If you walk into a church right now, you are almost guaranteed to see other people. It’s the busiest time of the year for churches — even the normally empty ones are full. But full churches are what I usually avoid.
My favorite thing to do is find an empty church and sit. Since I’m a single mother of two, it’s not hard to see why I’d be looking for a little peace and quiet. But there’s more to it than that, and it’s not always easy to explain. I’m after a certain kind of silence.
I first discovered this kind of quiet some years back, when I’d gone to Italy for what seemed to be no reason at all. Without any sort of plan, I decided to go inside every church I came across, no exceptions. No church too small, no marble too lurid, would stop me.
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