Buona Pasqua!

Happy Easter everyone!

This past weekend has been the perfect blend of rainy day laziness, quiet reflection, and Tuscan adventure. While one of my roommates, Mac, went to Ireland and Scotland (and came back sick), Lindsay and I stayed home and relaxed.

There's a kind of unspoken bond between people who sit around and do nothing together. A mutual attitude of inactivity that is justified by the presence of another. Never has sleeping in and lounging about felt so right.

The rain kept me inside on Good Friday. The weather seemed appropriate to the holiday, though, as if the earth itself was mourning the death of our Savior. When I think about it, rain seems to be a semi-adequate metaphor for the events of Good Friday: rain darkens the sky and brings cold and gloom for the length of its duration, but it also brings life and refreshes the parched land.

I love rain.

On Sunday I went to the Stephensons' as usual, and stayed there for the afternoon because it was pouring outside. I learned how to play Settlers of Catan, a board game I frequently glimpsed in the Honors dorm last year. It was a lot of fun!

That evening I walked up to the duomo and stood in for a mass. I literally had to stand because the church was so full of people. Even though I didn't understand over half of what the priest said, it was a nice time for reflection, prayer, and worship.

Today Amanda and I went to Cortona, a little hill town where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed. It was a gorgeous day in a gorgeous town. Medieval in appearance and atmosphere with a smidgen of modern life thrown into the mix, Cortona left me smiling and sentimental.

Writing a message to a friend enabled me to make sense of the thoughts fluttering through my mind. I wasn't necessarily nostalgic or homesick, but I had a melancholic rumination. Hm, big words don't seem to explain it very well. Let's try clichés instead.

Life is what you make it. To use a quote from Under the Tuscan Sun,

"What are four walls, anyway? They are what they contain. The house protects the dreamer..."

Italy will always be great, and I hope that I am getting the most out of my experience here, but the most important thing is getting the most out of my experience anywhere. Whether you live in Oklahoma or Italy, life is sweet. Life is worth making the most of opportunities and finding adventure. Contentment is more valuable than seeing the world, because being content means learning to find happiness where you are, so that you can stop trying to look for it everywhere else.