Travel

Travel

Guest Writer: Shannon Seibert

Post Europe Trip March 2025, final thoughts.

 "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." Mark Twain

Shannon in Vienna

Travel is, in my opinion, the most excellent classroom where history comes alive, where art, architecture, food, and culture create new spaces in our minds, and most importantly, where we connect with people outside our little corner of the earth.

I learn, grow, and expand my worldview. My perspectives are challenged. My circle of influence is broadened. It makes me more humble, more grateful, and more curious.

I remember when Americans, as a whole, were proud that we were a melting pot of different people, cultures, religions, and customs. America wasn't just a dream but an IDEA, a way of thinking. I think we have forgotten and lost being proud that we are a melting pot.

Memorial in Vukovar, Croatia

Historically, many wars, hate, and loss of life are about rejecting melting pots.

All nations, peoples, governments, and cultures have flaws and flawed histories. They all have their challenges, corruption, and failures. But what is the beauty they offer?

What are the lessons they teach?

. Orthodox Church in Belgrade, Serbia

What can I bring home and improve my own "backyard"?

Here are a few things I brought home this time; some are repeats of previous trips.

1. Slow down. Your work will still be there; no one is coming to take it away.

Sunset on the Danube

2. Sit with friends over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, OFTEN, and for extended amounts of time.

3. Offer signs in multiple languages. In Serbia, signs were offered in FIVE languages to make things more accessible to more people.

4. Church doors had many, many languages. One church had eight languages inscribed on its main doors! Churches offered services in two different languages every service.

5. City centers are pedestrian, and all shopping is located in one area. Families and friends could gather here; kids ride bikes, and babies learn to walk. City centers are where life happens together.

6. FREE public transportation

7. Every city had a memorial/remembrance of the holocaust (probably the darkest stain on European history). They remember not to be ashamed, not woke, not DEI. They just don't want to repeat history! They acknowledge it and REMEMBER so they don't repeat it.

8. There are anti-fascism monuments in every town.

Monument against War & Fascism in Vienna. 

"Gate of Violence": A large chunk of granite with carvings representing victims of the war, including chained laborers, gas masks, and a woman giving birth (symbolizing the rebirth of Austria). 

9. Focus on doing ONE thing really well. Multi-tasking is overrated and lessens the quality overall. Whether it's sausages, pastries, oils, wines, or beer, just do that ONE thing really, really well.

10. In general, people are people. They want to live in peace, have a secure existence, provide safety and opportunity for their children, worship how they choose, have a trustworthy and helpful government, and live FREELY.

Cookies at market in Budapest, Hungary

One final story is from Serbia, a place with a corrupt government (per our guide), where votes are bought, coerced, and manipulated. Only 30% support the current administration, but they win elections because of the corruption and false propaganda that is rampant—a fragile "democracy," no doubt.

But Serbia is also a place where 300,000 Russians have resettled and 100,000 Ukrainians have fled since the start of the Ukraine war. We know why the Ukrainians are there, seeking safety. But why so many Russians? Primarily because they have sons who must serve in the Russian military. The parents don't want their sons to die. They are there to save their children's lives; all 400,000 just want to save their children's lives. I think all parents can empathize with that.

Shannon Seibert Shannon@smallworldbigfun.com 

Joanna Seibert  joannaseibert.com

Solomon and Wells: Presence, not Words

Solomon and Wells: Presence, not Words

“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.”—Song of Solomon 8: 6.

at race for the cure with Shaun

Samuel Wells is the vicar at St. Martins-in-the-Fields in London and a frequent writer for Christian Century. He recently titled his article “Is Love Stronger.” 1 Wells tells the story of visiting with the husband of a wife who committed suicide whom he did not know, and hearing their story, then delivering the homily at her service, suggesting that all is now well.

However, when he visited the husband a week later, he was met with anger about his sermon. All had not been well with the woman, who had a painful wasting disease, and all was not well with her husband. The husband said he told Wells that before the funeral.

 Wells said he learned from this experience that when being with people living with tragedy or in the aftermath of a disaster, all he has to offer is his presence beside them. There are no words to improve the situation and attempts to clean up the problem do not affirm their difficulty. Wells believes his role is “not to make things better for someone. It’s being beside them as they face the truth.” This is what makes love stronger than death. It is a presence, not words.

This is also true when we meet with spiritual friends. Sometimes, trying to see God in any problematic situation is simply listening to our friends’ stories and letting them know we are beside them. We are not there to improve things or give answers but to be a loving presence beside them in a great storm. Eventually, we hope to lead them to see God’s presence in them, which has been present all along.

 In times of great tragedy, I remember people who just came and sat beside me and cried with me and never said a word.

 Often, the person who can best do this is someone who has known a similar tragedy. They have walked in their shoes and understand that the presence of the listening heart is a more powerful healer than any words.

These are also people like women running or walking in Race for the Cure, who show their loving presence with their feet instead of their mouths.

This is love stronger than death.

1 Samuel Wells, “Is love stronger?” Faith Matters, Christian Century, April 25, 2018, p. 35.

Joanna joannaseibert.com  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

De Waal: Living on the Border, Uncertainty

De Waal: Living with Uncertainty

“The first step in listening, learning, and changing is to see that different is not dangerous; the second is to be happy and willing to live with uncertainty; the third is to rejoice in ambiguity and to embrace it. It all means giving up the comfort of certainty and realizing that uncertainty can actually be good.”—Esther de Waal, To Pause at the Threshold, Reflections on Living on the Border (Morehouse).

De Waal

 When de Waal wrote this book, she had returned to the home where she had grown up on the border between England and Wales. I met this prolific Benedictine and Celtic spirituality writer at the College of Preachers at the Washington National Cathedral. She often took up residence there and was accessible during meals to weekly pilgrims like myself, seeking respite and learning in this sacred space.

This small pocket-sized book is a gem to read and re-read. De Waal talks about how we relate to borders and boundaries, as she directly experiences borders in her day-to-day living experience.

Do we build walls, barriers, and fortresses, or do we engage in conversation and learn about something different, another culture?

She describes the world’s diversity as an icon to let us know God loves differences. She entices us to be like a porter waiting at the gate of a Benedictine monastery, standing at the “threshold of two worlds.” He welcomes those who ask to enter no matter the time of day, treating each stranger as if he or she were Christ.

This resonates with me as a deacon. Our ministry calls us to go back and forth between two worlds: the church and the world outside the church.

De Waal also teaches us to honor the threshold of the two worlds and be open to the change, the uncertainty, and the contradictions that the different worlds may present to us.

De Waal’s concept of thresholds has helped visit those in hospitals or the homebound. I have learned to pause as I cross the threshold of the hospital room. This is a time to wash my hands at the patient’s door. The threshold is a symbolic reminder that I am entering another world. The hand-washing is a reminder to leave my agenda at the door. I am there to honor that person, listen to them, and be present for them.

During the previous pandemic, I again encountered this ritual with the many times we washed our hands. I tried to let loose or wash away the cares that previously consumed me. It was a reminder to live in the moment and be open to passing through a new threshold.

Some of the time, I continue to remember.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/