The Backpack Press

Imagine a place where you can be alone with your thoughts. A place to get away from whatever’s bothering you. I’m still interviewing churches and I am finding some very interesting things about these places. I am fascinated now more by the people than the architecture.

To be fair, it was the architecture that brought me to this quest in the first place – not looking for spirituality really or the answer to The Big Questions, but rather I was looking for galleries, stained glass, chancels, transepts, vaulted ceilings, and clerestories. I’ve studied churches for a very long time and it’s comforting that I can remember the terms and the dates of the different bits that go into Gothic and Romanesque churches.

And now? I want to know who is sharing my quest. My daughter told me when we were in Spain in July that it’s the women who go to church. The men go to the parks. And she’s so right. In churches in Spain, you will be surrounded by women of a certain age, all praying together, singing together, and chatting or gossiping together afterword. And the men are all catching up with their friends as they watch children chase balls and dogs while the mothers chase after them.

So whenever I find the opposite is true, that men are in church or older women on benches in the park, I like to watch them. I know both are public places, where anyone can sit and sort, and I also realize that most people keep walking, not noticing who is sitting where. But these people are all characters in my day’s drama and even if we never interact, they are still a part.

If you would like a sneak peek at my next book, it’s here on Wattpad, a feature in Non-Fiction.