Later we talked about love.

(photo-Statue of Eros. The most photographed place in London)

I slept! Like the dead, I slept. Very happy dead.

This morning when I woke up I, for a quick moment, forgot about my travels entirely. "Rebecca?" someone called. And then I realized that my host in London was knocking on my door. "If you get up early it will make jetlag less difficult."

Functioning with so much more cogency than the night before, I gathered myself and my things for the day, ate breakfast and wandered off! I decided to first walk Regent's Park, a garden of the Queen herself! A boating lake surrounds much of the garden. The small body of water, lined by willow trees (sometimes weeping, especially when it rains), is play ground to hundreds of geese, ducks, swans, and herons.

I walked into the park and chose a section that looked less tame. It was woodsy and a waterfall sounded through it. I stepped of the traditional path and walked through a bit of mud to sit by the rushing water. I sat there thinking, and then praying and then reading in Genesis, Luke, and Psalms... and of course praying again. God met me there in that park, by those falls. I prayed psalm 23 for the first time with genuine feeling.

You see, this has been very difficult for me, for some reason. I've struggled with feeling quite sad and lonely (especially looking forward to 5 months) and less excited than I wanted to be.

But then! What a wonderful thing God did. He led me, like a good shepherd. I walked over bridges and by ponds and right into a rose garden. I've never seen so many roses! Pink and orange and white... Yellow roses called "Poetry in Motion" and red roses called "England's Best."

As I entered the next section of roses, (a circle of them, in fact) I saw a woman settled on a bench. I don't say sitting, because she was, in fact, making her home there. She had on her trolley 3 suitcases nearly the size of mine, two bags, and an umbrella. Two yellow shirts dried, draped across the back of the bench. It rained yesterday. I stopped to mention the beauty of the day and we got to talking about the garden. "Yes. You see the roses. Everyday they change, becoming different. Losing or growing," she said with an accent. Our small friendship began as I tarried there, chatting. She invited me to sit and for the next hour we proceeded to talk.

Through the awkwardness and in the joy we learned about each other's lives. She came from Romania to be an Opair but, to her horror, the situation turned out to be some kind of scheme and she's been homeless for 2 years now! She showed me her books, including the New Testament and Psalms book someone gave her. Later we talked about love.

She told me she appreciated that I wanted to sit and talk with her. "Most people, they see you with this," she said, pointing to her belongings in transit, "and they want nothing with you. They are not concerned whether you live or die."

Talking with her made me feel so alive! So real and human! I loved it. Before I left she offered me biscuits (cookies) and we hugged. Oh, and a squirrel got real friendly with us...