Mom would kill me...

But she can't because she's in Tennessee, USA and I am in Razlog, Bulgaria. However there was a time when she was here in Bulgaria. And this is the best picture I have of the two of us together. Neither of us are really very photogenic. This is an example of how good I am at timer pictures. We took this outside the little church that claims to be built in the sixteen hundreds, and offers one piece of evidence that it was actually built in the eleven hundreds.

This little church is in Dobarsko, a tiny village outside my town. I was up there again this past week for an international youth exchange. One evening, I realized that the hills in Dobarsko where, at that moment, the most beautiful place on earth. I can't explain to you how unbelievably breathtaking it was. Perhaps it was a combination of things.

The day had been spent on a "survivor's game" in which we had to search the woods for cards dictating our fate. Each card announced either a food item such as bread or potatoes, or it required us to take a chance. When we chanced we had to face a challenge, generally of some team-building type activity. Succeed and we win a food item. Fail and we must sacrifice a food item or a team member. The element of this game that moved my heart in such a way that the simple beauty of the evening view was astonishing was not the team-building, but the way my student-friends organized and carried out this game so successfully.

I sat on a blue tarp. An American girl sitting with Bulgarians, Italians, Czechs, and Hungarians. All of us on a big blue tarp enjoying the sun and acknowledging the beauty of the valley below and the setting sun.

Perhaps a beautiful thing is more beautiful when the people you would most love to share it with aren't there with you. You simple can't work up the words to describe the twinkling of the villages below and the stars above. The way the sun goes down behind one hill and the full moon shines bright orange from behind the opposite hills. How can I describe that kind of beauty? I can only wish you had been there.

I'm writing you to catch you up on places I've been
You held this letter
probably got excited, but there's nothing else inside it
didn't have a camera by my side this time
hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way with words
TODAY skies are painted colors of a cowboy cliche'
And strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky
are next to mountains anyway
Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way
but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
NO more 3x5's
I Guess you had to be there
I Guess you had to be with me
Today I finally overcame
tryin' to fit the world inside a picture frame
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm in the mood to
lose my way but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
no more 3x5's
just no more 3x5's

"3x5" -John Mayer