy.
And have lost all of your friends as a result.
You're shaky and no one wants to be around,
you.
Because it's awkward and it makes them look bad
and they just don't know what to do
with someone so sad
or...
weird.
With words reminiscent of middle school exclusion they describe you
weird.
uncool.
And we're adults now...
Supposedly.

Your face is markedly,
depressed.
But your soul is obviously,
underfed.
Or...not so obviously...
to your "friends"?

So I sit with you,
with ashes on my head
and there we lay
with discipline.
Not because I'm saintly
Not because I'm holy,
but precisely
because I identify with how lonely
one gets
when one's soul is underfed

And we connect
at this one spot,
with all else qualifying as "extra"
our brokenness is where friendship begins
And funny, my brokenness, is where relationship
with Jesus lives

Practicing my finitude is liberating

I set three alarms for 6am almost every night in 15 minute intervals since my freshman year of college. My freshman year: Completely successful, but it's been downhill from there on after. For the last five years, I've managed to wake up to the second of these three alarms maybe 10 times, and I'm starting to believe that it has nothing to do with my will power, and everything to do with the fact that I just can't. That, contrary to the American dream mentality, sometimes we can't just do anything [we dream of] if we would only put our minds to it; that sometimes, we actually can't fly, and that most always, we are far from omnipotence (with the possible exceptions of Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi and my two friends who both share a type A personality in common).
That, too often, we put our minds to doing thousands of tasks, because we were told we could do anything. That, too often, we live in guilt because we spent an hour or two of our day lying around. That, too often, we spend our lives wanting--wanting to be like my friend who's a type A--wanting to backpack through Europe by ourselves even though we, unlike our introverted friends, know that we need to have a community around us. That even though we know that not everyone is the same, we don't actually know it, and spend our lives wanting to live up to the same homogenizing standard that we were informed about when we were 5.
What if all I was meant to do in this life is write poetry, love people in my life, actually receive the love others are trying to give me [without trying to be self sufficient for once], and to be a good steward of the things I already have? What if this means filling my day with coffee dates, listening, writing letters and being thankful for my job just so that I don't go hungry and have to live in a cardboard box? What if, ultimately, the lesson I was meant to learn is that I am not a god, and the salvation of the world does not come from my productivity or my efficiency? What if it--changing the world-- actually doesn't come from me, and that life, is actually about more than flying?