Thursday, October 8, 2015

Oma K

"Halt' dich klein,
Hab' dich rein,
sei gern mit dir und Gott allein."


This is the verse my grandmother K. wrote into my poetry book.
In English:

"Think of yourself as small,
keep yourself clean,
enjoy spending time alone with God."  

It rhymes in German.





















This place is where she went to church.






When I went there, with my grandfather, we left much a head of time, as it would take a long time for him to get up the mountain, and also he came early.  When we got there early, the pastor would pray with all those who served that morning, together, the organist, the elder... and me, the tag-along.  I have always appreciated since then, when the pastor has come up early into the organ loft to pray with the organist, etc.  Most of the time, the pastor says at the end.  "Thank you Brigitte for playing."  In general, I find, that I think, that pastors should pray much more with people.

Anyhow, grandmother would start out later, as she was a better walker and she always had some housework to finish up.  I guess that is the sort of thing that happens when you can actually get to church on foot. -- Or else, she was just spending time alone with God while she could.

Here is a picture of the church.  My parents were married, there, too.  The wall that runs just below it, is very old, from the middle ages, say 600 or 700 years old.

In my time, the Americans would fly practice over this mountain, 600 m high rising from the Rhine plane.  On any beautiful day, aiming to do it very low, attempting to undetected by radar.





















View of the Rhine plain from one mountain over, with my cousin's daughter.

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