Haiku My Heart - National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows

Two  weeks ago, Don told me he had a surprise waiting for me in St. Louis.  It was to be my Mother's Day gift from him.  After we left Kawanee, IL this morning, we drove in the direction of St. Louis.  The plan was (and still is) to meet up with an old school friend of Don's one evening and to explore some of the Catholic Shrines and old Catholic Churches that abound in the St. Louis area.

I diligently entered the address for the Best Western Hotel we were to stay at for the weekend and we were on our way.  As we arrived at the turn off to the hotel, we were greeted with the welcome sign to the National Shrine of our Lady of the Snows.    

I remember saying something like, "Oh, look.  One of the shrines we plan to visit is right here.  How cool is that?"  I was also eyeing the road before us somewhat suspiciously.  It wasn't an ordinary paved road.  Naturally, I was paying attention to the GPS so I'm trying to send Don the GPS way and he's stopping, reading signage, going off in other directions and I'm becoming baffled and saying so.  We won't talk about the tired man's reaction to my attempts to navigate him back on course.  

I have to admit, I was a little slow on the uptake but I finally figured it out.  THIS was my surprise.  There WAS no Best Western at the end of the road.  We had arrived at our destination.  Don had gifted me with a weekend at the Shrine hotel which was part of the gorgeous grounds we had driven through.

I was so excited, so thrilled, so overwhelmed, that I had to share the moment here right away.  The pictures below are NOT mine.  I found them on the shrine site.  A haiku erupted from me and landed here at the knee of the wonderful Rebecca Brooks.    There will be another post filled with my pictures of the experience here.  In the meantime . . .

. . . I love you Don.  You never disappoint.

  

Offertory rose

Resplendent golden shelter

Leaf song, water's bell