Surprising Beauty

Is something beautiful because you love it or do you love it because its beautiful?? I don’t know. But if I did I could explain why I love Bucharest.  Bucharest at first glance is a filthy, graffiti covered city made up of endless gray communist bloc apartments for as far as the eye can see. Beggars on every corner (although this is improving), stray dogs in every doorway. But if you look twice you will be surprised by the wildflowers that grow everywhere, the old trees spread throughout the city, the gardens in each balcony and each little yard, the children running down the wide sidewalks and colors of clothes on the line, bright curtains, ads that mask the gray. I love this city.

Maybe its because I love its people. I love to sit on the bus or the tram or the metro and watch people. Romanians are proud and always dress up to go outside their house. They are fiercely protective of their children (yes a bit ironic) and although they don’t smile enough for my liking at times when they engage you they are warm and will probably invite you to dinner.

Maybe its because I love the children. I am back at the baby hospital again this time. I could spend all my time there and be perfectly happy. These children resilience, their beauty, their capacity for love when they have not been loved has always given me a window to the divine yet also of the silence desperation of the orphans.  I thought it would be harder being close to the end of my training but its better somehow. Even though I at times know the grim statistics these kids face, I also know of their potential first hand. I cling to that at times because I believe they cling to it too. They know what they want beauty and love over despair.

Perhaps its because I am an American and optimist that I see such beauty in the mist of such drabness and pain. I probably sound hopelessly naive but I am not as much it may seem. I know the dark side I am just surprised that there can be such dichotomy.

I hate to admit this but I need Romania far more than Romania needs me. This place has always been a place of such spiritual and emotional renewal for me. I think its how simply I live when I here.