When the plane landed in Poland, the weather was fine- actually perfect, like an early fall day here. The sun was out, I was glad for sun glasses, but not hot, juts nice.
When we left Częstochowa we followed the directions we left somewhere behind and did pretty well... Until we were on the wrong side of the line of semi's and missed the sign for the airport.
We decided to go in search of Lubiaz, where the monastery was hosting the located.
Eventually we came upon this sight and oddly, for the next four days there was at least one downpour accompanied by lightning and thunder per day. Quite a show at the show- I don't know if it was connected with the warfare earlier at Częstochowa, but something definitely shifted.
I ran across Andrew Jones and Wolfgang Fernandez that night while I waited for Trevor to get the rental car back to the airport. I hadn't seen them since Austin in 2001 or so and they nboth remembered me which surprised me because we hadn't had any actual contact since then, and my interaction with Andrew was over an early morning stove making chai.
As the producers of this amazing program were busy making certain that all was as it should be, I was wandering about and trying to stay out of the way.
Unicycles wheeling by, stages being built (main stage to the right here), tents being set up- the place was a bustle and I didn't know what I should be doing, so I wandered around a bit...
Then I thought about the acoustics of an old monastery- how cool would it be to play a flute in a quiet space and record it on the memory card on my phone- after all, it was my camera as well.
It was amazing- beautiful, stupendous, would make you cry to hear it... I think I deleted it at some point thinking it was some kind of chatter that I didn't need. More's the pity. More on that later-
Tomek and Trevor got safely back from the airport in only twice the time estimated. Road construction and unreliable GPS are credited, but that is really Trevors story to tell.
Mine is more about the beauty of the storm that night. I hadn't even expected to need a coat. Only in the downpour did I even think a little bit that I may. Plenty of places to hide out away from the weather.
I may tell more tonight, I don't know, but that is some of my adventure. Work bumped up my start time.

I know, it's about time I started to say something about where I went and what I did and what did I want to do that for- So here it goes

This is a picture of the lair of the black Madonna, (no disrespect intended, I just don't really know what to call this area)
This is the place where the mass is conducted and when I arrived I remember seeing that same bald head in that same attitude when I was there.
(I didn't take a picture in there because my camera has this auto flash thingy and I don't know how to work it yet)
This joint is an old castle I think, as one of the doors has the inscription "Arsenal" over the door and a cannon and balls in relief over the door as well.
We made our way, I was sent to do a little recon while Trevor waited for instruction from on high. This icon is very loved and we needed to be aware of who and what and all as it was the height of the pilgrim season and this is the number three most loved relic/icon in the Roman Catholic faith and I was getting dirty looks from everywhere apparently for wearing shorts (tho' Trevor didn't and he doesn't wear trousers either.)
So I went in and fund where we needed to be and we shared communion out side of the building and off we went. We went in and did what God asked us to do and He provided things that we hadn't expected, but greatly appreciated, and out we came.
Outside there was a peace that was new. Swallows were flying out in the courtyard that weren't there before and the time was about 1100 as mass was just beginning. The swallows were flying as though there was a fresh hatch of flies. Chirping and flying in a certain ecstacy-
It's nice when a plan comes together. I wish that this post did