LOVE HAPPENS

Are these not simply amazing! They remind me of the Lovelock Bridge in Paris, only on a much smaller scale of course. In the hustle and bustle of the city, it would be so easy to walk right past these little gems; However, there was something in me that needed to see them and it pulled my gaze over to what was otherwise, a rusty old bridge post.

Before moving here, I was consistently told about how cold and hard and.. well.. different the Russian people are to us Americans, but the more time I spend on these streets, the more I see the same familiar hope of love that can be ultimately found in every heart of every person in every country. Russians are not as different from you and I as some may be led to believe. They have a different language, a different style (which if we're talking about clothes, is much better in my opinion) and they certainly have more history behind them as a country than any of us as Americans will ever be able to comprehend; but before we are Americans or Russians, we are human beings, and there are basic hopes and desires that were built into us all that point us to the same God that created each one.

The signs are everywhere: it's in every smile (yes Russians do smile), it's in the seat on the metro he gives up to the first female that jumps on board, it's in the same romance novel she reads over and over again on her way to work, it's in the flowers he bought on his way home, it's in the door he was holding as he let his wife pass through.. If you look for the bad, you will find it. But if you look for the good, you will be consistently surprised, and you may find yourself feeling at home a thousand miles away from where you came from.