"The Forbidden Pool"

During the travel weekend, we stopped at a tourist destination called the Blue Eye.  No one really explained to us beforehand exactly what this was, so I had no idea whether we were visiting a quaint little restaurant or the Tower of Mordor!  As it turns out, the Blue Eye is an incredibly beautiful and unique spring.  
 

Churning, rolling, bubbling...

An old tree

Now, I’m not talking about a little sparkling stream of water trickling out of a crack in the rock!  The Blue Eye is a massive spring.  It is several meters wide at the top and more than 50 metres deep – that’s just as far as the divers have gone.  The sheer volume of water that flows from that giant opening is astounding; it varies from year to year, but approximately eight cubic metres flow from the spring per second!  On the surface, you can see the evidence of an unbelievable energy churning deep below.  There is a platform above so that you can look almost straight down into the spring.  It is like looking down through endless clear layers of blue: light blue upon dark blue upon every type of vibrant blue – until you’re looking through so many layers that you can’t see any further.  From these bottomless, bubbling depths literally flow a river – beautiful and pure.  Sadly, we were told that swimming wasn’t allowed, though that didn’t stop a few people from wading in and challenging each other to a contest of who-can-last-longer-in-the-cold!

I had in the back of my mind that this beautiful place reminded me of some kind of imagery in the Bible, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.  I was so happy when I just happened to come across Psalm 36 in my reading through the Old Testament.

 

“They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;

And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.

For with You is the fountain of life;

In Your light we see light.”

Psalm 36:8-9

The river that originates with the Blue Eye

Greatest lesson:

A Lifestyle of Simplicity:

The things that we buy and collect can easily become things that own us.  “Stuff” takes time and money.  Time is better spent doing more important things.  Simplicity gives you freedom of how to spend your time.

3 inner attitudes that should characterize the lifestyle of simplicity:

1.       What we have is a gift from God

2.       What we have is God’s to protect – it belongs to Him (but we are to be managers)

3.       What we have is available to others

Fun fact about Albania:

To be honest, I’ve been here long enough now that I’m beginning to forget what fits into our conception of ‘normal’ back home!  Is it ‘normal’ to see a group of older men gathered daily in the park in the center of town to play games together?  Is it ‘normal’ that many people use a great percentage of their yards to grow food?  Is it ‘normal’ that almost no one owns a vehicle beyond their own two legs?

I suppose I’m quite enjoying challenging my notion of ‘normal’!