in sight of land

This coming Saturday, I plan to dip ungracefully into a water trough three times. I expect (and hope) to have remembered extra towels so afterward I can huddle and smile at Tim in his drippy do, as well, and receive congratulations from people around us.

In a rich sense, my husband and I will step out on that lovely, still-foreign, yet faith-salty Serbian soil. I'm more excited and joyful than I thought I would be about being baptized for a second time.

I may be joining Orthodoxy -- in some ways I definitely am -- but mostly I see myself simply moving over to this little church in the neighborhood where my dad was born, because the love of my life has found his joy there.

We both still, however, find grace and much help from the Protestant community surrounding Gutenberg College.

Is it wrong to feel you belong to two churches?

Will I need a safety pin to keep my old swimsuit from sagging?

In any case, birds will lift their voices as they have all week. May they remind me it is good, wherever I am, to embrace the truth of the Christ and reject the lies of the evil one.