“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.” Psalms‬ ‭72:18‬ ‭NRSV‬‬

I used be terrified of travel. It was because it takes flight to get anywhere truly extraordinary. You can get across Canada by car. You can get down to the states from where I live by car. But anywhere beyond continental North America takes flight. And I truly hate to fly.

At one point I decided that fear would not be the thing to hold me back. And so I began to travel. And what I discovered is that I fall in love with nearly every place I go. Every new place I travel to is filled with wondrous things. Castles to be explored, great works of art to be seen up close, new foods to taste, new laughs and joys to be shared with friends.

And that is exactly what today was like: we started with a walking tour of Cardiff – seeing the sights and learning the history of this small and beautiful city. Then we toured the museum and saw works by Monet, Rodin, Rembrandt. Then we had a lovely break for a delicious lunch. The afternoon was spent at Cardiff Castle. And finally, a group dinner followed by meeting up with the Welsh men’s choir who we will share the stage with tomorrow.

Wondrous things. From the beautiful architecture, to the truly outstanding weather, to the gastronomic delights, to the silliness of finding new places to pose Fuzzy Angus and a new friend (a red dragon, aptly named Fuzzy Owain) for him to hang out with.

Wales is beautiful and full of absolute joys.