Kosovo: The Secret of Thessaloniki Chapter 3, Scene 1

Ruins of the Agora Market in Thessaloniki
Modern apartment complexes and stores
overlook this part of the Roman Forum.

If you caught last week’s post, you know I spent a weekend in Greece with some dear friends. If you missed it, you can check it out HERE. We visited the ruins of Philippi…an incredible experience for me. We stayed at a seaside hotel in Thessaloniki (Think Thessalonica from the Bible). I sat out by the water, my feet dangling in the cold waters of the Aegean Sea, reading Philippians and the two letters to the Thessalonians. It was an exhilarating experience.

We visited the city, shopping for items unavailable to us in Kosovo and dropping in at the local Starbucks. I truly enjoyed the rib platter at T.G.I. Friday’s. Thessaloniki offers a taste of “home.”

But the true treasure I found…the secret the city holds was revealed to me this past week. As many of my readers know, three years ago on October 29, my husband died from injuries he sustained in a bicycle accident. Losing him has been the most difficult experience of my life.

Modern day Thessaloniki is a vibrant city.

I am blessed to be supported by a strong family in the States and surrounded by a caring community of friends and coworkers here in Kosovo. It could have been a devastating week for me, but as I looked through the pictures I had taken at the city of Thessaloniki, I found her secret. Thessaloniki is a place where old and new coexist. A place where the past is valued even as the new is heralded in. It is a city both deeply rooted in a rich history yet vibrant in purposeful growth and change.

I feel that way about my life. I will never forget Tom. I will ever be shaped by our forty-three years together. Yet I am growing and changing. I have purpose. I have the opportunity to embrace new experiences without giving up the treasure of my past. The treasure of being his wife.

Everyone in Thessaloniki seems to be moving. Like most of life. It strikes me that I no longer feel as if I’m being swept along in the flow or trying to paddle the other direction. I feel as if I am in pace with everyone else. The best part? I know I’m heading in the right direction.

This old church remains in a parklike setting
beneath the ever growing modern city on the sea.