The Church

Yesterday I walked to the lake. It was a beautiful blue sky day. I skipped merrily down the street. Skipping was required for several reasons:

1. I was reunited with my favourite coat of all time and it swings so wonderfully when I skip.

2. I had a job. A job I really like. This merits merry skipping.

3. I could see my favourite Chicago building in the distance and it was even taller than I remembered, skipping was my way of showing I approved of its tallness.

4. The sky really was beautifully blue.

(I probably need to point out that the skipping was mainly metaphorical and really I was only skipping on the inside although sometimes I couldn't help but break out into little jumps as I crossed the roads and remembered to look the right way...)

So there I was, skipping along, when I remembered The Church. The Church is somewhat unexpected. It's perched just on the end of the Magnificent Mile, you walk past H&M and bam...there's The Church. It's a big church and, for Chicago, it feels old. I remembered how one evening I discovered it with a friend when we were both homesick and in need of A Nice Surprise. The Church was certainly A Nice Surprise.

I decided to pay The Church a visit. It was as I remembered it, large and quiet with a few people dotted around the pews sleeping. I like the sound of gentle snores at times like this. 

I stopped skipping and sat down. The pew was hard and the ceiling high, but I felt At Home.

I stayed for quite a while, the pew softened and the snoring lulled. I could do what I've been in the habit of doing and say that this was when something exciting suddenly happened. I could pretend that, perhaps, I found a secret door under the patterned tiles that led to an underground labyrinth where I fought a wicked band of English-girl-eating-werewolves but I won't. Nothing happened, and it was delightful. 

When, a long time later, I walked out of The Church a man in a wheelchair looked at me and smiled. He said, "You feel better now don't you? Everyone always feels better!"

I said yes. He was right.