Abdij van Park

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Abigail and Eliza napped while Emma did email and played computer games (we often have to fight each other to see who gets on). When the girls woke we all played Uno and then I made dinner (chicken, onion, pepper & broccoli stir fry with rice). We then walked up to Abdij van Park behind the Phillips Site. It was really cool. I had discovered it a few days earlier while I was out for a walk after the kids went to bed.

The abbey and grounds are being restored, but it was still huge and impressive. It reminded me of something you would find in the countryside in (the republic of) Georgia. The graveyard was very cool, and of course all of this led to further discussions about Jesus, God and those fairies (angels). It is just so humorous to me to be having these really deep, intellectual conversations with our girls about religion. They are so curious about it all. This evening talked a lot about why Jesus was killed (the king was really bad and didn’t like the way Jesus was telling people how to live and thought Jesus was getting too powerful) and the difference between Christianity and Judaism.

This also led to our own commentary on why we are neither Christian nor Jewish. While we both agree that Jesus was a great man who changed the world for the better just by teaching such positive lessons, we do not believe he is the son of God and neither do we believe that there is a son of God coming to save us at some point. We explained that we should take the lessons that people like Jesus or Mohammed or Ghandi or Mother Theresa professed and learn from them to make ourselves and our world a better place. But ultimately we are responsible for ourselves, or our salvation - in whatever form that may take. It was really interesting. And the place was really cool too.

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Photos

Abbey 1
(photo by Emma)

Abbey
Here is the view coming up the trail from behind the Phillips Site. (photo by Emma)

A cute Belgian
(photo by Emma)